Pictures I took this morning at Seattle’s new Central Library (and yes, that green IS the correct green… :

I got here early and had to stand outside for about 20 minutes with the others waiting to get in. The first thing I noticed was the weird gritty consistency the concrete at teh entrance had. There were littel sparklies popped up out to give grip. There was also a blackish sand like substance that seemed to collect in the soles of your shoes if you paced too much.

It is ultra hard for a stroller/handicapped person to get in the front. What might have be an alternate to the revolving door was blocked by a PG&E worker. A couple kindly folks helped jam me in and push/pull me through as the stroller skidded sideways through the door.

We finally got in and were able to explore.

In a word, wow. The place is incredible. It’s a photographer’s dream subject, so much substance, flavor, style, and color. I was bummed that even though I left the house with what the camera SAID was a fully charged battery that I got here with one that kept flashing low battey warnings. Not one to tempt fate and lose, I tempered my shooting to hit as many areas as possible instead of stacking shot after shot as I had hoped. We’ll be back again.

I’m writing these entries from the slew of underused public computers on floor 5. 132 in all from the number in the brochure. Maybe 30 or so are being used. I’d like to have gone wireless on my iPaq, but the SSIDs that popped up won’t let me connect. Oh well…

The architecture is amazing. There is an automated belt driven dumb waiter that carreis books and what not between floors. You can get a good look at the entrance off of 4th. The floor on the entry level has poetry, words, and letters in relief on the hard wood. Many differenet langauges are presented.

The inside of the elevators, the escalators, and the stairs are all a very bright lime green, while most of the furniture scattered around is a nice muted orange. The colors play very well off of the exposed steel outside, and teh hardy steel floor that is present throughout much of the building.

One of the coolest features is the spiral. It spans floors 6-9 and allows a user to gradually go from area to area of the collection without needing to use stairs, elevator, or escaltor. You can just slowly spiral down a slightly sloping ramp. All along the way, there are floor mats at each bookcase which show the Dewey Decimal number for a very quick glance at where you are.

The kids area was huge. Kelsey was still asleep so we kind of just cruised through, but there was a play area we might check out if she wakes up before we leave. I have a feeling we’ll be able to spend many an afternoon down here reading, playing, and just hanging out.

We’re off to continue our walk which will take us back to the market where I got early bird parking for the day.

I thought it might be fun to go to the Kerry Rally on the Seattle waterfront this morning. Not being ultra political, and not really knowing if I like Kerry or not (it’s a tough toss up this election) I figured it’d be a good chance to see what his mettles were and where he stood on some of the issues.

I decided not to go after standing in the rain for quite a while. Kelsey kept pulling her hood off, and my coat wouldn’t zip up around her sling. It would have been nice to bring her stroller as it has a really nice rain shield, but I was told I could not bring it, or her diaper bag (no bags at all). Come on. What happened to introducing our childern to the ideals o fdemocracy at an early age? Nope, only if you’re willing to get your kid sick could you go. With her health, that’s a chance that is just not worth it.

It’s a shame that 911 has locked down security at these events so tight that a mouse couldn’t get past the line of officers standing by to stop all random bag carriers (which by the way did nothing about the taxis that were gunning through the crosswalks across Alaskan…) I long for a day where you could go and have a damn picnic on the grass while watching and waiting for the President, much less a hopeful candidate.

There was quite a good turnout though. I was very glad to see that despite the rain there were several hundred folks standing, waiting to get in. Those with more fortitude beat me out. Although I gave up on Democracy for a day, there were several hunded others who di dnot. Some of which I hope are just starting to get involved for the first time.

The funniest part was the signature bombadiers. “Are you a registered voter?”. “Why yes, I am.” “Will you sign this sheet for ?” Geez. There were even lines of people for the same referendum following each other, all asking us one after the other the same thing. It got to a point where when this guy asked me if I was registered to vote I just played it safe and said no. My luck, he was there trying to get people to register, not asking for signatures from those already registered.

Some days you just can’t win…

ADDED:
Apparently, ( umbrellas were also later banned…

A while back I posted about my acceptance as a photographer for iStockPhoto.com. Today I looked at my stats and found that one of my first two photos has been downloaded already. It took about 6 days for my first photos to be accepted, and 4 more for the first download.

I am now officially a stock photographer! Granted, it’s not the major leagues, but I’m quite content with being in the AAAAA league for now.

The shot downloaded is called Starfish at Rest. I took it during an early morning low tide on Second Beach along Washington’s Pacific coast last summer. My wife and I were able to get our friends to volunteer to watch our daughter so we could spend our anniversary alone together.

This shot came from that get away where my wife and I reconnected with our past realtionship and in a way re-found the love we had for each other. What a wonderful segue for a shot from this trip to reconnect me with my passion for photography and creativity.