Words For My Pictures

  The vibrant colors of autumn are a great subject for photographers all over the northern hemisphere. We all have seen hundreds and hundreds of images of fall captured in almost every photography style you can imagine. From landscape to macro photographs the magical season is frozen in millions and millions of pictures every year. Unlike the pictures taken during the seasons, the orange and yellow leafs will fall and give way to the dark gray winter. That is the law of nature!  I didn't know how fall can be breathtakingly beautiful before I moved to the United States. Yes, I have seen many pictures of fall when I was in Ethiopia but I had never imagined that dying leafs will have such beauty. Even though I was not aware of the esthetics of a falling leaf I knew the importance of the symbolism associated with it. Thanks to O Henry's American Classic short story "The  Last Leaf "I was able to envision how a simple phenomenon can be associated with life and death. In hi...

  Here is a picture I took in an antic store in Seattle's Industrial District. For young people who don't know what the classic items in the photo are, they are an analog telephone and a typewriter. How these gadgets work is another topic and we will not go there. Every time I see the picture I go back in time and hear the distinctive sounds that each gadget makes. Those sounds are engraved in me and most of my generation's memories and some of us still cling to those sounds. I don't know anyone who looks back nostalgically to the sound of the typewriter unless maybe their parents were writers but many like me are still trying to hold on to the sound of the analog telephone by choosing "Old Phone" ringtone in our mobile phones.  It is strange how memories are stored in our brains. I still hear the typewriters clicking loudly whenever I remember my trips to the principal's office at school where the secretaries are usually typing the next test or exam. Thos...

 Simone Biles was in the news recently not for the usual reasons as she normally makes it to the headlines but for a different reason. Simone Biles withdrew from the US   Olympic gymnastic team. She sensed that her body and mind were not connected well which is very important for a gymnast. That connection is very important since that is the reason which enables athletes to perform complex movements safely.  Athletes at every level are trained to give all they have to their sport. They work hard to be the best in their sport with great discipline, dedication, and focus. Coaches encourage and demand athletes to give all they got and sometimes more than what they have.  When athletes become successful the pressure becomes greater, now they don't have it coming only from coaches and teammates but additional actors like media and sponsors come to play.  Athletes drive themself to the brink physically and mentally.  In a success-driven world of sport, athle...

 I recently visited Seattle Aquarium and I saw fishes and animals which live in rivers, seas, and oceans of the planet. The aquarium did its best to create a place that is close to the natural environment to all the fishes animals and plants as much as possible. Creating this kind of space is not only beneficial to the displayed living thing but also to the people who are visiting who can also see a natural habitat that is very close to the real thing. My visit and the pictures I took there triggered a question, Why do people keep wild animals in captivity?  I believe people had to keep wild animals in captivity first when they were trying to domesticate them for their food, transportation, labor, or emotional needs. Then after domesticating what they can, keeping undomesticated animals doesn't make sense but some people kept doing so for prestige or to harvest some parts of the animals. Animals are still kept in captivity for mainly three reasons now; conservation, education,...

The US is a country where different races are still segregated highly not anymore by law but by culture and economy. Races are separated by their neighborhoods, churches, music, and everything which helps them to be apart. Because of this people coming from different races hardly understand each other let alone empathize with a different race.  That is why last year's mass protest against the killing of Gorge Floyd in Miniapolice was unique. People coming from all races were equally outraged by the public killing done by a police officer who was indifferent to the death of a human being. The protests also show a new America made of young Americans who want to fight injustice united no longer bounded by the race they come from. Young Americans choose to protest not in support of a race cause but to stop injustice.  Children are not bounded to their race, a child's understanding of race comes later from grown-ups. Anywhere in the world, a child need is to be loved, taken care of...

Recently it was in the news that Seattle had more cloudless days in a week than last summer. It might be a very newsworthy story for a city which is known for its rain but the lack of clouds on the clear skies was not that great for me. Even though I enjoy bright sunny days as a photographer I prefer to have some clouds in the sky because that is what gives my pictures an interesting horizon. The news made me think about how clouds are important in my photography. Clouds are an important part of my composition whether I am shooting streets, cityscapes, or landscapes.  There had been great photographers who shot clouds for their photo project and I am sure there are contemporary photographers who still shoot clouds as their primary subjects. I had never committed myself to just photograph clouds only for a photo project but I like to take a picture of a sky that has clouds that makes it more dramatic and interesting. My favorite is combining the sky, water, and land in my landscape ...

The Covid 19 pandemic has changed a lot how we use public spaces for the past year. Some of the public spaces have been shut for more than a year now. Some are gradually reopening with limitations and precautions but they are not yet functioning as they were before the pandemic hit. One public space I miss as a photographer is the Seattle Central Library located in downtown Seattle. The library building is a huge 11 story glass and steel structure with an ultra-modern design.  Some might see the giant building as a grotesque modernist architecture and others like its functionality and futuristic look. Whatever opinions people have no one doubt that it is a unique iconic building. It attracts photographers and tourists alike from all over the world.  From the outside, it is hard to distinguish the shape of the library which may look like a big pile of glass and steel but once you are inside it transforms into a well-designed highly functional space.  Unlike traditional lib...