Flowers in the Carl English Garden at the Ballard Locks

This picture turned out kind of nice. This was taken at a place in Seattle called the Carl English Botanical Garden, which is located at the Ballard Locks.

I frequently take pictures from this area, some exciting, some boring.

This picture was taken yesterday, 08/11/10.

Cow reflected in water with old barn in distance.

This is a nice picture. This picture was taken in 2009, out a lake near where I grew up called Lake Yosemite.

Out there in the distance, is this abandoned barn, that I remember from my youth. I believe that the barn is now owned by the University of California system, as is on land that belongs to UC Merced. I know that they used images of the barn in promotional materials for the school, so I hope they preserve it!

Anyways, I liked how this picture turned out, with the cow in the middle and how the cow is reflected off the water.

This isn't water from the lake, it's from an irrigation area on the east side of the lake.

I've posted other pictures from the Lake Yosemite area, if you would like to look at them.

Pedestrian foot bridge at Lake Yosemite - pic taken in 2009

I like this picture! I cannot for the life of me, find where I posted it on Brightkite (the entire point of me posting on photos on BK is to find them easily).

I looked and looked all over. I eventually found it in a folder on my Mac.

This picture was taken in 2009, at a place called Lake Yosemite. This picture is of this pedestrian bridge that goes over a small irrigation canal.

When I was young, I would frequently go on long walks up to the Lake. I would even go on the hottest days of Summer.

Sometimes I would go with friends. When I was a teenager, I would head out here to sneak smokes. I would often listen to music on my trips.

I have posted a number of other pictures from Lake Yosemite here.

Construction on the UC Merced campus

I like this picture. This is a picture of construction that was taking place on the back end of the University of Merced campus in 2009.

In the distance you can see a water tower that I took a number of different pictures of.

The picture above was taken a few weeks before the arrival of Michelle Obama on the campus for a commencement address.

When I was growing up, this was mostly farmland. When I was in Junior High School, this area was briefly turned into a golf course, that eventually went out of business.

I've posted a whole series of pictures from the campus, mostly because it was so surprising for me to return home and discover a college campus up and running next to where I grew up.

Bird perched on a fence post out front of the UC Merced campus

This picture isn't the greatest, but it is sort of a sentimental favorite, I suppose. This picture was taken in 2009.

I don't know what type of bird this is, but there are lots of them where I am from, and I remember them from my youth.

They frequently hang out on the ground, and they might even make their nests there.

In the background is the University of California, Merced campus.

Random picture taken in 2009 in Merced of electrical lines

This is what the countryside looks like where I am from, when it hasn't been torn up by housing developers. This picture was taken just outside of Merced in 2009.

This is actually a scene that I saw everyday growing up, as it is what you see as you head into town. Those are electrical wires which go a very long distance. Underneath them are some yellow flowers, which only bloom for a short while.

This is looking South, from the general area of Yosemite Avenue and Lake Road. There are a couple other pictures I took in this area, like this one. Here is another of flowers, and another one here.

Half gone Moraga housing development sign

This picture was taken in 2009. This was taken roughly in the area of Yosemite Avenue and Perch Lane.

The sign says "RAGA", but it is supposed to say "MORAGA". This is at the entrance to a huge housing development (that destroyed a gigantic amount of farmland) that was started and then largely abandoned.

A gigantic waste. You can see more pictures from inside of this housing development here, here, and here. You can see a tumbleweed I took a picture of inside of this housing development. Here is also a view from the sidewalk.

Shot of the front door to the closed Mervyn's Department Store in 2009

This picture was taken in my hometown of Merced in 2009.

This picture was of the front door to a retail store called Mervyns, that used to act as one of the main anchor stores at the mall in my hometown.

You can see my reflection there in the glass. I was skinny, because I had lost a significant amount of weight.

The closing of the Mervyns made a big impression on me, and i've posted other pictures.

Yellow flowers and driftwood structure at the beach at a park in Seattle.

This picture was taken just a couple days ago. This was taken at the beach at a park in Seattle called Discovery Park. You can read the wikipedia page for this park here. You can read a website run by friends of this park here.

I liked this picture, it is pretty good. As you can see, there are yellow flowers. There in the background is a driftwood structure, and the rather still waters on Puget Sound in the background. This was taken on a very warm day.

