It’s Friday, which means it’s “Photo Friday” here at The B-Town Blog, and today we’re featuring Burien Photographer Rosemary Bannon Tyksinski, PhD, who goes by the Flickr name “Preconscious.”

A longtime Burien resident (36 years), Rosemary says she “loves the 3 P’s: Philosophy, Psychology, and Photography.”

She’s a Doctor of Psychology, and has been practicing in Bellevue since 1991 (more info on her practice here: www.rosemarys-office.com).

Rosemary shot the following wonderful, moody images at Seahurst Park Beach between 4:55pm – 5:30pm on Feb. 21st using a Canon EOS 5D Mark II with a 24-105mm lens set at 24mm at F/4 ISO 100:

Click to Play Preconscious’ Slideshow

(can also be viewed on Flickr by clicking here)

PREVIOUS PHOTO FRIDAYS:

• Michael Brunk Goes to the Woodland Park Zoo
• “Springtime In Burien” Nature Photos By Francis Zera
• SoundSlideshow Of Jason Smith’s Photos At Vino Bello
• Art Clock Sign Reflection, Cherry Blossoms & More…

[EDITOR'S NOTE: Photo Friday is a new weekly feature here at The B-Town Blog. Are you a local Photographer? Have some pics shot in Burien you think we should showcase? Or just some amazing photos worth sharing with our Readers? Please email us a link and explanation and we'll consider posting yours!]

During Sunday’s Cove to Clover 5k fundraiser race, we had two Photographers shooting throughout the entire race, with Publisher/Editor Scott Schaefer manning the starting line, Snake Hill and St. Francis, and Michael Brunk stationed at the finish line.

Overall, we shot 2,461 photos (but who’s counting?) many of which included some of the more than 1,000 runners who ran the race.

In a perfect world of internet goodness, we’d be able to email your pic to you instantly and automatically based on your registration number. This online utopia would instantly send a high-res image of YOU taken during the race, or perhaps even print it and have it waiting in a nice frame on your porch as you returned home.

But, alas, we do not yet live in this perfect online utopia now do we? So, get your worn-out feet back to the real world, and wake up to the best we can do right now – as of 9:30pm Sunday night (Mar. 14), we are currently still uploading images to this “2010 Cove to Clover 5k Run” Group Pool on Flickr (it only lets us upload 500 at a time):

http://www.flickr.com/groups/2010covetoclover5krun/pool/

Now if you’ve never used Flickr before, it’s pretty easy – click on the link above and you’ll go the the Group Pool’s page. Once there, you’ll see a bunch of images. Hundreds, if not 2,461 of ‘em, but who’s counting?

Here’s what to do:

• In the upper right of the page, you’ll see a “Slideshow” icon.
• If you click on that it’ll start a slideshow of the pics.
• You can move through the show faster using your > key.
• Go through the pics until you see yours.
• Click on your pic. The slideshow should stop.
• Now, in the upper right corner you’ll see the file name of the image. Click on that.
• Now you should be on a page that shows just that image.
• Click on “All Sizes” which is located above the pic, kind of in the middle.
• Then click on “Original Size,” and right-click on Download the Original size and “Save As” the pic to your computer.
• The “original size” image can be printed, emailed, etc.

DISCLAIMER: Hopefully we took a pic of you and posted it. If not, we apologize – it’s quite a challenge! This is our first time shooting so many people at one event, and surely we can do better. Also, note that not all images have been uploaded yet, so be sure to check back Monday, as our magic photo elves are working as fast as they can.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Unfortunately, we do not have the full race results ready to post yet – please check back for that Monday as well!

And now, here’s round #1 of our choice pics from the day:

It’s Friday, which means it’s “Photo Friday” here at The B-Town Blog, and today we’re featuring Photographer Michael Brunk’s mid-week excursion to the Woodland Park Zoo, where he captured numerous exotic animals on pixels.

As some animals awakened from their mild winter hibernation, Michael was there, telephoto lens and monopod at the ready, to get these great shots:

Click to View Michael Brunk’s Photo Slideshow

PREVIOUS PHOTO FRIDAYS:

• “Springtime In Burien” Nature Photos By Francis Zera
• SoundSlideshow Of Jason Smith’s Photos At Vino Bello
• Art Clock Sign Reflection, Cherry Blossoms & More…

[EDITOR'S NOTE: Photo Friday is a new weekly feature here at The B-Town Blog. Are you a local Photographer? Have some pics shot in Burien you think we should showcase? Or just some amazing photos worth sharing with our Readers? Please email us a link and explanation and we'll consider posting yours!]

The days are getting longer, the sky brighter, flowers are starting to bloom, bugs are coming out and its Photo Friday – what better way to celebrate the coming days of Spring than by celebrating with a stunning “Springtime In Burien” photo slideshow by area Pro Photographer Francis Zera?

This set of amazing macro nature photos is Exhibit A in why we love Photography – through the eye of a talented artist like Francis, one can see things that you normally might not notice, and see it in a beautiful new way.

According to Francis, who shot these pics Wednesday:

Today’s brief spell of late-afternoon sunshine got me thinking about spring, and I had an opportunity to wander around a private garden on the east side of Burien.

The plants and trees were just starting to bloom, and I found some pretty interesting stuff, including this insect that was swimming around in a dewdrop that was poised on a new tulip leaf.

This little guy appears to be a Hypera zoilus Kaldari, aka Clover Leaf Weevil, swimming in a dewdrop. According to the Wikipedia entry, they seem to prefer dry places to wet, so I’m thinking it might have been simply unlucky enough to have been nailed by a big raindrop and subsequently trapped inside the droplet by the surface tension.

It was still alive when I photographed it, and was moving around within the confines of the droplet.

For those technically inclined, I was using a Canon 5D Mark II with a 180mm f/3.2 macro lens.

