Reopening Night

The old Northern Lights Lounge at Baked Alaska ended its run on New Year’s Eve.  We were the last paying customers out the door that night.

The bar reopened last night, having been stripped to the bearing timbers and reimagined from the floor up. 

With a view like that one, you’d have to work really hard at having a truly bad space, and this one is more than just “not bad.” 

Being a trivia regular there, I still wonder how that’s going to work, but Friday nights aside, I think the space will work better for the typical customer.

There’s one thing they need to work on, though…

There was always an east-side entrance in the past.  It was a place where diners could come and go if on foot on the Riverwalk, and it also allowed patrons access to the catwalk to take photos of the river pilot boats and/or anything else that was visually exciting upriver.  At the moment, that door is an exit only.

The wait staff is very tolerant of me, and they let me back in if the lock latches behind me.  I think that door is an unrecognized asset, though, and I hope they decide to allow re-entry in the near future. 

Last night was pretty gloomy, but it was the first full day of DST, opening night, etc., so I just couldn’t resist stepping out into the mist to take a few shots of the Connor Foss in the Arrow 2’s old slip and coming back from a run at dusk.  It was drizzling aggressively all evening, so I was grateful for the 77’s weather-sealing!

I’m sure this has been an available view for a few weeks now, but I haven’t seen it before, and it’s a little jarring.  Not bad, really, just very different.  I’ve always thought that the Connor Foss was a good-looking boat, but she’s just not the Arrow 2!

After a pilot-exchange run, well after dusk.  I had to push the ISO way up, as it was very dim.  With the lens opened to f/2.8, I was still pleased with the final result, though it took some Lightroom work to make it happen.

ISO 1600, 40mm @ f/2.8, 1/200.  No crop, but considerable LR tweaking for noise and vignette.

A First Voyage?

I was drawn by good weather to Pier 1 this afternoon.  I’ve missed a lot of the visitors to the log pier, as the old dock opposite it has been in the process of being ripped up and (I hope) refurbished.

I picked my way across the exposed bents to get to a decent vantage point for the first time in months.

The ship that’s tied up, the Swakop, is especially shiny and new-looking, so I checked what I could find about her.  Marinetraffic.com’s info indicates her build date as 2013, and really, that looks plausible.  But there’s other info that indicates that she had a former name, and very few details are available.

I have to guess that the “former name” was a builder’s placeholder, waiting for the buyer to take possession and properly name her. 

Not only is the paint new enough that the crew probably still smells it, there isn’t a single chain-mark on her bow, and her anchor appears to have never seen a harbor’s bottom.  On top of that, she’s got that newfangled (and none-too-pretty plumb bow that’s all the rage in naval architecture these days.

Please Stand By…

My formerly reliable blog-authoring utility has decided that it no longer likes most of the photo file-types that I’ve been using for years.  It’s strange… I haven’t changed anything in the workflow in prepping them for web use, or file-type, or anything, really, but they still won’t display properly.  More to the point, the photos just don’t show up. Period.

It’s true that I haven’t been especially active for the last few weeks, but I’m surely not dead! 

The picture of the Arrow 2 on stilts took three different edit attempts to publish correctly, and that’s just goofy.

This is supposed to be fun, not work.  I’m exploring alternatives now.  I tried one on my other blog and all hell broke loose.  I ended up having to change the look of the entire publication, but it might have been worth the effort. 

Something akin to that may be in the offing here.  Suggestions are welcome.

Scott

I Hope It’s Not a Bad Thing

I hadn’t noticed the Arrow 2 sitting high and dry prior to Monday, and even that was pretty much an accident.

Yes, if you know where to look for her, you can see her as you slip down off the lift span, heading east on the “new” Youngs Bay Bridge, but unless you’re a passenger, you should be paying more attention to the road.

But, there she is.  After 50 years of service, and after becoming (very probably) one of the most-photographed working boats on the planet, she’s perched on spindly blue stilts, awaiting her fate.

After all of these years of watching her and photographing her, Monday was the first time that I ever touched her.  Not knowing what her future holds, I was glad I got the chance.

She has a tremendous following.  I have very high hopes that she’ll end up on a more glorious perch somewhere nearby in years to come. 

For the time being, though, it’s rather sad to see this rugged workhorse out of her element with no clear future ahead of her.

Blue Hour Again

It’s been a very busy day on the river, and I haven’t been able to take much of it in.

By definition, the “blue hour” had been over for at least 20 minutes when I made the shot.

You could fool me!

It’s the Sinar Kutai riding at anchor just west of the Mill Pond area.  I love that the water is brighter than the sky.  There was actually clear sky overhead.  The massive cloud bank topped out a few degrees above the upper edge of the frame.

105mm @ f/8, 4 seconds, ISO 200.

Coming This Saturday

Prints on Display…

Two of the images that I’ve posted here (and seven other non-maritime photos) are currently on display at Astoria’s Baked Alaska restaurant.

The image area on each of the prints us roughly 12 x 18 inches, and all are professionally matted and framed.

Stop by and take a look, if you’re interested.

Scott