Another picture of the Shilshole Bay Marina sign with pictures in front

This is a picture I took about a week ago. These are flowers under the sign of a place in Seattle called the Shilshole Bay Marina.

I don't know why, but I seemed to be enamored with taking pictures of flowers in front of this sign.

Anyways.

Pike Place Market random view.

I liked how this picture turned out. This was a random picture I took a few days ago at the Pike Place Market in Seattle.

I think I like how this picture looks, because that woman is wearing a very blue dress, and the man next to her is wearing a cream color.

It sort of looks like there is four squares, the partial "NO STOPS" sign, the two people, the Public Market sign, and the "Meet the Producers" sign. If the upper left wasn't so dark, it probably would be really good.

Still I like it. Here's another from roughly the same spot.

James Fitzgerald fountain in front of Jefferson Terrace.

This picture requires a little explanation.

This picture was posted by my other Brightkite account. This is a fountain in front of a housing development in Seattle.

This fountain was done by an artist named James Herbert Fitzgerald in 1969. There had been water running in it, when the fountain was originally installed back in the 1960s. There are other fountains in Seattle that were done by this exact same artist. There are even fountains, like this one, that originally had running water, but to due to neglect they no longer have.

The difference is, that the other fountains by James Herbert Fitzgerald that had have their water turned off, now have their bases filled with flowers. This particular fountain now sits empty, and garbage collects in it.

After I discovered this fountain, I decided to post some pictures of it. I also decided that that this would be a great idea for a story, so I sent it over to a cool neighborhood blog, and they wrote a story about it.

Hopefully the water that used to run in this fountain can be turned back on. If not, hopefully flowers can be planted in the base.

View of a flower in Interbay with south end of Ballard Bridge in distance

I like this picture. This picture was taken on June 18th of 2010. This is near the south end of the Ballard Bridge, which you can see in the background. This is in an area of Seattle known as Interbay.

I liked how this picture shows a colorful (yet tough looking) flower. Plus there are train tracks, and an out of focus bridge in the background.

I've gotten to know this area better recently, and I think that there are many things that could be done in this area of Seattle. I recently went on a walk with a friend of mine through this area, and we walked from here to the Fremont bridge.

Each time I have been down here, I have run into people using these train tracks as a trail. If you walk along these tracks towards the East, you will actually run into the start of a bike trail.

There is also some really cool art down under the bridge, if you follow the train tracks seen in this picture.

If you like taking pictures, I recommend taking a walk around in this area. If you do go for a walk, try to imagine different things that could be done in this area.

Interbay freight train with green plants in the foreground.

I like this picture, it is very green! This picture was taken on June 18th of 2010. The location of this picture was about seventy five yards from the south end of the Ballard Bridge.

This is in Seattle's Interbay neighborhood. The "8193" is painted on the side of a parked Burlington Northern freight train. This is actually a very beautiful area, a mix of train tracks, industrial buildings and bridges. I think that this would be a great area to extend a bike trail through.

I posted other pictures from this same day here, and here, and here.

If you'd like to view of the front of the "8193" train, you can do so here.

Low to the ground view of stream in Carkeek Park on 07/05/2010

This picture was taken in a park in North Seattle called Carkeek Park. It was taken on the afternoon of July 5th, 2010.

This picture is of a freshwater stream that runs through the park. I climbed down into the creek bed, and held the camera close to the ground - this was probably about 12 inches above the ground.

I took some other pictures of the surface of this stream that day and posted them here and here.

Sinaloa Restaurant in Merced

I was just looking back through my Merced pictures, searching for a mystery photo I had forgotten about, when I came across this picture.

I had to post this picture because, it makes me nostalgic! I used to eat at this very spot when I was a little kid.

It had a different name then (what was it called?) but I can remember going here when I was very young.

Now it is called Sinaloa. Good times! It is a little hard to see, but to the right of the Sinaloa sign, you can see a very old 7 UP sign in the background.

If you are interested, you can see another picture of this restaurant here.

Leaf submerged underwater in a stream in Carkeek Park

This picture was taken yesterday, 07/05/2010. This picture was taken in a place in Seattle called Carkeek Park.

The water in this picture is a shallow stream that runs through the park. As you can see, there is a leaf submerged underwater.