Here’s Francis’ stunning spring slideshow:

Click to View Francis Zera’s Photo Slideshow

Francis Zera is a professional architectural and commercial photographer, as well as Co-president, Seattle/Northwest chapter, American Society of Media Photographers. See his portfolio at http://www.zeraphoto.com or follow him on Twitter here: http://www.twitter.com/zeraphoto. Francis can be reached at 206-659-ZERA.

“Getting the pictures you meant to take” is the slogan for the latest advertiser to The B-Town Blog – The Photo Junkie Project. Self-proclaimed photo junkie and local mom, Heather Mathias, created The Photo Junkie Project, an online photo retouch service.

Heather is a photographic artist with over 10 years experience in graphic design, digital photo manipulation, and traditional photography, including photo exhibition and darkroom/photo lab work. Not only does Heather love pictures, she also loves to help people.

After becoming a mom, Heather thanked her lucky stars she knew Photoshop. She could turn that “perfect” picture into a “masterpiece” by eliminating the toy-ridden living room in the background. She could brighten up the “cutest picture ever”, that was unfortunately taken on the day the camera flash decided not to work. She could even be creative in the way she sent pictures to family. For example, one Christmas, everyone in Heather’s family received a refrigerator magnet depicting her one-year old as a DJ grooving on a toy music station.

Heather’s love of photography has allowed her to turn her archive of pictures into fun projects for family, friends…and herself. “It has become an obsession that only grandparents can truly appreciate,” jokes Heather. But in all seriousness, Heather feels her photo projects have been the best way, and the most fun way, to keep her family that lives in the Mid-West involved in her daughter’s life here in Burien.

Now Heather would like to help other people with their photo projects. Whatever the subject may be…family pictures, vacation shots, random snapshots of interesting and unique things, eBay/Craigslist items…and whatever the project may be, Heather would like to help you get the pictures you meant to take.

Heather’s online retouch service, The Photo Junkie Project, offers a range of services from simple touch-ups to complex manipulations. Pictures can be cropped, color corrected, and brightened or darkened. Items can even be added or subtracted from a picture; and entire photographs can be manipulated.

The Photo Junkie Project also offers a resize service, which can open the window to different ways of displaying your favorite pictures; for instance, in a locket, a wallet sleeve, or a circular photo frame – or transformed into a refrigerator magnet!

Prices are well below professional photo lab standards, which can be upwards of $75/hour; but the quality is not.

Heather is constantly developing ways to help other people with their photo projects. So if there is a service you are interested in, but you do not see it listed on the website, just email in a request. The Photo Junkie Project is here to help.

The Photo Junkie Project
www.photojunkieproject.com

Heather Mathias
heather@photojunkieproject.com
206.431.3001

[Would you like to have a “Blogvertorial” Ad and/or Event Listing like this on a popular, fast-growing website seen by nearly 50,000 interested Local Readers every month? Email us for more info, or check out our Advertise page!]

Since it’s Photo Friday here at The B-Town Blog, what better way to continue our exploration of one of our favorite arts than by showcasing an interview done by one Photographer (Francis Zera) with another (Jason Smith)?

Seattle photographer Jason Smith recently opened a show of his work at Burien’s Vino Bello (636 SW 152nd St.). Jason works as a photographic printer, as in, the old-school method of making prints using darkrooms, enlargers, vats of stinky chemicals, and fiber-based archival papers. There’s nothing digital about the work in this show, but that doesn’t make it anachronistic, rather, the prints offer a timeless look at ordinary (and sometimes extraordinary) objects and situations.

Professional Photographer Francis Zera was fortunate enough to be able to spend some time with Jason as he hung the art at Vino Bello, as well as during the show’s opening night, where he took some time to talk about his inspiration for the show, which we now present in this SoundSlideshow:

Click to Play Francis Zera’s SoundSlideshow

by Scott Schaefer

On Friday afternoon (Feb. 19th), it was such a spring-like winter’s day that I decided to take a long walk around downtown Burien and go on a “photo safari.”

Armed with my trusty yet tres’ portable Olympus DSLR E-450, with my fave 50mm prime lens mounted, I set off and started shooting.

Some of you may have even seen me out and about, as I recall being honked at by at least two cars (hopefully they were both friendly honks and not “get the flip out of the way” ones).

After returning to our office and unloading the camera (I took 126 pics in about 1.5 hours’ time) and reviewing the shots, one kept popping up at me – of Kim David Hall’s “Art Clock” on SW 152nd, with the reflection of Vino Bello’s sign from across the street in the face:

While the reflection may look superimposed, it’s not – and if you look closely you can see how the clock body itself is out of focus and overexposed. That’s because the camera’s metering system latched onto the reflection, and both focused and set the exposure for that. Pretty cool.

For all you photo nerds out there, here’s some of the pic data:

• Camera: Olympus E-450
• Exposure: 1/4000 sec
• Aperture: f/2.0
• Focal Length: 50 mm
• ISO Speed: 400

(and BTW, yes Michele…you have my permission to display this print in your wine bar! Oh, and be sure to go to the Animals First Foundation fundraiser and see Woodrish there tonight!)

Okay, since I’m in a photo mood, here are some others I shot today around downtown B-Town – click on images to see larger versions:

So…do YOU have any interesting photos you’d like to share with our readers on “Photo Friday”? If so, either email them to us here, or upload them to our Flickr Group here.

Burien Photographer Jennifer Leone’s first public showing of her work will start this Sunday, Feb. 21st and run for seven weeks at the Fireside Cafe and Gallery in Kent.

The showing kicks off with an open house this Sunday from 3pm to 6pm at the cafe and gallery, which is located at 12010 SE 240th Street on Kent’s East Hill (adjoining Kent Covenant Church). A number of mounted and framed large-format prints will be on display, as well as a selection of matted prints.

Jennifer’s photos will be on display through April 9th.

