Commuter Cam 2: Foggy skies and secret signs

I really enjoyed doing the commuter cam thing... enough so that this morning, rather spur of the moment, I grabbed my camera and decided to do it again. There really does seem to be something to bringing my camera to work that forces me to break free of my zombie march, and look at the things that surround me a bit. So, here goes...

This time, instead of doing things in chronological order, I think I'll sort of group things thematically.


As you can see, it was pretty foggy on today's walk into work. I just love images like this, with high-rises disappearing into grey skies. They aren't necessarily unique, but there's still something mysterious about them. I wonder what people are doing up there? And can they see the ground?


Here's another building disappearing into the sky... but for a whole different reason. Construction continues, presumably on schedule, for the building across the street from where I catch the street car.


And, while one building goes up, another comes down. This isn't really the best picture of this building that is being torn down. But, I like how the reflections of the Streetcars lights look on the window. It sort of makes the image more dramatic, and gives it a sense of motion. Whoooosh!

Also, notice the cranes in the background. My friend wasn't lying when he told me that he counted 13 cranes one day while standing in one place; the other day I counted 15!


And here's the inside of the Streetcar. I think it sort of has that 2001 vibe. It's fun how 2001 started out as a futuristic version of the future, then became a retro-version on the future, and is now a retro-version of the past. I'm not sure if that makes sense, but I'll let you try to parse it out.


62 is my lucky number... I hadn't noticed my lucky utility box until today, though.


With all the construction in this area, the street are lined with spraypainted marks like this. But, because I'm the type of guy who collects comic books and used to play rollplaying games, I always like to pretend that these are secret runic marks left by urban wizards locked in some sort of midnight turf war. Awesome or dorky, you make the call.


Someone's living their dream.

Sometimes, while walking across the dock on Lake Union, I see this strange bird. It's some sort of loon or something. Anyhow, I was hoping that it'd be there today for me, and it was! Not only that, it picked a picture perfect place to pose for the camera.


I think I'll pretend its good luck whenever I see this bird on the way to work. He looks lucky. Like the number 62.


Actually, the timbers of the old dock that the bird was perched on are actually pretty cool. Some of them are really rotten, somehow defying gravity and refusing to fall into the lake.



Others, though, are long gone.

A commute from across the pond

When Sarah White posted her Commute Cam entry she became the first person to take the Commuter Cam Challenge international! Sarah's actually a Full Time Mum, so she doesn't have a traditional commute, but since her husband and son, Callum, and her recently moved to a new neighborhood, she had a novel idea: Use the Commuter Cam Challenge as an opportunity to explore her neighborhood.

So, after Callum was finally ready to head out, the two of them made a trip down to the neighborhood sweet shop, photographing anything noteworthy they came across.

Probably my favorite picture. "Danger of Death." Awesome. I actually really like seeing signs from other countries and sort of miss it being back home.

And look! A red double decker bus! So very, very British!



Anyhow, well done, Sarah! If there is anyone else out there doing the Commuter Cam project... be sure to let me know!

Other Commutes

A week ago, I proposed the Commuter Cam Challenge, and two days later I posted photos from my commute. But, even more excitingly, several friends and fellow bloggers took me up on the challenge also. So, let's take a look at their entries!

First up is this entry by fellow Bad Genious (sic) Liana. Liana actually doesn't have a commute, so what did she do? She grabbed her camera and rode along with her always dependable husband, Dan! This also seemed to work nicely because it solved the problem of how to drive and take pictures at the same time.

Also, you have to admire Liana's dedication since apparently she almost starved to death during the drive.

Probably my favorite picture from Liana's entry. The "I 'Heart' to Fart" bumpersticker is classy.

The next person to post a Commuter Cam entry was my friend and ex-coworker Austin. Impressively, Austin actually went so far as to set up a webpage specifically for his entry. Also, because I used to work at RealNetworks, and because I used to live in Greenwood his entry was a bit of a walk down memory lane for me. Entertainingly, the coffee shop that he stops at is, like, two blocks from my apartment and I go passed it every day on the way to work, we almost literally walk right passed each other.

I really like this image from Austin's photos. Austin photographed his commute on the same day as me, but it looks like Greenwood got more snow than downtown.

Next up is another Bad Genious: Betsy! I thought that Betsy's entry was pretty cool. Betsy runs in marathons and other less long races, so it's not surprising that a lot of things (ranging from the bridge's she drives across to tattoo parlors) remind her of running.

You'll just have to check out her entry to find out why this tattoo parlor reminds her of running.

Also, Betsy pulled double duty on the commuter challenge and took her camera with her on two commutes to show both the standard commute, and the "take Jackson to school" commute. Bravo!