Pic of graffiti cleanup that got on a blog

This picture was taken about a month ago. The man seen in this picture is a city of Seattle worker who is doing graffiti cleanup under a bridge in Seattle called the University Bridge.

After I took this picture, I thought to myself about the graffiti cleanup process. I lived in Seattle's University District from 2000 to 2008 (except for a brief stint in Fresno).

This area under the bridge has always been a target for graffiti, largely because they keep re-painting over the graffiti with an institutional gray color!

After pondering the cleanup of this area, I sent this image over to a local news blog, and they ended up running an excellent story about it.

I, for one, hope that a mural goes up in this area. The city used to play the same cat and mouse game up on Campus Parkway, where a large wall in a tunnel kept inviting graffiti. Around 2004, the city had some local artists come in and put up murals, which truly transformed this previously dark area for the better. Hopefully that's what can happen here.

Water on a random plant in Seattle.

I don't know what kind of plant this is, but you will see this plant all over the city of Seattle. I liked this picture. Often, when it rains, these plants look really cool because they have beads of water all over them.

There's another picture of water drops on this type of plant here.

Water drops on leaves and a flower in Seattle.

Random picture of a flower and some water on some leaves. This was taken someplace in Seattle, I neglected to document the location.

Colorful flowers at 6th Avenue West & West Ewing Street

This picture turned out kind of nice. I was out walking around with my buddy Lord Tuggs, when we walked by the intersection of 6th Avenue West & West Ewing Street.

Much to my surprise, there was a small boat dock in this area. If you look, you can see it in the upper right hand corner of this picture.

This area is a couple blocks away from the Seattle Pacific University campus.

Anyways, I walked by, and noticed these flowers, which were so colorful, I wasn't even sure if they were real. But, they were! Snapped this picture.

You can see more pictures from this area here.

Random view of restaurant downtown with Smith Tower in the background

This picture was pretty nice. This is a picture of restaurant in downtown Seattle called Main St. Gyros. I have never been to this restaurant, but I would like to go.

Directly behind the sign for this restaurant is the Smith Tower, which is the oldest skyscraper in the city.

Plant in front of 6th and Ewing street signs.

This is a picture I took not too long ago. This picture is from the intersection of 6th Avenue West and West Ewing Street. This is not all that far from the campus of Seattle Pacific University.

I posted other photos from this area here.

Egret flying off over Puget Sound

This is a picture of an egret that I took just this week. This egret was taking off over the water of Puget Sound. This picture was taken a few hundred yards south of Carkeek Park.

You can see some other pictures of this bird here and here. I posted the same picture above here and here.

Signal light on the Fremont Bridge

I liked this picture when I took it, and I still like it now.

This is a signal light on the Fremont Bridge in Seattle. This bridge is the most active drawbridge in the United States.

You can walk across the bridge. When the drawbridge goes up, a barrier comes down to prevent people from walking while the bridge is going up.

This is a picture I took of a signal light attached to one of the pedestrian barriers.

Looking up at the underside of the Aurora Bridge

I like this picture. This picture is of the underside of a bridge in Seattle called the Aurora Bridge.

Flowers in a field near the Ballard Bridge - train in the background

This was a picture that I just took yesterday (06/18/2010). This picture was taken about 75 yards from the south end of the Ballard Bridge in Seattle. This is in an area of Seattle known as Interbay.

In the foreground are some flowers and green plants, in the background is a parked Burlington Northern Freight Train.

I posted some other pictures from this area here.

Picture of a Narboo sticker on back of street sign during Crit bike race

I don't know if I have mentioned it yet on this blog, but I also run a second Brightkite account that is dedicated to art photography and news. You can read an article about my other account here.

Anyways, this picture was taken recently. See the sticker on the back of the street sign? That sticker was done by a local artist named Narboo.

This picture was taken on Ballard Avenue during a recent bicycle race. You can read more about the race here.

Water drops on a plant under the Fremont Bridge

This is a picture that I like. I took this picture at a place in Seattle called the Fremont Bridge. That's the bridge there in the background.

Water on a leaf in Ravenna Park

I liked how this picture turned out. This picture is of water on a leaf. This picture was taken just a few weeks ago in a place in Seattle known as Ravenna Park.