The Fireside is open Monday through Friday 9am – 5pm, and Sundays 8:30am – Noon. Baristas are on hand Monday through Thursday, from 9am – 11am.

Samples of Jennifer’s work can be found online at http://jennslens.zenfolio.com/.

Through the end of February, online orders are eligible for 10% off the entire order in celebration of the Fireside opening – use coupon code FIRESIDE221 at checkout.

Here’s Jenn’s “artist statement” from her website:

My photography has been an on-and-off thing until this past year, when my life was uprooted and I was left to dig myself out of my own dirt. It’s taken on a life of its own, as I learn more and practice more it yields me better results. I’m hoping to fill out my skeletal portfolio with more than just scenic and personal-interest shots (my two tabby/torbie kitty sisters, Grynne and Bearrett, butterflies, flora, and light capture) with people and abstract/action shots… In short, something more than personal eye candy.

Here’s a sample of Jenn’s work:

Our friend Shelli Park of White Center for the Arts tells us that their one-year anniversary is fast approaching, and they’ll be celebrating it at their Third Saturday Art walk on Saturday, Feb. 20th, from 6pm to 9pm in various businesses in White Center.

The photo at left was shot by Brian Barr, whose work will be on display at WCFTA’s new community gallery, DREAM.

Here are the details:

WHAT: WCFTA monthly Art Walk, celebrating their one-year anniversary.

WHEN: Saturday, Feb. 20th, from 6pm to 9pm.

WHERE/FEATURING:

• Salvadorean Bakery: Chuck Northcutt – photography on canvas
• Café Rozella: Carole Ellis – photography
• Triangle Tavern: Chase Evans – Spoken Word @ 6:15 DJ sets @ 7:00
• Full Tilt Ice Cream: Julie Luke – Acrylic on Canvas
• Proletariat Pizza: Baso – photography
• Dzul Tattoo: Urban and Tattoo Art
• Dream Community Gallery: Fusion Dance Crew @ 6:30; Brian Barr – Portraits of White Center; Amanda Helmick – Mixed Media; Amanda Pickerel-Winer – paintings
• Big Al Brewing: Raina Anderson – photography
• DubSea Café: Hye Young Kim – dyed yarn and acrylic, Micheal Olson – DJ –reggae/dub plus more!

INFORMATION: More info available at www.whitecenterforthearts.org.

And here’s a letter regarding accomplishments made during WCFTA’s first year:

“Dear Lovers of Art in White Center,

White Center for the Arts (WCFTA) believes that the White Center community’s rich tapestry of culture and local arts should be shared with everyone. Our work to establish a permanent home for the arts in the neighborhood is off to a great start! In the past six months we:

• Established an after-school art program in the local Highline District Middle and High School
• Established the Third Saturday Art Walk, exhibiting more than 25 local artists in 9 months time.
• Are hosting Community Artists Meetings to open the lines of communication
• Established a working relationship with local, county, and state arts organizations and continue to identify and foster new partnerships within the community to create a web of services and support for artists and youth.
• Partnered with the YWCA at Greenbridge to showcase local artists in the lobby on a quarterly basis, and are working with Youth Media Institute and the Highline School District to implement non-violent extracurricular creative youth activities in the schools and in the White Center Downtown Business District.

But we have more work to do, and we are in urgent need of your support so that we can create the anchor of our vision and visiability, DREAM Community Gallery. We are asking for a small donation of $10.00 from 100 people, a $15.00 donation from 55 people, and 10 $100.00 donations. You will be supporting the entire White Center Cultural Community, helping to give visibility to local artists in all media, ages, and neighborhoods. A gift right now will assure that WCFTA can continue on our mission to be a catalyst for the coming together of the arts and cultural community of White Center. The time has come for a permanent home for the arts in White Center. Our current projects are:

• DREAM, a Community Gallery sustained by an in-house Coffee House, providing un-juried exhibition space for local artists and performers, and providing a safe gathering place, and empowering activities, for youth
• Development of our arts education programming
• Collection of oral histories and artifacts for a permanent local history collection
• Facilitating cross medium and cross cultural collaborations, and continuing to bring positive business to White Center through the Art Walk

We appreciate gifts of any amount, and in return WCFTA is working hard to promote art and culture in the daily life of White Center residents. We are to receive a $5,000 grant. We need more to open our Community Gallery by February 20^th, the first anniversary of White Center for the Arts. We have scheduled two dance performances, a musician, and two artists for the evening of February 20^th, and they are counting on your gift to help make this happen. When combined with the work of our dedicated volunteers, established, emerging, and students artists, the community as a whole will benefit from seeing our mission to bring art, and the celebration of culture and heritage to all of White Center and its neighbors, succeed.

To give a tax deductible donation, visit our website: http://www.whitecenterforthearts.org/

Sincerely,
Shelli Park
Chair, White Center for the Arts

P.S. You may be fortunate enough to have an employer that will match your gift. This is a great opportunity to give maximum impact with your gift to White Center for the Arts.

Even if you don’t live in White Center, but know that this is a worthy cause, please donate and know that you are supporting strong work in a beautiful community.”

(Photo by Brian Barr)

We’re huge fans of Photography here at The B-Town Blog, and while we are only rarely able to achieve it, we always appreciate it, honor it, and encourage others to experience it.

I mean, have you ever really thought about Photography? How it’s almost a kind of magic that can capture a moment in time and turn it into beautiful art? And how cool it is that in this nascent digital age that more and more magical moments are being captured by more people than ever before?

Nah…neither did we.

But seriously, that’s why we’re promoting a show opening Friday night, Feb. 12th, at Vino Bello, featuring Jason Smith, a Seattle-based photographic printer. This guy’s done tons of work for other artists, much of which has been exhibited internationally, and now it’s his turn to display his own hand-processed and hand-printed true black-and-white images right here in Burien.

Here are the details:

WHAT: Jason Smith Photographic Exhibit.

