Urban Inspection 4: Night Disturbance

On a whim, I decided it was time to take some more night photos of Tacoma. It turned out to be a fortunate decision.

You may have noticed this is heavily back-dated. I should have posted this back in September, but I've been quite sick this week.

One of the old brick alleys of Tacoma. I understand that the old brick can be nice, but this is so uneven that not only is it intolerable for auto traffic, but it's even difficult to walk on.

I always thought graffiti looks better than mismatched grey paint, but I also understand all the complicated reasons behind it.

Most of the streets, like this one, are pretty empty after midnight.

Downtown Tacoma is quite a center of public art.

We witnessed a driver knocking over a recycling bin, although I didn't quite get a photo of the act itself.

We heard police sirens and they stopped right in front of the bar ahead of us.

We were presented with this bizarrely delightful scene.

The lady with this wonderfully swooshy garment stopped by us to make this comment, which seems to explain everything about the situation:

Finally, as we made our way home, we saw Caution the Cat who works in the Office of Consumption. There used to be a small wooden plaque with words explaining his situation, but they went missing at some point along with the clock hands.

Posterboard and a sunny day

with Rob Bowker and Alan Seaver's encouragement

I decided to finally try to take some catalog-style photos of my collection.

these are the results of my first attempt.

after a bit of adjusting color balance and brightness in photoshop

I've gotten some very good results

but also run into a few problems getting the background to be white enough.

I've had surprisingly good results so far, mostly,

and with time I'll figure out what I'm doing.

all it took was this giant piece of cardstock, a whiteboard, a sunny day, and my Fuji X10.

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.

Typewriter Trials / Royal Diana

1959 Royal Diana DTP 86766

It really is a beautiful typewriter, if painted in a dull way, and it's so quiet and smooth--you want it to type like the best. But it doesn't.

I forgot I did bring up the whole air force deployment thing back when he left. The context helps.

Posted by my new Royal Diana