Category: Thoughts

House on the Hill: Update

On By Fred KingIn abandoned buildings, Architecture, B&W, buildings, Houses, Nikon D610, Seattle, South Park, Thoughts, Uncategorized, Urban DecayLeave a comment

In March of 2016 I posted a couple of photos of an abandoned house in the South Park neighborhood of South Seattle, near where I live. I resisted the location this past week and you can see the ‘changes’ that have taken place in less than a year. I couldn’t get in the house in March as it had about 3-4 feet of debris in each room-who knows what was in that mess? Now, the house has suffered a major fire ( arson, most likely) and it is mostly a charred ruin. The lot it sits on has been cleaned of dead cars and all sorts of other trash and is now barricaded off with huge cement blocks and cable. At one time this house had a great territorial view and was probably someones pride and joy.

End of Year

On By Fred KingIn Thoughts, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Best wishes to all who take the time to stop by my blogs!

One of my fellow bloggers ( and follower for years!) in Seattle did a post today that mentioned both of my blogging efforts. Thanks so much, Wedgewood in Seattle!! The blog is centered around the Wedgewood area of Seattle, historically and contemporarily. Great blog with all sort of information.

Locally, I seem to cover two neighborhoods in South Seattle that I am fascinated with; South Park and Georgetown. Neighborhoods change so fast. When I first started documenting, through my lens, I had a feeling these two neighborhoods were on the cusp of change. I felt someone had to document the old buildings, bridges, street art, etc. I’m so glad I did as I now have a record of ‘what was’. Maybe someday this archive of images will be interesting to someone doing research on the two neighborhoods. Seattle, in my opinion, doesn’t do enough to restore and hold onto its past; developers swoop in, demo beautiful brick buildings and put up a ‘mixed use’ structure of glass and steel.

My last op-ed for 2016 :-).

Wishing all a happy and healthy 2017!!!!

 

 

Coney Island/Stillwell Ave. Station

On By Fred KingIn Architecture, B&W, Brooklyn, buildings, New York City, Nikon D610, NYC, Thoughts, Train, TravelsLeave a comment

This station is the end of the F and G lines. Subway trains pull inside the large covered area and then proceed to head out in the opposite direction. The station actually faces Surf Ave. but for whatever reason, it is named Stillwell Ave. Station. I think the station got a major facelift a few years ago. Stillwell Ave. may be the street on the left ( as you look at this image) of the Station. I have entered and exited from both sides and they both work just fine, however more shops can be seen if you enter via Surf Ave. You can imagine the throngs of people heading to the beach in the summer, cascading out of the two exits. In October it is deserted, aside from a few odd travelers such as myself :-).

In Distress

On By Fred KingIn Architecture, B&W, Brooklyn, buildings, clouds, Environment, Gowanus, Gowanus Canal, New York City, Nikon D610, NYC, Park Slope, street art, Thoughts, Travels, Urban DecayLeave a comment

Gowanus Canal: Two ways of looking at the Superfund Site.

The Gowanus Canal can be a very picturesque place or,  depending on the light and your vantage point, it can be a pretty sketchy place with an aroma you will never forget.

Past and Present

On By Fred KingIn Architecture, Brooklyn, buildings, clouds, iPhone 6, New York City, Park Slope, street, Thoughts, Travels1 Comment

Two iconic buildings in Brooklyn. The Brooklyn Public Library and The Old Stone House in Park Slope right across the street from where our son and family live.Both of these images were taken on my iPhone. Every Saturday there is a Farmers/Saturday Market in front of the Library and entrance to Prospect Park and Grand Army Plaza , a confluence of interesting sites to visit. The morning we were at the Market a man with a green flag ran up the steps leading to the library entrance and started waving this flag. I have no idea what it was about, but someone was videotaping his actions. ??

TBT:A Glimpse Back in Time

On By Fred KingIn 1970, 35mm, Architecture, B&W, buildings, film, San Francisco, Scanned from 35mm Print, Thoughts, Travels1 Comment

Another blogger, SunandGold, recently did  a posting from her time spent in San Francisco. Her interest and fascination with the city/culture was shared by me 45+ years ago. I promised I would post these photos from 1970 in one posting ( rather than individual posts that I did in the past) so she could get a slight inclination of what the city was like all those years ago, measured against her recent visit to the city.

