Category: Cityscape
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Bins | Quincy, WA | February 2020 The advantages of plastic and metal fruit bins seem obvious. They last longer, ventilate better, clean easier. But the clone-like sameness of these newer boxes robs the industry of what’s appeared (to the casual viewer, anyway) as a product of design, craft and tradition — the wooden bin.…
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Utility Hook | Twisp, WA | February 2020 How long can a crusty old soul be of service to society? What’s left after you knock off the rust? This weathered hook, now retired and basking in the sun, spoke to me of its decades of usefulness. Keeping the garden hose coiled. Holding the handle-end of…
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Hotel Lamp | Pacific Beach, WA | January 2020 Sea Visit | Furniture is what gets photographed when it’s too stormy to go outside. Hey, are you rolling your eyes? This is a tried-and-true creativity exercise practiced for decades by professional photographers lounging around in their jammies. Admittedly, it’s not a dramatic nature scene that…
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Mossy Road | Pacific Beach, WA | January 2020 Sea Visit | We vacation at the beach but live where wet things dry fast. I wash my hands in summer and shake off the big drops so my skin can air-dry in about 30 seconds. Thus, we residents of arid eastern Washington tend to forget…
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Waiting | Seattle, WA | January 2020 “When you wash your hands, when you make a cup of coffee, when you’re waiting for the elevator — consider not thinking. These are all opportunities for
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Gap Between Skyscrapers | Seattle, WA | January 2020 “One may have a blazing hearth in one’s soul and yet no one ever comes to sit by it. Passersby see only a
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Lost Soles | East Wenatchee, WA | January 2020 Designing tread patterns for athletic shoes has become one of the fashion industry’s premiere careers. Apparently, the physics of friction — how rubber-like substances interact with sidewalks and basketball courts — are mysteries understood by only a few. A hiking boot’s lateral traction, for instance, differs…
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Snow Walker | Wenatchee, WA | January 2020 A slip and fall on a snowy sidewalk can dramatically change your life. Sometimes you bounce upright with only a bruised ego. Sometimes you bounce and can’t get up. Not good. So here are three things to remember while trudging in snow: 1) Exiting your house, the…
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Transformer | East Wenatchee, WA | January 2020 Static on a TV screen is often called “snow.” We see it in the real world when certain environmental conditions produce random visual stimuli. Blizzards, waterfalls, dust storms. Years ago, a co-worker’s favorite retort was “Don’t gimme no static.” It always triggered the same creepy feeling I…
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Curb | Seattle, WA | January 2020 A surprise for the eyes lies almost everywhere in the big city. Lines, shapes, colors, fullness, emptiness and, oh yeah, people. One pleasure is to peer out a high-rise window with no notion of what’s below. Streetscape, sure, but maybe also an unfolding
IrwinFoto 