IrwinFoto

A gallery of photos by Mike Irwin

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  • Highway Tunnel

    Highway Tunnel | Chelan, WA | October 2019

    The tunnel appears as a little blemish on the side of the mountain’s huge, rocky face. Like a freckle, hardly noticed. It’s definitely big enough for cement trucks, but also smaller than some boulders on the cliffs above. Once or twice a month we zip through the tunnel’s length (788 feet) and pretend it’s a portal to some exotic elsewhere. Pennsylvania, maybe. That notion evaporates as we pop out the other end, realizing we’ve just driven through solid rock and are (more…)

  • Quonset Hut

    Quonset Hut | Orondo, WA | October 2019

    Autumn Orchard #4 | A bit of history on the ubiquitous hut: During World War II, the U.S. Navy required a lightweight all-purpose building that was easily shipped and assembled by unskilled labor. Military engineers modified a decades-old British design and built a prototype in the naval yard at Quonset Point, Rhode Island. Thousands of the structures were then erected around the world. Post-war, the design has survived because of its clear-span interior and strength, suitable in snow country for storage of hay, feed and farm/ranch equipment. The hut’s skin has evolved along with (more…)

  • Windbreak

    Windbreak | Orondo, WA | October 2019

    Autumn Orchard #3 | Poplar windbreaks, this one ablaze at sunset, have long been part of the fruit industry’s old-tech toolbox, along with pickers’ ladders, human sorters and hand-packed shipping crates. My guess is that new trellised orchards and hybrid varietals are less susceptible to wind damage, which means these leafy rows aren’t likely to be replaced as they succumb to age and disease. Mostly, I’ve been mesmerized for decades by (more…)

  • New Ag

    New Ag | Orondo, WA | October 2019

    Autumn Orchard #2 | The image of Grandpa and Little Timmy ambling back to the farmhouse with a bucket of Braeburns has always seemed more fantasy than fact. So today’s new-fangled fruit farms — industrialized, computerized, optimized — don’t stir my yearning for the good ol’ days. In fact, these high-tech orchards seem a practical progression to feed the world. I like the theory, anyway: Fewer workers producing more and better fruit from smaller parcels. Of course, a trellised crop fed by drip irrigation and covered with protective nets looks more like a (more…)

  • Leaf Carpet

    Leaf Carpet | Orondo, WA | October 2019

    Autumn Orchard #1 | Orchardists talk passionately about fruit color and quality, irrigation and pesticides, difficulties in hiring and keeping workers. But I’ve never been privy to a fruit farmer exclaiming over an orchard’s autumn colors. “It’s so darn beautiful,” the grower might say. “Those golden leaves, that shimmering light … it makes all that sweat and worry very much worthwhile.” Or not. I’m guessing there must be other rarely-discussed (more…)

  • Aquarium

    Aquarium | East Wenatchee, WA | October 2019

    How are this fish and my ego alike? The alluring bala shark, a favorite of home aquariums, grows too large too fast. First a minnow, then a monster. Also, its arrogance often propels the darned thing over the tank’s edge — from what it knows (a cozy aquarium) to what it doesn’t (the living room floor). The fish — and me, too — might gain insight from such an ego-driven leap, but then (more…)

  • Water Tank

    Water Tank | East Wenatchee, WA | October 2019

    About 55 years ago a priest led us Catholic kids into the schoolyard and pointed to the town’s water tower. “That could be you,” he told us. “Standing straight, reaching for the sky, able to quench a thirst most people don’t know they have.” (Yes, I’m paraphrasing.) We knew he was talking about vocations, answering God’s call to join the clergy, but what was the deal about thirsty people? Were we supposed to give them a drink? Of what? Today I can see that certain people — rare souls — know the answer. A woman in our grocery store’s parking lot distributes bottled water to (more…)

  • Boat

    Boat | Trinidad, WA | October 2019

    Despite dumbed-down explanations of how boats float, the phenomenon of buoyancy remains a puzzle. Things that should sink float, while things that should float don’t. A ski boat weighing a ton skims nimbly upriver. But I toss in a hardwood stick and it goes straight to the bottom. What gives? Social buoyancy has similar characteristics. At cocktail parties I expect my lightweight banter to keep me afloat, but sometimes I’m sunk by (more…)

  • Perspective

    Perspective | Ephrata, WA | October 2019

    It feels like we’re overdue for a mental breakthrough that changes the course of humanity. We’ve previously seen such revelations about, say, the speed of light, radio waves, manned flight and lens optics. One remarkable gain was the development of perspective in art (c. 1420), a mind trick that conjures three-dimensional depth on a two-dimensional medium (paper or canvas). I’m hoping for a similar leap forward when our next big-time genius perfects a mental technique for (more…)

  • Old Mural

    Old Mural | Soap Lake, WA | October 2019

    We strive daily to decipher the universe. Has the grass grown enough to mow? Do those dark clouds hint at rain? Does “hmmm” mean your spouse likes the chicken casserole? After detection of gravity waves in 2015, scientists hoped the space-time ripples would help decipher distant phenomena — black holes, neutron stars, the birth and death of suns. Slow, hard research. The big picture (mind-boggling, actually) challenges the most expansive minds, while the astro-details remain (more…)