WHEN: Open reception is Friday night, Feb. 12th from 6pm – 9pm.

WHERE: Vino Bello, located at 636 SW 152nd in downtown Burien.

Well, 2009 was a year wasn’t it? And now that it’s over, it’s time for us to find another way to reflect on it – this time courtesy Photographer Michael Brunk, who put together a special SoundSlideshow of what he considers the best B-Town Blog photos of the year, as shot by himself, Scott Schaefer, Francis Zera, Maureen Hoffmann, Janet Grella and Gregory Rehmke:

Click to Play Michael Brunk’s SoundSlideshow

Story & Photos by Scott Schaefer

Welcome to Dia de las Muertes de Burien – The B-Town Blog’s “Day of the Dead” tribute to Burien’s earliest, and sadly, mostly forgotten settlers, who are buried in a place most residents don’t even know exists.

This is the story of the area’s oldest graveyard, a private, historic and rundown place on South 200th called Hillgrove Cemetery.

You won’t find Hillgrove on many maps, because, like its 360 residents, it’s no longer living. It’s private, it’s fenced off, yet once you look at the chain link barrier and barbed wire, it’s obvious that people find ways to get in to do whatever living people do in graveyards full of dead strangers.

We too found our way into Hillgrove recently (how could we not this time of year?), and despite forgetting to wear boots (our Chuck Taylors got soaked but oddly, we didn’t care) yet managing to be very careful and respectful, we took numerous photographs, which we built into a “Sound Slideshow” to a public domain song from 1910, the era when this site was in its heyday.

But before we present our photographic and audio tribute, we’d like to share our personal observations of Hillgrove:

It was a sad place, and not just because it was full of dead bodies – it’s in disrepair, with missing, crooked and broken tombstones, years of neglect and evidence of vandalism.

Historic, old graves with unique stone markers ranging from the earliest burial (at least that we saw) in 1890 to the most recent in 2005. Some tombstones have been restored, while many are clearly without any markings (several we discovered only by stepping into indentations in the grass).

Here’s some info on it courtesy Highline Historical Society Executive Director Cyndi Upthegrove:

Hillgrove Cemetery is owned by the Hillgrove Cemetery Association, comprised of the remaining families that own the property.  I don’t believe anyone famous is buried there, but a large number of local pioneer families are.  It is in disrepair because the people that remain of those families are quite elderly and cannot physically maintain it themselves, and the city of SeaTac and the Port won’t maintain it because it isn’t theirs. SeaTac has occasionally mowed for them and helped to build a retaining wall at the left entrance when the bank slumped one time and remains started spilling out.

From what I understand, there are about 360 souls there. They consist of veterans from both the North and the South from the Civil War, the Spanish American War, both WWI and WWII, Korea and the first Iraq War.  Their extended families are also buried there.

About 12 years ago a teacher at Highline HS teaching at-risk students taught a local history class and they really responded to it.  These were very bright students “at risk” of dropping out.  So she took them over to the cemetery to show it to them and they told her, “We know about this place. We come over here to drink.” Together with her, the Society acquired a grant to pay for her project. So she got them to clean it up as a class project.  They dug up buried headstones, mowed, learned about the people buried there, mapped it and  tended it for a couple of years.  After they had invested so much time and care into it, they wouldn’t let anyone else go in there and mess with it.

The most recent, from 2005.

Then they graduated and moved on, and she quit teaching that class and things kind of reverted to how they were.  We have retained some of the records and the Association has the rest.

Recently a paranormal investigation group contacted me to see if they could go in and look for ghosts.  I referred them to the Association and I think they did some kind of investigation there, but we weren’t given their results. Occasionally a Boy Scout will work there building benches, or mowing and grooming the place as an Eagle Scout project.

We did several bus tours of “The historic sites of Highline” a few years ago and Hillgrove was a stop on the tour.  People found it very interesting. I have always wished that we could engage the various cities and veterans groups to hold their Memorial and Veteran’s Day commemorations there rather than in schools and community centers, but other heads prevail.

I have always wished I had the funding for the Society to take care of the place for the community, but I don’t.

Walking around a decaying graveyard isn’t really creepy, or new to us – in college we used to visit one that was near our house, and this Reporter has always been fascinated with the dead and how the living treat them. Especially Hispanic culture and their “Day of the Dead” festivities, which involve spending the night in graveyards, setting up elaborate altars, offering food, wearing bizarre (and to me, really cool) costumes, and believing that, for one night on Nov. 2nd, their dearly departed dead relatives and loved ones come back and visit with them.

With those sentiments in mind, here’s our “SoundSlideshow” tribute to Hillgrove Cemetery and the historic people who are buried there, may they Rest In Peace:

Click to Play Scott Schaefer’s SoundSlideshow

From BTB Contributing Photographer Gregory Rehmke comes this gorgeous shot of Monday morning’s sunrise over Lake Burien – a great image to help you focus yourself for the start of another week:

We usually only post sunset pics when they’re spectacular, and Wednesday night’s (Oct. 7th) was no exception – lots of purple, orange, blue, red and…GREEN???

How often do you see green sunsets on this planet?

Here’s a photo taken by Scott Schaefer:

(click on image to see larger version)

Painting crews were out Monday morning (Sept. 21st) at Sea-Tac Airport, to paint the 60-foot designator markings on the end of the longest runway as the Port of Seattle prepares to reopen it after a summer-long reconstruction.

The painting is part of the finishing touches on the project which is scheduled to reopen by the end of this month.

BTB Photographer Francis Zera was there and shot these photos:

Click to View Francis Zera’s Photo Slideshow

Here’s some info on the runway from the Port of Seattle:

The original runway was built in 1944 and was extended several times to reach the current size of 11,901 feet. The reconstruction project completes a comprehensive rebuilding of the entire runway – from runway lights to the concrete pavement itself. The new 20-inch thick runway, and adjoining taxiways, required 120,000 cubic yards of concrete. In comparison, 65,000 cubic yards of concrete was used for the Third Runway [only 8,500 feet long and 17-inches thick].

