Urban Inspection 3: Waterfront

Today, Ned and I took a walk down to downtown Tacoma's waterfront.

Heading down Schuster Parkway towards Thea's Park.

On the 4th Street bridge, looking north you can see the railroad sidings and Temco, the grain exporter.

Looking south, you can see the Murray Morgan Bridge which connects downtown to the port over 11th Street. This was closed in 2007 after the collapse of the I-35 bridge in Minnesota and opened again in 2013 after comprehensive rehabilitation.

A closer look at the ship Dansas.

Looking down at Thea's Park, where the 2014 Tacoma type-out was held.

Walking south along Dock Street, you can see the old city hall with its broken clock behind the I-705 exit ramps.

Now, Dock Street doesn't connect to downtown Tacoma for quite a while due to the railyard and a steep hill. But what's this I see?

Yes, it's a glass elevator! This saves walking 8 blocks out of your way to get into downtown. At first I was a little suspicious about whether it could be open to the public or not. It seemed too perfect.

There is even a nice mural and art installation under the bridge.

I had to take a video riding up the glass elevator, of course. This is facing north towards Thea's Park and eventually the Olympic Mountains.

Now on bridge level, looking down.

Looking towards the bridge from downtown.

I took a short detour down Cliff Ave (which is hardly an avenue, more like a back alley) for another look at the bridge.

After the bridge was bypassed by SR-509, WSDOT wanted to tear it down. The City of Tacoma bought it and after several years of neglect, finally closed and restored it.

Walking north again on A Street to the 9th Street intersection looking into the heart of the Theater District. You can see the Tacoma Link crossing the street.

Getting closer to home now, walking up the steps towards the old Elk's Lodge.

Ned was worn out after all this fast walking uphill. A tired puppy is a happy puppy. I, too, think it's brilliant that we have all of these cool places within walking distance.

Dreams / Platens

Which platen belongs with which typewriter?

In the following type specimens, you can compare the difference before and after. Yes, I changed the ribbon in the meantime but part of the improvement is you can now run a ribbon through more than once without having to use 3 backing sheets!

Sent from my Underwood Standard Portable

Who Is Jolson Alma?

195X Jolson Alma (No Serial #)

Pardon that ignorant grammar error in ¶5!

The platen on this is very wide for an ultraportable; wider than on a Smith-Corona Super Silent at least.

Sent from my new Jolson Alma (Antares) in memory of James K Polk.

Tacoma Micro-Type-Out

Equipped with coffee and tea from Tully's, longtime friend and typewriter pen pal Andrew and I walked to Fireman's Park in downtown Tacoma for a sudden micro-type-out. We caught up on some correspondence, enjoying the perfect weather--while it lasted.

Fireman's Park is by the waterside overlooking the Port, under the shadow of old city hall.

Mt Tahoma (Ranier) is framed perfectly by the Port of Tacoma bridge in this (mediocre) photograph.

My type-in-companion was my green Lettera 22. His device of choice was a Smith-Corona Skyriter. He typed a letter, whereas I didn't really write any correspondence. I rambled on about birds, typewriters, and the weather. This was my first time typing in public for any reasonable length of time. A dozen or so people walked by without so much as a second glance. You can be weird here and still not be noticed. XD

The clouds started to roll in during our time there and within a few hours it was raining, hard (for Tacoma at least). One lightning strike even graced the occasion. Of course we happened to be caught in the rain with Ned (typewriter dog) taking pizza back to the apartment! It was fun.

Black and white photographs don't have the use of colour to distract the eye from compositional error. You can see that some of my photos are hits, whilst others are glaring misses.

Urban Inspection 2

Today's second edition of Urban Inspection shows that I am getting slightly better at taking photos, as well as taking advantage of some slow shutter speeds. As with last time, the photos are unedited!

A street light that is turned off for construction, 4 second exposure. (Seems to be the slowest my camera  has)

At first it looks like all yellow and white lights, but there are some blues and greens too.

Another 4 second exposure, it's amazing the light that can be picked out if you just have the patience.

This is the old city hall, and you could hardly see the clock tower in the dark.

Back to the old B.P.O.E. again. The really dingy part is actually about 40 years newer than the main structure.

My favourite of the three entrances.

That is one creepy elk. Did all Elks members look like that?

Some bits of the building are completely gone, but others are almost preserved.

By this time, what is the real point of scratching "WEED" onto things? It was added since my last Urban Inspection.

The Spanish Steps that lead to the main entrance.

The main entrance that the Spanish Steps lead to.

And that creepy face. It used to be everywhere. It is a really eerie ghost of one of the children who died.

None of these pictures were taken with a tripod, though the 3 long exposure ones were taken with the camera resting on a ledge. All the rest were taken just in my hands, and I typically crouched on the ground with my elbows resting on my knees, hence the low viewpoint in many of the photos of the Elk B.P.O.E. building.

Urban Inspection 1

Welcome to Urban Inspection. The part of the show where I go out with a camera and take way too many pictures of my current hometown of Tacoma, and show a few of the less unacceptable ones to you here.

Our new Fuji X10 is the most satisfying camera I have ever used, it takes such incredibly better photos than an inexpensive point and shoot on auto mode, and as I am starting to get used to shutter speeds and apertures, getting pictures that look even better. (though at this point I get plenty of washed-out shots too)

I decided to leave the photos completely unedited for this first Urban Inspection just to show how I am experimenting with camera settings. I am continually amazed at what this camera can do. For $305, it is exponentially better than a camera half as expensive.

First we start with my object of desire, the old Elks lodge. It's intact, but that's about as far as it goes.

It says "Do Not Occupy" but I'd bet somebody was sleeping inside as I photographed.

From across the street you can get a better overall view.

I am always very curious about what the letters that aren't words stand for--initials? Love the frieze too.

Lots of old ornamental bits on buildings were stamped metal. Quite rusted by this point. And here are some words we can read!

Ned came along too, and looks quite strangely ghostly here.

Here he is again, quite alive and safe.

Another object of my desire, the Port at night is splendidly beautiful.

This used to be a sort of army green. Well, Army Green to be specific. The military had a surplus of green paint at the end of some war, hence lots of these post boxes were painted with it.

And ending it with my one of my myriad favourite bits of graffiti. It's spread all around and I love uncovering a new location.

All of these photos were taken around 3.30a, just immediately before dawn. I then proceeded to get wonderful sunrise pictures. Next edition of Urban Inspection? Probably another nighttime jaunt, this time getting more detail on the Elks lodge from other sides and the grand Spanish steps, as well as some shots of the Stadium Way construction and the Port as well.