Old pier exposed by very low tide at Golden Gardens Park in Seattle

I took this picture just about two weeks ago or so. This is at a place in Seattle called Golden Gardens.

There was a very low tide the day that I took this picture, and these are pieces of an old pier that have been exposed by the low tide.

Speaking of Dead Low Tides.

Blocked sidewalk near Crown Hill Safeway

This picture was taken on the morning of March 12th, 2010. That morning was very cold, and I was walking up 15th Avenue Northwest, when I came across this scene.

What I saw was this, a tree was toppled, and there was gasoline all over the sidewalk. I inspected further, and I also found a great deal of smashed car parts.

It was obvious that there had been a car accident. I took a number of pictures, and I posted them on the internet.

I sent the image above, along with a description of exactly what I was seeing, over to the myballard blog.

They ended up running this post.

Mustache

Yeah. Undercover.

RV heading up a road outside of Coulterville

I liked this picture, as it reminds me of my youth. This picture was taken on a road outside of Coulterville. This picture was taken on a side of a road that heads towards another town called Hornitos.

I used to spend a lot of time when I was young in the Sierra Nevada foothills. Especially in towns like Jamestown, Sonora, and Groveland.

My Mom used to work in Catheys Valley.

There are lots of people who don't want to be found living up in the hills.

Pock pile alongside the Merced river in Snelling

This is a picture that brings back a lot of memories for me. This picture was taken in 2009, in a place called Snelling. I used to go here a lot when I was a kid.

Do you see all these rocks? This is on the banks of the Merced River. If you've ever seen those pictures from Yosemite of big waterfalls, those waterfalls feed into the Merced River, empties out of Yosemite, and down through the foothills.

That's how the city of Merced got it's name, from the Merced River. A Spanish Army officer named Moraga was going thorough the foothills with some soldiers in 1806. They came across a river that had very cold water from melting snow. After drinking the water, the Spanish Army officer proclaimed it a river of "mercy". In Spanish, "mercy" is "Merced".

Anyways, back to all the rocks in this picture. Back in the gold rush era, they just used this machine that was basically a gigantic shovel. They went to rivers and "scooped" the floor of the river, rocks and all, into a gigantic machine.

The gold was filtered out, and what was left - rocks - were just dumped on the river shore.

That's what you're seeing here. Industrial waste from like 1880. It goes on like this, for miles.

See why environmental regulations are kind of important?

Tagged Water Pump tower at Lake Yosemite

So, this picture, requires a little explanation. The picture seen here was taken at a place not far from where I grew up called Lake Yosemite.

This here is an old water pump tower. They've changed it a bit since when I was a teenager. When I was a teenager, my friends and I used to climb either over or around a protective barrier that was in place here at the entrance.

Since my teenage years, they have installed a much more secure door and sidewalls, to prevent people from climbing out onto the water pump.

I liked how this picture looked, mostly because it brings back a lot of memories for me.

If you want to see more pictures of this structure (which is rumored to be haunted), you can see them here, or here.

Gang Clothing and Attire is Prohibited

This picture is of a sign that pretty much says it all. Gang clothing is prohibited! No "baggy pants", you understand?

This is a sign at the entrance to a place called Lake Yosemite.

Cows on a wire

Cows on a wire! See this picture? This picture is of some cows. It was taken at a place near where I grew up called Lake Yosemite.

If you look in the upper left, it looks as if those two cows are actually walking ON the barbed wire fence!

Cool, huh!?! This is not to be confused with bird on a wire.

Abandoned barn visible from Lake Yosemite

Little hard to make out, but this picture is of an old abandoned barn. This picture was taken from a place in unincorporated Merced County called Lake Yosemite.

If I remember the story of this barn correctly, this barn is sitting on land that is technically part of the UC Merced campus. Out in the distance, you can see the Sierra Nevada foothills.

The bar has apparently been saved from demolition, and is frequently used as backdrop for promotional materials related to the campus.

This barn has been out there my entire life, and I think it has always been abandoned.

Colorful flowers in Merced

I don't know if I have mentioned this before, but I am colorblind. Specifically, I have this thing called red-green color blindness.

Before you ask: No, I don't see only black and white. I don't know how to describe it, other than to say that I probably don't see colors the same way that you do.

Still, I think I can spot bright colors, and I sure thought these flowers were bright!