Located at each end of the runway for identification by approaching aircraft, runway markings will read 16L on the north end and 34R on the south end. Numbers are determined by the compass location of the runways and their alignment with the two other runways (right, center, and left).

On Friday night (Aug. 7th), Burien Arts premiered their latest exhibit “Northwest Perspectives” at the Burien Art Gallery, and our new Photographer/Sound Designer Nicholas Johnson was there to capture this Sound Slideshow:

(press the > “Play” button above to activate the slideshow)

“Northwest Perspectives” continues through Aug. 30th, and is part of Burien Arts’ first annual Aperture August photography show, and along with the work of established photographers Josef Scaylea and Jerry Gay, also features emerging artists Zeb Andrews and Tess Logan.

Jerry Gay’s Pulitzer Prize winning photograph, “Lull in the Battle” (seen below) was taken in 1975 in Burien, near Three Tree Point (on Maplewild Ave SW – see a map here) of local firefighters taking a break while battling a difficult house fire:

The Burien Art Gallery is located at 421 SW 146th Street in Burien (the blue house in Dottie Harper Park) and is managed by Burien Arts, a local non-profit with a more than 40-year history and a mission to provide innovative arts programming to the communities of the Burien/Highline region.

The Burien Art Gallery hours are:

• Thursday, Friday and Sunday from 12-4
• Saturday from 11-5
• By appointment

For more information, please contact Burien Arts at 206-244-7808.

Burien Arts is presenting “Northwest Perspectives,” a show featuring works by two legendary northwest photographers (Josef Scaylea and Jerry Gay) as well as two newcomers, from Aug. 7th through Aug. 30th, with a free opening reception on Friday Aug. 7th from 7pm-9pm.

According to Executive Director Erin Williamson, photographer Jerry Gay will be on hand at Friday night’s reception.

This is part of the organization’s first annual Aperture August photography show, and along with the work of established photographers Scaylea and Gay, will also feature emerging artists Zeb Andrews and Tess Logan.

Jerry Gay’s Pulitzer Prize winning photograph, “Lull in the Battle” (seen below) was taken in 1975 in Burien, near Three Tree Point (on Maplewild Ave SW – see a map here) of local firefighters taking a break while battling a difficult house fire:

Josef Scaylea, whose daughter Michele lives in Burien and helped put together the show, was Jerry Gay’s mentor and friend. Mr. Scaylea (who passed away in 2004) was the chief photographer for The Seattle Times and anyone who visits the gallery will recognize his iconic Northwest images.

Josef Scaylea’s photographs were always true to his vision.

“I strive for beauty in its myriad forms and for faithful reproduction which will carry a special message to each person,” he said. “I believe photography cannot be effective unless it is completely honest and without gimmicks.”

As fits his immigrant heritage from the village of La Costa in the mountains of Northern Italy, simplicity, focus, and dedication to hard work were hallmarks of his life and his photography. He grew up working from dawn until dusk in the family orchard in South Glastonbury, Connecticut.

His gutsy immigrant traits led him to leave the farm to study photography in New York in the mid thirties. Serving in the Army Air Corps in World War II, he photographed missions over Japan, Okinawa and the Philippines. Stationed at Paine Field and Moses Lake, WA, he discovered the great Northwest, vowing to make it home. He never left his Northwest home until he died in 2004 at the age of 91.

Chief Photographer for The Seattle Times for 35 years, he won awards from Look, Life, Graflex, and the National Press Photographers Association. He taught and mentored many aspiring photographers, including Jerry Gay, who became a Pulitzer Prize winner. However, his greatest satisfaction was the joy his photographs brought to his viewers. Until shortly before his death, his camera was still in his hand – at the ready for the next great shot – photographing the sports, the people and the great scenic Northwest he so loved.

Many of the iconic Northwest scenes photographed by Mr. Scaylea during his long career will be on display at the Burien Art Gallery alongside the award winning work of Pulitzer Prize winner, Jerry Gay.

Photojournalist Jerry Gay has driven 500,000 miles of America’s back roads and highways over 40 years to continue his ongoing research of everyday life. With humor and acute philosophical perceptions, this highly acclaimed motivational speaker brings his visual and verbal insights to every audience he touches.  Jerry’s pictures and philosophy convey a positive and persuasive analysis to help us find hope and see solutions to the unique challenges we face in this ambiguous universe.  Jerry’s wisdom, his reverence for the earth, common people and sacredness of all life are revealed in his pictures, written editorials and public speaking presentations.

Jerry Gay’s achievements and recognitions span the length of his multi-media career. At age 28, Jerry won the Pulitzer Prize for news photography and the following year he served as president of The National Press Photographers Association.  A graduate and former instructor at the internationally acclaimed Brooks Institute of Photography, he’s shared his photographic talents with newspapers nationwide including:

• New York Newsday
• The Seattle Times
• St. Paul Pioneer Press
• Los Angeles Times
• Maui News
• Everett Herald

On occasion, Jerry Gay has self-assigned himself to create unique opportunities for small community promotions.  As an activist and multi-media artist Jerry has worked in three year segments with both the cities of Blaine and Roslyn creating social commentary and artistically expressive humanitarian projects.

Buttressing the work of these two well-known artists are emerging photographers, Zeb Andrews and Tess Logan.

Zeb has lived his entire life in the Pacific Northwest, so there is little surprise that he became interested in photographing its many natural splendors. Bitten by the photography bug a little over six years ago while hiking in the Columbia River Gorge, Zeb tries to combine his love for the outdoors with his passion for photography.

Zeb often travels with a small assortment of cameras to help capture places in creative and new ways, be it with a plastic Holga, a wooden pinhole or a Pentax 6×7 loaded with Ortho or Infrared film. Despite this small armament of equipment, he firmly believes that the most important things happen behind the camera, not in it.

