The light rail’s changed so much since I first moved here, I keep having to remember new names for northbound and southbound. x Here are the rest of the Polaroids from Saturday. Christine convinced me to take one of me as well, but, naturally, you don’t get to see that one here. x I took these photos without breaking my stride. x
Do you remember the White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland? Not the abstract vision made cool and sexy by Jefferson Airplane; rather, the nervous wreck with a waistcoat and a pocket watch singing “I’m late, I’m late, for a very important date.” That rabbit. According to many interpreters, Alice and the White Rabbit are foils: the Rabbit represents the frantic adult world, ruled by clocks and capital, obligations, and constant hurry. He rushes forward without clarity or purpose. Alice embodies childhood’s openness, curiosity, and imaginative freedom. By chasing him, Alice exposes the rift between her life of wonder and his … Continue reading “The Churches of Leavenworth (and Being Out of Sync)” →
Black Friday in Wenatchee. This place is like a box of LEGO bricks strewn across a pile of thick winter blankets and looks especially magical in the low-hanging morning sun. x As I was going through the photos I’d taken over Thanksgiving weekend, Christine said that I should tell you all about how difficult I had been while she was trying to come up with a plan for where to spend the break. I’d nixed three other choices as being 1) too far or 2) not worth the effort and 3) (allegedly) grumbled about the point of life itself before … Continue reading “Black Friday in Wenatchee and Leavenworth” →
‘Tis the season. A couple of captures with my Canon Rebel SL1 from this morning. x A very friendly neighborhood fella. It’s their season too. x It’s the season of the witch. x Georgetown 10.11.25 part 1 x Georgetown 10.11.25 part 2 x Georgetown 10.11.25 part 3 x
So I got myself my first DSLR. Nothing fancy. Just an old 2013-era Canon Rebel off of eBay. I wanted something small and light that had a line-in jack and a good range of lenses with a sensor size that’s decent enough to dedicate to work projects without any extra bells and whistles. I’m happy with what I got. I paired it with a dirt cheap Yongnuo 50mm lens that I used here; I think I’m good to go. I’ve been keeping a firewall between my photography hobby and what I do at work for the last couple of years; … Continue reading “My First DSLR (and a Cat in Raw Format)” →
Don’t believe Google or Instagram because the @ginzavampire cafe is, in fact, open on Mondays, and, let me tell you: 10/10, would do again. They are so committed to the bit from the moment you walk in to the moment you walk out—our server gave us the deepest bow in the whole of Japan as the elevator doors shut—that you can’t help but be swept up in the pageantry. And the food is actually good! It’s not just a bit of food coloring and some skull stencils. Another equally goofy and dead serious experience in Japan ✔️ x Bringing back … Continue reading “Japan Trip: Cringestagram in Shinjuku and Shibuya” →
More from Electric Town: This bus, so ideogrammatic in my mind of Beirut, as seen in its natural habitat; Lebanon often gets these second-hand. That train—I actually waited several minutes for it to come back around so I could catch it in that reflection like a real photographer or something. This street featuring the Beastie Boys in their hi-viz jackets with the built-in air condition. x Fujifilm on Fujifilm. Back when I first started daydreaming about this trip to Japan, I entertained fantasies about going camera hunting here, but to be honest, the bargains aren’t so ubiquitous to make that … Continue reading “Japan Trip: Fujifilm on Fujifilm” →
Jinbocho is known as Tokyo’s famed “book town,” a historic district lined with hundreds of bookstores, ranging from tiny secondhand shops stacked floor to ceiling with rare volumes to major multi-story retailers offering new releases, academic texts, and foreign-language titles. But we were there for one bookstore in particular: Anegawa Nyankodō, or the Cat Bookstore. I’d thought that having a destination like that was a good way to explore a unique neighborhood, but we actually found two books we wanted! And the process of purchasing them was probably one of my favorite experiences on the trip. The elderly gentleman was … Continue reading “Japan Trip: Book Town and Electric Town” →
I hadn’t intended on syncing up the cadence of my Japan postings with my life back here in Seattle when I first started, but when I saw that it was possible, I really wanted to talk about Enoshima today for reasons that will soon become clearer. Christine had asked for a day trip out of Tokyo, and Suzi suggested Kamakura as a popular destination, so we added that to our list. As the time got closer to plan our itinerary in more detail, I noticed an island a little bit outside of town that seemed dedicated to all things dragonic; … Continue reading “Japan Trip: The Dragon of Enoshima” →
This is the moment after walking for about 30 minutes and realizing that the Chaos Gallery had, indeed, recently closed and been cleared; so recently, in fact, there were still people in the space finalizing the process. So, in honor of that moment, here are my most chaotic shots from Kyoto. x Kyoto in abstraction. x This gentleman smiled at me after seeing me taking pictures of the Shinkansen. Train dork recognizes train dork. We were going to Tokyo next. There was a train just like this heading there every 5 minutes. The next day was Mountain Day, so everyone … Continue reading “Japan Trip: Kyoto in Abstraction, Bound for Tokyo” →