Tag: life

Body-Painted Cyclists, Oh My! Solstice 2012 | Seattle Street Photography

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**(Warning for some folks who may easily offend: semi-nudity and silly outfits in today’s photo, but it is as seen by thousands of Seattlies every year in broad daylight!)**

This is a quick one because I really need to get back to my hundreds of Solstice Parade photos! I need to whittle it down to about 100 from about 8 times that…

Every year, Fremont (Seattle’s own ‘Center of the Universe’) hosts the most fun, crazy, and utterly amazing parade to usher in the Summer Solstice (otherwise known as Seattle’s summer that won’t start until after July 4th…). It starts with a huge amount of mostly naked bicyclists with beautifully and/or imaginatively-painted bodies – think Care Bears alongside Batman – whizzing down the main street accompanied by lots of laughs, cheers and some confused/amazed child faces, and an insane amount of photo-taking. Then there’s the ‘real’ parade of wacky and themed floats and marching bands, but it’s not the usual parade fare that many other cities see. Seattle is unique and colorful and soon I will post some photos so that everyone can see what I’m talking about.

Since the bicycle ride involves a lot of non-clothing, I will get a Flickr set linked up in case anyone wants to see that without being shocked by it here (in spite of the warning!). It’s all done in good fun and I love the open and accepting spirit that it’s all done in. Now if only Seattle would hurry up and get some warm weather so we can at least abandon some of our clothing…

This is one of my favorite photos that I took at last year’s Solstice Parade  Crossing fingers for sun soon!

xo ~ K

Not all the Greek runners in the original Olympics were totally naked. Some wore shoes. – Mark Twain

Sadness & Light in Seattle | Reflections

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Over the last few weeks I’ve had quite a few reasons to count my blessings and to feel fortunate. I think many of you who have stumbled upon my post, are aware of the horrible shootings that happened in Seattle recently. I feel anguish for those who have lost people they love. I feel sadness that much of it happened in a neighborhood (and city) that I have spent years living in, one that holds many memories for me and I hold a fondness for. I feel angry that present gun laws and untreated mental illness create a perfect storm for such tragedies to happen so frequently. I feel frustration that this world is so cruel sometimes and I can’t fix it.

The blessings and fortune I speak of are about a few different things. My little boy and the man I love were at one of our favorite parks just 2 blocks away from the cafe that day; cops were everywhere as they were looking for the gunman. That’s too close, but I’m thankful they weren’t closer. A couple of days after that, my boy smacked the back of his head straight into a tree trunk while on a tree swing being pushed by his sister; he came crying into the house with blood streaming down the back of his shirt. I envisioned all kinds of brain injury scenarios during the painfully slow (Friday night rush hour) albeit short trip to the ER. But my boy just had an abrasion and left the hospital with a red popsicle…again, I’m thankful.

Then last Wednesday marked a seven-year anniversary of the passing of someone I loved deeply. So much that the depths of my grief for a long time after his death, which felt so dark and hopeless, made me imagine that nothing and no one would ever bring light into my life ever again. I eventually emerged from that darkest hole to find that I saw life in a whole new way afterwards, and if there’s anything to be thankful for despite losing a love like that, it’s that. And I do have both love and light in my life again.

I took these on June 6th (on that anniversary) and though the day started out grey and felt somber and lonely to me, the sun did come out and there were beautiful sights all around that evening. I hope Seattle will heal from these awful tragedies and that much is learned. I also wish for light and love to come in place of the darkness and loss; Seattle is a beautiful, resilient city full of amazing people, and to see the flowers that cover the sidewalk outside Cafe Racer (photo required, I know!), you can’t help but be moved by the love here.

Now that I have put all that out there to the blogosphere, I have gig and birthday party photos to edit!

xo ~ K

Each day of human life contains joy and anger, pain and pleasure, darkness and light, growth and decay.  Each moment is etched with nature’s grand design – do not try to deny or oppose the cosmic order of things.  ~Morihei Ueshiba

Does the caterpillar know she will be a beautiful butterfly one day?