“The entirety of my work week is also spent immersed in photography, working at Blue Moon Camera and Machine in North Portland,” he said. “Much of my inspiration has come from the photographers and photography I see circulate through on a daily basis, and I in turn enjoy passing as much of that along with my own photography as I can.”

A Northwest Native, Tess Logan received her BA with Honors from the prestigious Central Saint Martins College, part of the University of the Arts London. She has studied painting, sculpture, and photography at institutions in Europe and the western US. Ms. Logan was involved in a variety of group exhibitions in London including shows at the Westbank Gallery, and in the 2004 “Art in Mind – Part 2, 3, and 4.” She has had several solo shows in Portland, Oregon, including at the MC Salon Gallery, ArtSlate and the Portland Center Plaza. Last June she was in her first show since moving to Los Angeles at the Hangar Gallery. Her work is part of several private collections, both locally and overseas.

The Burien Art Gallery is located at 421 SW 146th Street in Burien (the blue house in Dottie Harper Park) and is managed by Burien Arts, a local non-profit with a more than 40-year history and a mission to provide innovative arts programming to the communities of the Burien/Highline region.

The Burien Art Gallery hours are:

• Thursday, Friday and Sunday from 12-4
• Saturday from 11-5
• By appointment

For more information, please contact Burien Arts at 206-244-7808.

[EDITOR'S NOTE: As a young photojournalist, Jerry Gay's "Lull in the Battle" became an iconic style I strived to emulate, but never could. Josef Scaylea's nature photos and portraits were amazing, and I even still have his book on photography. To have both of these incredible "eyes" in the same show in Burien, with the change to meet Mr. Gay, is very exciting news.]

by Julia Wight

Here comes summer, along with the latest art show at the Burien Art Gallery. This time avant-garde meets heart warming watercolors and superb photos. In other words, here is something for everyone.

In the main gallery, it’s fun to watch people’s reaction to the work of sculptor Timea Tihanyi. One visitor asked me if they were remodeling. Timea has converted mundane objects that barely attract our attention into sewn soft cut felt sculptures that make us question what is art and hopefully start us thinking about how we perceive our environment.

In the other room in the main gallery, Yann Novak offers an example of “performance art.” He has responded to that particular space in creating a line of pillows facing an alcove that reminds him of a stage. Two small loudspeakers flank either side of the alcove when turned on emit an indistinguishable sound that lasts for 8 minutes. In a written explanation he addresses his fear of the perfect impossible performance.

For a complete change of art landscape we ascend the stairs welcomed by two light infused paintings by water colorist Sue Ellen Huff. Her work covers subject matter from still lives containing exquisite sunflowers and gleaming blue glass to landscapes with people, a gaggle of geese and interesting treatment of water. I would urge any student of watercolors not to miss this exhibit.

In her photographs, Chris Gowers chooses nature as her source of inspiration. She creates straightforward prints or gives us heady compositions that morph into abstract art through her skillful eye and digital treatments.

Some of Tom Fletcher’s photos leave me breathless in their exquisite rendition. His treatment of a calla lily is simply high art. Widely traveled, his subject matter is a feast for the eyes including some small prints of fruit and vegetables.

Downstairs in the annex, Highline High School artists present a high level of talent with a powerful mix of collage (torn paper), penciled still life, photography and mixed media.

The Burien Art Gallery is located at 421 SW 146th Street in a little blue house in Dottie Harper Park:

• Phone: 206-244-7878
• Email: info@burienarts.org
• Hours: Wed. 4pm through Noon Sunday

The annual Spring Art Stroll and Plant Sale was this past weekend, and Photographer Michael Brunk was there to capture these photos:

Click to View Slideshow

Thursday, May 7th saw a rather blustery 2009 opening day of the Burien Farmers Market, and B-Town Photographer Michael Brunk was there to capture these photos:

Click to View Slideshow

Photo taken by Scott Schaefer, on a recent cold spring night in Olde Burien:

The amazingly cool 360-degree view of the new Tukwila Sound Transit Link Station is courtesy Burien’s own Francis Zera Photography / zeraphoto.com, created for his client PCL Construction (requires Quicktime to view; just click and drag your mouse/pointer over the photo and you’ll soon be dizzy from your view).

Speaking of Sound Transit, there’s an Open House this Thursday, Jan. 29th from 4-7pm for the Tukwila Station, and here are the details:

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and Sound Transit (the Central Puget Sound Regional Transit Authority) are issuing an Environmental Assessment (EA) under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for Tukwila Commuter Rail Station.

A public hearing/open house on the Tukwila Commuter Rail Station Project and environmental documentation will be held from 4-7 PM on January 29, 2009 at the Embassy Suites located at 15920 West Valley Highway in Tukwila, Washington.

For further information on the hearing and the project, contact Paul Cornish, Sound Transit Project Manager at (206) 398-5342, or Steve Kennedy, Senior Environmental Planner.

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“Blurry, Snow Bokeh” courtesy Flickr Photog Michael Brunk

Some recaps and updates on this wacky Brrrien snow “event,” which appears to be winding down.

First, this urgent street closure update from the City of Burien, as of 12/18 8pm:

Road conditions
• SW 160th St. closed-Use 8th Ave SW to access Highline Medical Center ER
• Southbound Ambaum Blvd is closed at SW 116th St. One lane is open northbound Ambaum Blvd
• 1st Ave S from SW 152nd St to SW 156th is currently CLOSED
• SW 156th St from 1st Ave SW to 4th Ave SW is currently CLOSED

Burien road conditions are deteriorating. Please drive only if necessary and with extreme caution

Road crews concentrate on getting and keeping primary routes (like 1st Ave S) plowed. Once the snow stops and the primary routes are clear, crews move to the secondary routes and then neighborhood roads. Following the plows are the sanders to provide traction on the ice. Snow plows’ rubber blades do not remove ice.More details about priority routes can be found on our Snow & Ice Routes Map [pdf].