And last up is my friend and ex-roommate, Ambika. Ambika's in the early stages of her 365 Project where she plans to take at least one picture a day for the entire year. So, she nicely dovetailed the two projects and had her daily picture be a photo from her commute.

If you have a moment, its definitely worth checking out the other photos in the series. I'm jealous that she's doing such a cool and ambitious project!

Well, that's it so far with other people's commutes. If anyone else is interest, and photographs their commute to work, be sure to let me know!

Commuter Cam: An Icy Walk to Work

The other day, I outlined my Commuter Cam (AKA Take Your Camera To Work) Project idea. Well, today I post the results!

When I left for work on Monday morning, it was to make an icy waddle to work. It had snowed lightly the night before, and the wet sidewalks were sheets of black ice. But, undaunted, I grabbed my camera, and begun my walk to work. Joining me for the first portion was my beautiful assistant (and wife) Sarah.



Here's our apartment, as viewed from across the street. It's a cute building, if you ignore our arguing neighbors. If you look closely, you'll notice the orange road-cones on the front steps. Those are there because they are retiling the front steps. They've been retiling the front steps since Thanksgiving. I'm fairly positive that they'll be retiling the steps when we move out.



Just a half dozen blocks away, making our way down Fourth, it is time to wave goodbye to Sarah. We make this walk together a couple times a week, even though it is brief. She's actually halfway to work now, I on the other hand, still have most of my commute ahead of me. Please ignore the psychadelic phallus behind here.



Making a right off Fourth, I begin my hike down to the SLUT (South Lake Union Streetcar). Just one block along, I hit this intersection. This is probably one of my favorite corners, just because its so "Seattle"... walking under the monorail, with the Space Needle in the background. With my old commute, I used to go out of my way to cut through Pike Place Market. A lot of locals avoid the market becuase its overrun with tourists. But, tourists remind me that I live somewhere cool. I like the idea that people come to my city on vacation.




This whole area is under construction. It's sort of incredible really. Between where I hop on the SLUT (snicker!) and Lake Union literally seems like one big construction site. It's weird to think that I'm watching a neighborhood basically get constructed from the ground up. And all because Paul Allen got bored. The main sign of all the construction is the cranes perched everywhere like... um... cranes. Y'know, the bird. I guess an analogy doesn't work that well when the two objects being compared have the same name.

Still, one friend recently said he counted 13 cranes while standing in one spot.



As I've mentioned, it snowed lightly on Sunday night, so the roads were icy and there were still signs of snow scattered here and there. This is a car lot I walk past each day. I was actually a little nervous taking this picture because the ground was so slick through here.



Hey look! Here comes the SLUT!

Honestly, I really like the SLUT. In fact, I like it so much I've started usually calling it the Streetcar. I mean, you don't call something you love a "slut" right? From where I hop on, its only about a 10 minute ride to the final stop where I get off (snicker!). A lot of people complain that the SLUTs route is sort of useless, and honestly they have a good point. But, I'm like the one person in Seattle who's commute matches it's short route. Plus, it gives me a change to grab some quick reading every morning and evening.



You can see the SLUT parked on the right hand side of this photo. It sits there for a few minutes before making its way back into downtown. After getting off the streetcar, I make my way down Fairview, with Lake Union on my left. This is a long straight walk.



At the end of the long straight stretch, the path drops down onto a dock that actually spans a section of the lake. The view from here always catchs my attention. That day the sun was hitting a snow covered Queen Anne and shining on the Aurora Bridge dramatically. Quite nice.



This is the dock-slash-sidewalk that spans the lake. Usually, its really nice to walk along. This morning, because of the icy, it was downright sketchy. I kept having fantasies of toppling over into the half-frozen waters of Lake Union. If you notice, up ahead, there is another guy taking pictures. He not only had a better vantage point, but as I watched, he caught a sea plane taking off of Lake Union. Oooh, that would have been a good photo. Jealous! Punk!

After taking this picture, I made my way up the staircase on the far side, where I heard a screech and crash. A pick up truck, slipping on the ice, had crashed into the back of another pick up truck... which in turn crashed into an SUV. I didn't take a picture because that seemed a little too voyeuristic. But, it made me glad that I was walking on this cold morning.



One last photo. This one is taken from the parking lot across the street from my office. I didn't take a picture of my actual office building because it sort of just look likes a warehouse, and the security guard would have given me the evil eye. So, instead, I figured I'd take another picture across Lake Union. The area around my office is a bunch of industrial shipyards and European car repair shops. Not the most scenic stuff... but photographic in its own right.

Well, that's my first attempt at the Commuter Cam Project. Hope you all found it vaguely interesting. Also, I look forward to seeing if anyone else took up my challenge. If you do, and if you post an entry about your commute, let me know and I'll post a link here on my Week In review or something. And, again, feel free to pass this one to others. I've got a morbid curiosity about peoples commutes.