I love my city. There is something about Seattle that makes me happy. Sure the months of November, December, January, February, March, April, and on occasion May, June and July can be a little cloudy, but I love this place. The realization came about as I was asked to photograph some local icons of the city for a project, and it sort of got me thinking back to when I first got here and how exciting that move was for me.
I move to Seattle in 1995. It was on a whim. I really didn’t know much about Seattle at all. I new they had Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Soundgarden, the Sonics, Seahawks and Mariners. I also new that Microsoft was up hear. And to be perfectly honest, that was about all I knew. I had recently gotten out of a less than healthy relationship and needed a change. So I loaded up in my little Honda Accord and made the long drive up from Texas. I new the second I saw the skyline that this place was going to be home for a long time (of course I might have said the same about Portland too but that is more of a quantum question at this point).
I am not sure what it is about a city that gets under your skin. I know people from NYC and that is the only city for them, and I’ve know people from Cody Wyoming love Cody. In the end, maybe it just comes down to feeling like you are home.
Sure a lot of things changed over the years. Seattle blew up the Kingdom, the Sonics have moved, Nirvana is just a collection of albums on my machine and they finally started building light rail (airport in 36 mins no traffic–SWEET!). Still, when the plane touches down from a trip and there is a light rain in the air. I take a deep breath and think how much I like being home.
This image is taken out of one of the windows in my office. The elevators seem to take a lifetime to get up to our floor so a lot times I just stare out the window looking down on the city. At times I think about my first job in Seattle when I would ride the bus into downtown for my 6:00am shift on the phones for Adobe tech support. There was something so cool about seeing the city all lit up and bright that mirrored my excitement for being there. While both of us have changed a lot over the years, I think we are still a great couple.
Image taken on an Fuji X100 at ISO 1600 12s at f/8 on Sandisk media