Secondly, tomorrow’s school closures (Fri.12/19) – far as we can tell, every school is closed, so have fun kids:

• Highline Public Schools: CLOSED
• Seattle Public Schools: CLOSED
• John F. Kennedy High School: CLOSED
• St. Francis of Assisi: CLOSED
• Hamlin-Robinson School: CLOSED
• Westside School: CLOSED
• Tukwila Public Schools: CLOSED
• Federal Way School District: CLOSED

Here’s the updated, yet sadly “expired” winter weather advisory (as of 6:19pm 12/18):

... Winter Weather Advisory for Everett and vicinity… the Seattle and Bremerton areas… and the Admiralty Inlet area has expired…

The Winter Weather Advisory for snow is no longer in effect. The snow showers had ended or tapered off to flurries… thus additional significant snowfall accumulation was unlikely.

Precautionary/preparedness actions…

Those planning travel in the advisory area should be prepared for hazardous… winter driving conditions.

And now, some of our personal observations from today:

• This afternoon, we drove to and from Sea-Tac Airport safely, but slowly (and saw lots of idiots speeding around in their SUVs…d’oh!)
• In our ‘hood, we saw a dude snowboarding behind a truck (w/no helmet of course). That’s right – the kid was being towed by the truck, sliding around pretty quickly.
• Another guy was cruising around in a snowmobile, towing his kids’ sled behind (if he had a glowing red schnauze we woulda yelled “Slow down Rudolph!”)
• Favorite snow prank of the day: telling our kids to stand under a snow-covered tree and look up under the branches closely (“there’s something really cool up there”), then tossing a snowball into the branches, thus causing the accumulated snow to fall onto said children’s faces…ha.

Here are some more BTB Reader pics:

Photographic proof that 5 inches of snow fell in Seahurst Thursday; photo courtesy Stephanie Breslin, who says: “My boyfriend was measuring the snow to let me know how much had fallen since yesterday…not very scientific but I thought it was fun…”

Photo by Carol Morrison, who says: “Chico is the black cat and Nico is the grey cat. I live on 164th Place, which is parallel to Maplewild; we usually have a nice view of Vashon Island but not today!”

Have some snow photos to share?

Please either email us or add ‘em to our Flickr Group so we can share them.

From Flickr Photog Dougerino comes this great Burien-related pic, which he describes as:

Those golden arches were the place to hang out in ‘74, during the short-lived streaking fad.

Have a Burien-related photo you’d like to share with our BTB Readers?

We just created a new “Group” on Flickr, the photo sharing site, and invite all our Readers to join and contribute to it.

You can find it by clicking here.

Once at the Group page, either Sign In if you’ve already regsitered or Sign Up as a new User. Once you’re all logged in, you can upload your general Burien-related photos to the Group, look at the ones we have up there, make slideshows and share them with others.

We then hope to feature photos from our Group Pool on this here blog, with prominent credit given to each Photographer, as well as respect for all copyrights.

Seattle-based Environmental Artist/Photographer Chris Jordan will be speaking tonight (Thursday, Nov. 13th at 7pm) at the Woodmont Branch of the King County Library, located at 26809 Pacific Highway South in Des Moines (phone: 253-839-0121).

Chris Jordan uses digital photography to look at contemporary American culture and consumerism in his current series, Running the Numbers. Jordan will talk about his work, with special attention to his piece Paper Bags 2007, recently installed at the Woodmont Library.

Jordan’s work has been featured on The Colbert Report, Rachel Ray, and Bill Moyers Journal, and you can view some of his amazing work here.

The following quote is from Jordan’s website, www.chrisjordan.com:

Running the Numbers looks at contemporary American culture through the austere lens of statistics. Each image portrays a specific quantity of something: fifteen million sheets of office paper (five minutes of paper use); 106,000 aluminum cans (thirty seconds of can consumption) and so on. My hope is that images representing these quantities might have a different effect than the raw numbers alone, such as we find daily in articles and books. Statistics can feel abstract and anesthetizing, making it difficult to connect with and make meaning of 3.6 million SUV sales in one year, for example, or 2.3 million Americans in prison, or 32,000 breast augmentation surgeries in the U.S. every month.

This project visually examines these vast and bizarre measures of our society, in large intricately detailed prints assembled from thousands of smaller photographs. Employing themes such as the near versus the far, and the one versus the many, I hope to raise some questions about the role of the individual in a society that is increasingly enormous, incomprehensible, and overwhelming.

Here’s a video about Chris that shows the whys, hows and whats of his truly impressive work:

Story and Video by Janet Grella

With the passing of Dick Dahlgard on Wednesday, Nov. 5th, Burien has lost one of its most passionate supporters. So passionate in fact, that he was often referred to as “Mr. Burien.”

While working in sales at the Highline Times, I passed many informative hours sitting in Dick’s very cluttered office at Dick’s Camera and Video on First Avenue in Burien. He’d share Burien’s history and historical artifacts with me and tell me endless stories about the old days. Like most people in Burien, I bought my first camera from Dick (I was over 50, and it was a digital!).

And like most people in Burien, I considered Dick Dahlgard a friend.

As a 1954 graduate of Highline High School, Dick was a treasure-trove of information about the school and area.  When we last spoke, he was busy planning the 55th Reunion of the class of ‘54 which will take place next summer. The only time he was away from Burien was while he was in the service after high school.  He was proud of his kids and their service to our country. Daughter Paige served in the Washington Army National Guard in Baghdad, Iraq, while son Nels is a Marine currently stationed in California.

Among many venues of community service, Dick was the official photographer and promoter of The Hi-Liners from its very beginning; a board member of Discover Burien and past president of Merchants of Burien; and a board member and volunteer of The Highline Historical Society.

