Journal

Everything, newest first

Swimming floats on Lake Washington at Seward Park in heavy fog, lifeguard frames folded on the decking, the water dead flat and mirroring them, fallen yellow leaves on the shore path in the foreground

Seward Park · October 2024

Posted Aug 19, 2026

A Dock Alone in October

Lake Washington gone completely still.

A wide view west from the Alki boardwalk at sunset, a large tree framing the centre, Puget Sound flat and gold, the Olympic Mountains low on the horizon, and the seawall path curving away to the right

Alki · August 2024

Posted Aug 19, 2026

New York By and By

South of the crowded end, on the shoreline where Seattle was founded and named after a word meaning eventually.

Looking west along the ship canal from a sailboat at sunset, the steel arch of the Aurora Bridge overhead, the Fremont Bridge raised with both leaves up and the sun setting through the gap, rigging and a furled sail in the right foreground

Fremont · May 2015

Posted Aug 19, 2026

The Bridge That Never Stops Opening

Shot from the water at sunset, waiting under the Aurora Bridge for the most frequently opened drawbridge in the country.

A fleet of sailboats racing on Lake Union on a summer evening, crews sitting along the rails, with the south shore and the downtown Seattle skyline and construction cranes behind them

Wallingford · July 2013

Posted Aug 19, 2026

The Ducks Have Right of Way

Tuesday night on Lake Union, at a race the city originally refused to allow.

A single sailboat on Puget Sound off Shilshole Bay, lit from behind as the sun breaks through a heavy cloud deck in visible shafts, with the far shore low on the horizon

Sunset Hill · June 2012

Posted Aug 18, 2026

A Sun Break Off Shilshole

One boat, one gap in the deck, and the neighborhood on the bluff behind me living up to its name.

The cracking towers of Gas Works Park in black silhouette against a bright blue sky, sun burning through behind them

Wallingford · October 2011

Posted Aug 18, 2026

Gas Works, in Two Kinds of Contrast

A decommissioned gasification plant that Seattle decided to keep for historical purposes.

West Point Lighthouse at Discovery Park in low golden light, white walls and a red roof above a riprap seawall, with sand beach and small surf in the foreground and the Olympic peninsula faint across the water

Lawton Park · July 2011

Posted Aug 18, 2026

West Point, at the End of the Park

The lighthouse at the far end of Discovery Park, on ground the army held for most of a century.

The Montlake Boulevard Market at dusk in warm sepia tone, a low corner store with a lit interior, a reader board advertising avocados two for one dollar and Pyramid Ales at six ninety-nine, a bicycle parked outside

Montlake · March 2011

Posted Aug 18, 2026

Avocados Two for a Dollar

The Montlake Boulevard Market, photographed before it was torn down for the construction that stands there now.

South Lake Union · December 2010

Posted Aug 18, 2026

South Lake Union, Before Amazon

A stitched night panorama of the far shore, dated December 2010, before the campus that rebuilt this neighborhood went up.

A receding row of five-globe cast-iron street lamps glowing at night in Pioneer Square, shot in high-contrast black and white, with a lit cafe sign further down the block

Pioneer Square · December 2010

Posted Aug 18, 2026

The Lamps Are Not the Old Part

Seattle's first street lighting burned coal gas a few blocks from here in 1873, delivered through hollowed-out cedar logs.

Green Lake in November seen through hanging birch branches in gold and orange, a single brilliant red tree on the far bank among dark conifers, the water flat and grey under a white overcast sky

Green Lake · November 2010

Posted Aug 19, 2026

The One Red Tree

One tree on the far bank refusing to go quietly, a week or two before the light shuts down for the winter.

Green Lake at sunset in mid October, the sun low and burning through a silhouetted tree on the left bank, tall reeds in the foreground shot from close to the ground, the far shore turning yellow, and a track of gold light on flat water

Green Lake · October 2010

Posted Aug 22, 2026

The Lake Out My Door

A sunset from the year Green Lake was my home.

A view from a Magnolia bluff street toward the downtown Seattle skyline across Elliott Bay, framed by the gnarled limbs and peeling red bark of a madrona tree, with houses and hedges on the slope below

Briarcliff · September 2010

Posted Aug 18, 2026

Named After the Wrong Tree

The neighborhood is named for a tree that does not grow here, and the culprit is holding up the left side of this frame.

An eight and coxswain rowing across Green Lake in silhouette at sunset, the sun laying a gold track on the water, a dock in the foreground and a coach's launch beyond

Green Lake · August 2010

Posted Aug 18, 2026

Last Row on Green Lake

An eight crossing the sun track at the end of practice, on the flattest water in the city.

The swimming raft at Green Lake in summer, teenagers standing along the deck waiting their turn at the diving boards, pedal boats on the water behind and a lifeguard rowboat in the foreground

Green Lake · August 2010

Posted Aug 19, 2026

Waiting for the High Board

The raft, the boards, and the queue, on the only lake in the city that people actually swim in.

A crowded Portage Bay marina seen through a long lens, a cabin cruiser named NOTHIN BUT NET out of Anacortes at the centre, small sailboats under blue tarps in front and floating homes along the far shore

Portage Bay · July 2010

Posted Aug 19, 2026

Nothin But Net

A boat name, a long lens, and the most densely inhabited water in the city.

A Pike Place Market produce stall, chile ristras hanging in red, orange and yellow above crates of delicata and acorn squash, sweet corn and onions

Pike Place Market · April 2010

Posted Aug 18, 2026

The Market in Full Colour

April at the market, where the colour turns up months before the city grows any of its own.