These were some random flowers I took a picture of in my hometown of Merced, California in 2009.

I could be wrong, but I think that I took this picture on Olive Avenue.

View of a field on Dunn Road in Merced

See this picture? While this isn't a great picture, it does give you an accurate representation of what it looks like out where I grew up.

They had lots of land that looked like this, but the housing developments kept growing and growing during the housing boom.

But them the boom ended, and most of the new homes ended up vacant.

This picture was taken on a road called Dunn Road.

Wild bunny rabbit at Lake Yosemite in Merced County

This picture is of a wild little bunny rabbit. This was at the entrance of a place in unincorporated Merced County called Lake Yosemite.

There are lots of wild bunny rabbits like this in Merced, and I have posted other pictures of them.

Tower at Lake Yosemite

See this picture of the tower? This tower is a sentimental favorite of mine, from my youth. You're not supposed to, and they put up a fence to stop people, but if you try hard enough, you are able to climb out the end of that platform and hang out underneath the water tower shown in this picture.

This is a water tower at a place in unincorporated Merced County called Lake Yosemite. When I was a kid, I used to frequently throw rocks at it.

For years, in fact, there used to actually be a hole in the roof. Lots of people would walk by and throw rocks at the roof, in an attempt to make it in the gapping hole. I was surprised in 2009, when I visited and noticed that the roof had been fixed. I even mentioned this at the time.

You can see another view of this tower here.

Cow in meadow near Lake Yosemite in Merced County

You generally can't go wrong taking a picture of a cow! And this picture, well, it's no exception!

This picture was taken near a place near I grew up called Lake Yosemite. There are many cows in the fields near where I grew up.

Twisted tree root on the shore of Lake Yosemite

This picture was one that I remember liking. This picture was taken in 2009 at a place called Lake Yosemite, which is in unincorporated Merced County, near where I grew up.

I have lived in Seattle since September of 1997, and except for a year that I spent in Fresno in 2003/2004, I hadn't been back much to my home town.

I returned in 2009 for about three months, as my family was extremely pissed that I had lost my job. My family is very conservative.

My hometown in 2009 was suffering from the worst economy I had ever seen it go through in my lifetime. Thanks, largely, to the housing bubble.

Here are some other random pictures I took in the area of Lake Yosemite.

Colorful tree branch on the shore of Lake Yosemite outside of Merced

This picture was a Merced area picture from 2009 that I really liked. This picture was taken a place called Lake Yosemite.

This was a tree branch that was on the ground, it was very colorful. Lake Yosemite is not far from where I lived when I was younger, and I would frequently go on walks to the lake.

Here are some other random pictures that I posted in the area around Lake Yosemite.

View from Foster Island of flowers - in background is Husky Stadium

This picture was a simple picture, but I liked the way that it turned out.

This is the view from a place in Seattle called Foster Island (it might have been on the first Marsh Island, but I am pretty sure it was on Foster). You can see some flowers in the foreground. It is a little hard to make out, but there in the middle of the picture, in the distance, is Husky Stadium.

This is a nice area, and if you live in Seattle and have never checked it out, you should. You can read an article about this area here.

You can also go to this little area by the stadium and rent row boats for a small fee.

A mushroom on Market Street

This picture is of a mushroom that was growing next to a sidewalk along Market Street in Seattle.

View from underneath the Magnolia Bridge

This picture requires some explanation. This is a picture of the underside of a bridge in Seattle called the Magnolia Bridge.

I took this picture some time ago, and I stored it on a memory card. I totally forgot about it, and then found it when I went back looking through my photos.

When I took this picture, I didn't even notice the guy there. I took this picture from a platform on the stairs, and then I walked down the stairs.

He was a nice guy. He told me that I wasn't the first person with a camera to walk around in this area taking pictures. He kept offering me a bag of Frito Lay Chili Cheese chips.

I don't know what the rules are for taking pictures of people, so I try to avoid it. I would really like to photograph people, and my favorite photographers take pictures of people.

But, like I said, I don't know how it works. I might take this down later, but I still like it. You can see another picture from under this bridge here.

Water on plant near the Fremont Bridge

This is a picture of water drops on a plant in Seattle. You can see Seattle's Fremont Bridge there in the background.

I took this picture just yesterday - 05/30/2010.

This was from a group of photos I posted yesterday.