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.