If you look closely at the image of Vanessi’s you will see a woman walking alongside the building, having come down Telegraph Hill. The image below, looking up that same street, shows a lone man in a suit walking to work ( this was a morning shot). Anyway, two points:the woman is wearing a scarf. This type of dress or accessory died off or fell out of favor shortly after this time. Also, personally for me or about me, both of these images portray the individual /subject as being a small, insignificant part of the world they are captured in, in terms of composition. To this day I have continued this approach, portraying a sense of ‘aloneness’, in many street shots of people. It almost seems like an unconscious methodology or approach to people. Even in the most crowded of spaces, people find themselves isolated. The images with cars in them also help validate the point in time in which I shot these film images all those years ago.

 

I think the rest of the images are, for the most part, self explanatory. Of interest might be the image adjacent to the City Lights Bookstore. If you look at the reader board on the building you can actually read the band/musicians on the bill for that week, which in some sense helps to corroborate the time at which the image was shot. Keystone Korner was a great venue for catching current musicians such as Boz Scaggs and Bennhy Cecil and the Snakes! I think it was an over 21 club, but I could be wrong.

Thanks for going along for this short ride into the past with me!

Horizontal

On By Fred KingIn B&W, design, Georgetown, Seattle, Nikon D610, Seattle, Thoughts1 Comment

Version 2

I dug around in my lens collection last week and found a 50mm 1.8 Nikon lens I hadn’t used in years, if ever. I was watching a video lesson online about street photography and the photographer was using a 50mm lens, which is something I haven’t thought to do when I do street shooting. The lens forces you to get a little closer to your subject, but the results seem pretty cool. So…. this was my first foray into playing around with an old lens. I was pretty happy with the results. Since it is a prime lens and not a zoom, you do all of your focusing with your feet as opposed to the lens. That was one or the points I remember from a photography class I took with The Mountaineers nearly ten years ago; one of the guest lecturers pushed the point the ‘focussing with your feet’ is the best approach in some situations.

Sage advice. If anyone in Seattle is ever interested in a one week photo workshop I highly recommend the one The Mountaineers put on. Very reasonable price-wise and just really interesting classes as well as a field trip every Saturday or Sunday. I’ll never forget my experience. I was, at that time, about the only person in the 100 group that shot in film! I was using my Minolta X700 and everyone else had digital cameras. But, that was okay. I needed more film time and the info transfers pretty good to the digital format.

History Intertwined

On By Fred KingIn 1960's, 1970, Architecture, buildings, design, Music, musicians, Nikon D610, Seattle, ThoughtsLeave a comment

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In 1962 Seattle architect Paul Thiry did the design of some of the buildings at the Worlds Fair. Just as a side note, he also designed a house less than a mile from my home, on Marine View Drive, in Arbor Heights ( image above). The image of the NW Rooms refers to a series of rooms in a building Thiry designed. Today those rooms are no longer named NW Rooms, but are being used by SIFF and The Vera project, among others.

One of the rooms was called The Nisqually Room. In 1970, a band I was in played one or maybe two nights for some event ( I’ve been told it was a after-concert party for the All City Band in Seattle. I think we owed the music teacher of our high school a favor for letting us practice in his home basement and school music room. Mr. Terpenning was only a few years older than us and was supportive of what we were doing-which didn’t seem too odd at the time, but now……?). That was probably the largest room we ever played.  The ceiling was so high the sound went everywhere at once and kind of morphed into something long and echoing.

The article in the link does not say what the Nisqually Room morphed into over the years. It may have been  combined with an adjacent room. I have walked up and down the steps and around this set of rooms and my memory says one thing and the physical structures say another.

Anyways, I thought it was interesting that my history and that of Paul Thirys’ met 8 or so years after his design and contribution to the Worlds Fair in 1962.

Same River, Sixty One Years Later

On By Fred KingIn 1950's, B&W, childhood, Duwamish River, Nikon D610, river, Seattle, South Park, ThoughtsLeave a comment

The photo on the left is of me in 1955 taken along the Duwamish River in South Park, Seattle, where we lived at the time. The photo on the right is of my grandson taken this week along the same river. Some things don’t change too much over time.

The House on the Hill: Pt. II

On By Fred KingIn abandoned buildings, Architecture, B&W, buildings, graffiti, Nikon D7000, Seattle, South Park, Thoughts, Urban DecayLeave a comment

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My second visit to the House on the Hill in South Park, Seattle. Due to waist-high debris it was impossible to get more than a couple of feet inside the house. The interior is severely burned; it smells and is very unsafe. On the outside there is broken glass everywhere in addition to piles of debris. At one time this was a house with a view of Downtown Seattle in the distance as well as the Duwamish River nearby. I don’t know what “Skin Trap House” means, so if anyone has any ideas…. feel free to comment. The ground floor of the interior looks more like a dumping ground than anything else; perhaps after the fire people just repurposed the house? A good percentage the debris is not fire damaged. The image of the stairs leading to the second floor I found most appealing and engaging.