Eyes of The Ape | Seattle Animal Photography 

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Sitting through ‘Dumbo’ for the second time this weekend (Roman has decided it’s his favorite Disney flick for the moment), I was thinking a lot about circus and zoo animals and their various states of captivity. Instead of wrapping my thoughts around how depressing that topic can be for me, I thought I’d go back to this photo this evening for some therapeutic processing time. I find the big apes intriguing, and I can never resist taking a shot or two of them when I’m at the zoo. But I hate seeing them look so bored and listless, and so wish I was seeing them in their natural habitat but that will never happen for me. I don’t want my child to grow up in a world where gorillas and tigers and elephants (and all those animals that fill childhood literature and picture books) only exist in captivity in zoos…even with all their benefits of breeding programs and conservation awareness. That will be a very sad day for us all.

Anyway, I thought I’d go for my high contrast black and white edit version to share with you; it seems timeless and draws me in to that expressive and fascinating face. Since this is actually being written in the wee hours of the morning again, I must sign off; Folklife festival shenanigans at Seattle Center today. Have a safe
Memorial Day, all my (ape) friends!

xo ~ K

If all the beasts were gone, men would die from a great loneliness of spirit, for whatever happens to the beasts also happens to the man. All things are connected. Whatever befalls the Earth befalls the sons of the Earth. ~ Chief Seattle of the Suquamish Tribe, letter to President Franklin Pierce

Learning about Lightroom, Scissors & Mud | Reflections

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It never stops, does it? The learning, that is…

I learned quite a lot about the above said things over the last few weeks. I’ve got Lightroom 4 up and running on my computer and I’m finding out how best to streamline my photo editing and organizing. And I know I’ll continue to learn more about what LR4 can do for my photography ‘habit.’ I’ve also learned that little boys like mud. They really really really like mud. So much that you have to strip them down to their birthday suits in the ‘Tulip Town’ parking lot so they don’t get into the car like dirty muddy piglets. Side note: Roman was born in the Year of the Pig.

I’ve also learned that my 4 year-old should not be left in the living room with his craft scissors (aren’t they supposed to be blunt?) while his parents have a bit of a lie-in lest he starts cutting his hair off. Okay, maybe he did need a haircut and it will grow back, but now my boy has a ‘fade’ on one side of his head and the shortest hair he’s had since he was a baby (the lop-sided mullet he gave himself had to be fixed). I will now cross this experience off my parenting bucket list.

As usual, I am posting to my blog in the wee hours of the morning. I’m still a night-owl, even though I’m actually exhausted with a headache…but I must sleep. I have a lot of kitten and cat editing to do ‘tomorrow’ (adorable photos coming!). It’s also Mother’s Day here in the States; maybe my boy will let me sleep in bed a bit longer as a treat (and if I bribe him probably). And yes, I have hidden the scissors.

Happy Mama’s Day, everyone!!!

xo ~ K

Tulip Town


Proud Muddy Piglet

Kitty’s ‘Good Side’ | Seattle Cat Photography 

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It has been one of those weeks!! So today’s photos are kind of inspired by some of the feelings that we all have when we’re tired and weary, and certainly don’t want a camera in our face. Many people ask how I get the cats that I photograph to pose for me and how I capture their many pretty sides; it usually takes shooting off quite a few photos of my feline friends to give me the ‘money shot’, especially since cats are generally not as inclined to cooperate compared to dogs and people.

Well, like us self-conscious humans, animals appear to have their ‘not-so-pretty’ moments that they might not appreciate me sharing with you, but I happen to think they’re still adorable. I always see a lot of character behind these funny, perturbed and ‘why are you flashing that camera thing in my face’ looks.

And of course I do know that it’s only us silly homo-sapiens that care about what we look like to the world around us. I take the photos at the cat rescue so that I show off the cats’ best ‘side’ so that a potential adopting home may be drawn to the animal by their profile picture online (match-making at its finest and most useful, I’d say). Sometimes it’s the quirks and imperfections that make us/them more appealing anyway.

I also need to get beyond my own need to look half-way good in every photo of me, and let (aghast!) more be taken especially of me and Roman; I take so many of everyone else around me, that from my photo albums you’d think I didn’t really exist. But until then, everyone may sometimes see some of these looks appearing on my face in photos. I will post smiles and pretty things soon, but I hope these at least  give you a chuckle.

xo  ~ K

PS. Feel free to comment with your own captions for these photos!! I’d love to see what you’ve got.


This much is certain: when a man is happy, happy to the core and root of beatitude, he is no longer conscious of himself or anything else. ~ Meister Eckhart