Good Morning Tacoma
04/01/2012 – Not a Sunrise, but Rainbows are Pretty Rad
All of the way across the sky. My my oh my god look at that rainbow.
03/28/2012 – Lomosurnise
Just getting some hipster all up in the Tacomas.
03/08/2012 – Whoa, Sun.
It's March~
02/05/2012 – A Sunny Sunday Sunrise on Ruston Way
Just a sunny Sunday sunrise in Tacoma.
And while I'm in the North End...
02/03/2012 – Sunshine, on my Fridays? IMPOSSIBLE!
Two days of sunshine in a row? With more sunshine in the forecast? Heck yes.
02/02/2012 – It’s a Great Day to be Outside… Too Bad it’s Thursday
Oh my! Look at the distinct lack of clouds this fine morning.
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Tacoma’s 2012 Snowmageddon Post
Yes yes the snowmageddon 2012 is here, and here are some photos from it.
It's actually kinda slick out there. Wow-wee.
It's 8:06AM and the busses are getting stuck everywhere.
I kinda like this perspective on the clock tower.
First Presbyterian Church during the WaSnow2012.
Temple Theater during the Snomageddonalypse.
I kinda rushed myself on this one so there's loads of errors in the image.
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- I kinda rushed myself on this one so there’s loads of errors in the image.
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- First Presbyterian Church
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- Temple Theater during the Snomageddonalypse.
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- I kinda like this perspective on the clock tower.
Sea Scouts: Charles N Curtis Dry Dock 2011
Every year, just as spring’s precipitous grasp begins to take hold over the Pacific Northwest the the Sea Scout ship Charles N Curtis is hauled out of the water for it’s yearly service and inspection. It’s crew of 14-21 year old Sea Scouts devote a portion of their spring breaks just to do their part to keep the Charles N. Curtis in the water for another year. That means at least one day of pressure washing, scrubbing, sanding, and painting the bottom of the ship for most. Other, more senior kids are expected to perform even dirtier jobs, like major head (toilet) repairs, packing the grease fittings for the rudders, or climbing through the bilge chasing through hull fittings.
It’s no wonder they’re told to throw their clothes away when they get home.
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Dockyard Derby Dames: Femme Fiannas Promotional Photos
Green mean butt brusin’ machines.
Liquor Makes the Bruisers Better: Dockyard Derby Dames Highlights
If they had some purple wheels we'd have the colors of the rainbow.
Since April of this year I’ve been “on assignment” with the Dockyard Derby Dames of Tacoma, Washington. Things started with a feature writing project for a course at the University of Washington and quickly spiraled out of control. Now the scope of my work includes, travel, video production, and of course – photography. The photos below the fold are some selections from my eight months of work with the Dockyard Derby Dames with just a smidgen of commentary.
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Out with the SWAT Team
For the past two years I have been working with Police Departments in the Pierce County area on various projects. Generally I perform documentation, promotional, and training photographs for events that they host. Most of the time the photographs are pretty mundane documentary photos. People at podiums, crowds, group portraits. Pretty standard photographs.
Every once and a while they throw a curve ball at me. This time the curve ball was Simunitions training session at a local college.
For those who aren’t familiar with Simunitions – they’re soap filled plastic bullets that are fired out of highly modified or dedicated firearms. They’re setup so that is almost impossible to chamber a “real” cartridge, but they’re realistic enough many of the firing aspects of a “real” firearm. Unlike commercial firearms replicas, like airsoft, Simunitions replicate everything from the smell, and feel of a real firearm to the techniques required to repair a malfunction.
These training scenarios are designed to put pressure on the officers, and pit them against a wide range of hand selected volunteers. Some of these volunteers are highly trained combat specialists, while others are individuals who only have a basic level of firearms handling. This wide playing field allows the participating officers to experience the different types of active shooter scenarios that they might encounter.
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Dockyard Derby Dames: Senior Project
Now you’re probably asking yourself “what have you gotten yourself into this time, Ben?” Well I’ll tell you! As part of Chris Demaske’s Feature Writing course at the University of Washington, I am expected to “embed” myself into a group that I have zero affiliation with or prior interest in. Identifying a group was easy thanks to the posters hanging in the commons area that read “Dockyard Derby Dames Flat Track Roller Derby.”
I’ve never even heard of Flat Track Roller Derby, and I thought the whole concept of the Roller Derby died around the time I was born. I guess I couldn’t have asked for a better group to build my project on.
Not wanting to be the creepy guy sitting in the corner watching the skaters practice, I offered my services as a photographer. I must have left a good impression because I’m totally doing some team photos for the Trampires (the team I’m following).
This is just so cool.
Great Northwest Popcorn: Tacoma’s Underground Chocolatier
Great Northwest Popcorn: It’s not just for popcorn, anymore.
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Miso Studios Photographs Sighted in the Wild
Some (n
one) of you might remember that I took some photos at the Annual Pacific Northwest E30 picnic back in June. What most (all) of you probably don’t know is I submitted my work to both the BMW Car Collectors Association (BMW CCA) magazine, Roundel and the Puget Sound BMW CCA Chapter’s magazine, Zündfolge. The kind editors at both magazines felt that my work was worthy enough to be printed among their glossy and semi luster pages for the month of August and published four of my photos in Roundel, and one photo in Zündfolge. If you’re at all interested in what made it to print just check out the photos of my photos at the end of the post.
Pierce College Night Shift Photo Set
Instead of listening to Coast to Coast AM with George Nory during my graveyard shift as a campus safety officer, I decided that spicing my patrol up with ten thousand pounds of camera gear. Although my efforts were mostly fruitless because I actually had real duties to attend to I was still able to gin up a few photos around campus that don’t look like pure butts. It’s all pretty generic long exposure, mediocre architectural work, and light painting but at least it’s not listening to someone ramble on about how the government and the greys are colluding to exchange abductees for cutting edge space laser ray guns. :toot:
Barcamp Tacoma – What a Jolly Good Time!
This past weekend I had the wonderful experience of heading to Tacoma’s first Barcamp at Suite 133. Everyone at the meet up was great and contributed something to the collective learning experience and I hope I can go out and have a beer with the lot again in the near future. Of course, no event like this would be possible without the help of a group of top notch sponsors and I would like to personally thank Topia Technology, Brooks Dental Studio, and Suite133 for their support. Seriously, without you guys #barcamptacoma wouldn’t have been possible.
If you’re at all interested in seeing photographs from this past weekend’s very edumucated shenanigans, perform a quick search on flickr for barcamptacoma and a whole slue of meatpan’s photographs should come up. Also, even though #barcamptacoma 2009 is done there will be plenty of other events to keep an eye out for. Team #barcamptacoma suggested that everyone who happens to be interested in events like this should check out the South Sound Technology Confrence which will be taking place on November 20, 2009.
There’s one final shout out and that’s to Kitsch Stickers for donating the totally kicking rad custom vinyl #barcamptacoma decal that’s on my laptop. Kitsch is just awesome.
EDIT: I’ve been literally asked by nobody what I brought to this year’s barcamp and the answer to that fake question is Parkerization.
I forgot to snag a Suite 133 card. Sorry Guys. (#barcamptacoma sponsors - Suite 133, Topa Technology, Brooks Dental, and Kitsch Stickers)
The 11th Street Bridge
Sidewalk Safe. Keep On.
Show Boatin’ Whippersnappers!
I caught this Cadet showing off his mad M1 Garand spinning skills during the 2009 Daffodil Parade. The fact that he was able to spin that 8lbs rifle without interrupting his salute was rather impressive. Twirl on you twirly teenager.
LOOK AT 'EM GO
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