He was always proud of his 46-year association with Rotary International, especially the Burien/White Center chapter that meets every Thursday at 12 noon at Angelo’s of Burien. He was so devoted that he never missed a meeting in his entire 46 years.

Wanting to pay tribute to Dick, I caught up with a few local Rotarians Thursday prior to this week’s meeting, tragically the first missed by Dick in 46 years.  Many members were just hearing about his passing when they entered the weekly gathering.

We at the BTB cannot put into words what Dick Dahlgard meant to this community. Here’s what some of his fellow Rotarians and a few community leaders had to say about Dick:

If you’d like to share your thoughts on Dick, please do so in our Comments section below.

NOTE: to prevent spam comments, we kindly ask that if you haven’t yet registered, please register or log in to post a comment.

The Burien Arts Association (BAA) will present an exhibition of paintings and photography by Highline area artists Mark Eaton and Doris Jew Conrath at the Burien Art Gallery, starting Thurs. Oct. 2nd.

The BAA will host an evening reception on Friday, Oct. 3rd, from 7-9pm.

The work emphasizes each artist’s conception of our environment – both the built environment and the natural landscape.

Photographer Doris Jew Conrath earned a BA in Design from the University of California, Berkeley. She has a BFA in photography from Art Center College of Design and studio arts MFA from Cal State Los Angeles and began a career as a freelance photographer and staff photographer at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. Her exhibitions include the Laguna Art Museum and the Santa Monica Museum of Art. She is recipient of a King County Arts Commission and was a2007 Surdna Arts Teacher Fellow. Doris has been a photography instructor with Tacoma Public Schools since 1997.

Painter Mark Eaton was born in Pittsburgh and raised in Seattle. Though he received some education from Cornish College of the Arts and assorted workshops, Mark is largely a self-taught artist. Mark Eaton’s first inkling of his future career came in the first grade when he noticed a classmate drawing secretly during a lesson.  Mark immediately felt that art is what he “came to do.” Now a full-time artist, Mark works primarily in oils employing underpainting and glazing techniques.  His landscape work will be on display at the upcoming show.

Three Artists United painters – Stan Lane, Diane Gardner and Guenter Winkelmann – will also be shown in October and November at the Burien Art Gallery, and the Burien Art Gallery’s Education Annex will feature the work of local art instructors Rob Droessler and Julie Quesnell-Blackmore.

The Burien Art Gallery is located at 421 SW 146th in Burien, and is open from 11am-6pm Wednesday through Friday; 12pm-5pm on Saturday and  12pm-4pm on Sunday.

For further information about this exhibit or the Burien Arts Association, please contact Erin Williamson directly at (360) 609-6864 or via e-mail at erin@burienarts.org or visit their website: www.burienarts.org.

Driving through our soon-to-be-annexed neighbor to the north this morning, we found this fascinating scene of nature vs man: a blackberry weed-like bush growing through a traffic cone on the corner of SW 107th and 21st SW (possibly cultivated that way by a nearby resident):

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Fall officially begins at 8:44am PDT today (Monday, Sept. 22), and what better way to celebrate the season of spiders, colorful leaves and pumpkin slingshots than by taking a look back at summer through this exclusive B-Town Blog slideshow:

Courtesy BTB Contributing Photographer Gregory Rehmke comes another great photo taken Sunday night at Lake Burien of the full moon rising as a jet takes off from SeaTac Airport:

 

The Burien Arts Association is hosting an opening reception this Friday, Aug. 8th, from 7pm-9pm at the Burien Arts Gallery , located at 421 SW 146th Street (amongst the tall trees of Dottie Harper Park) for their latest exhibits, which will feature:

• “Silver & Oil,” described as “Conceptions of Landscape by Photographer John S. Lewis and Painter Michael Croman”
• Art by Burien Artist Chris Stiles in the Lower Gallery (for more info, see his website here)
• Artists United presents Julia Wight, Nancy Chavez and Linda Ladzik in the Upper Gallery
  

Also coming up Sept. 12th at 6:30pm is a free “Artist Talk” featuring Michael Croman and John S. Lewis.

Vitally active since 1965, the Burien Arts Association works in concert with groups, artists and local municipalities to share the experience of art with the members of our communities. They provide gallery space for artists, a vibrant performing arts series in the summer, and periodic arts based events throughout the year.

More info at their website.

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It’s Friday night in July, when the sun sets precisely at 9pm.

What better way to reflect on another spectacular summer week than by visually appreciating another gorgeous sunset, as captured in this photo by B-Town Blog Advertiser and local Realtor Susan Plecko:

Courtesy BTB Reader Christine Halstead comes this scenic photo taken from her Burien home of the Moon rising over Mt. Rainier:

Have a cool photo you’d like to share here?

Email it to us!

Courtesy BTB Reader/Photog Gregory Rehmke comes this great photo taken at Lake Burien, with this note from Greg:

I tried to get a shot with airplane, sailboat and control tower, and only when I saw the picture did I see the blur of a bird next to the distant plane:

Here are two more great pics from Photographer Paul Conrath to ease you into another Tuesday (hey, at least Monday’s history…), this time rather than an amazing early-morning scenic at Eagle Landing Park, here are two stunning shots of a B-Town tear-down:

 

There are some incredibly talented people in B-Town – further proof below in this great photo taken by Professional Photographer Paul Conrath of his daughter starting her climb up the 500 stairs at Eagle Landing Park:

B-Town Blog Advertiser and local Realtor Susan Plecko also just happens to love photographing sunsets, and here’s one of her many gems to start your weekend with:

The B-Town Blog is proud to present more amazing work by local Photographer Cheryl Moorhead, an incredibly talented B-Towner who has taken many superb nature photos.

This week, we’ve got an entire slideshow chock full of everyone’s fave Spring thing, those populous neighbors that outnumber us all – insects!: