Fallen Officers Memorial

Today on the one-year anniversary of the murders of four Lakewood police officers about 500 family members, local police officers and the general public braved the chilly temperatures to attend a memorial service at the site of the new Fallen Officers Memorial monument.
Located at the Lakewood WA police station the new monument honors the officers Sergeant Mark Renninger, Officers Ronnie Owens, Tina Griswold, and Greg Richards who were killed in the line of duty on November 29, 2010.

@ 2010 Gilbert W. Arias ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Those Were The Day's

Not too long ago the wife and I found this beautiful spot while cruising along the Hood Canal.
PHOTO BY GILBERT W. ARIAS ©2010 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Roberto Maestas

Roberto Maestas, Co-founder of El Centro de la Raza center for Seattle’s Latino Community.
PHOTO BY GILBERT W. ARIAS ©2010 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Paint and old Newspapers

Paint and old newspapers, Lake Roosevelt WA.
PHOTO BY GILBERT W. ARIAS ©2010 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Lights Pathway

Afternoon sunlight cuts a pathway of light under the east channel bridge, Seattle WA 2009
PHOTO BY GILBERT W. ARIAS ©2010 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Window

Window in alley, Seattle WA 2010

PHOTO BY GILBERT W. ARIAS ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Burning Man.... Welcome Home

In 2004, along with P-I reporter D. Parvaz I attended my first ever Burning Man Festival held in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada. The annual art event based on radical self-expression and self-reliance occurs during the week leading up to the Labor Day weekend and ends on the Sunday with the burning of the man like effigy. A spectacular sight that is the culmination of the week-long event.

During my stay on the playa the weather was hot, dry and very dusty. With 60mph blinding windstorms that cut visibility to less then a foot as it whipped up the fine dust of the playa. The dust with a consistency talcum powder managed to get into everything, cameras, laptop and my food and water.

After arriving in Reno I rented a large van to use as a base of operations and to sleep in for the week. Since there is no food service at the festival I stopped at a local store and loaded up on enough food, water, an ice to last me the week.
Also, on advice from veteran burners, I picked up a few bottle of booze (Southern Comfort) to barter with just in case. I also rented an old bicycle equipped with a front basket to hold my camera gear as I navigate around the playa…
This was great idea!!

With camping spaces reserved months in advance I was fortunate that a former P-I reporter and a seasoned burner allowed me to park my van at her camp, (cost 1st bottle of S.C.) Her group of about 20-burners from the Seattle area, were based in a prime location just off the playa… “Priceless”

I was not shooting on a daily deadline. Instead I was shooting for the Saturday and Monday editions. A good thing, cause a daily deadline would have been a bit of a problem due to the limited Internet access which was available only at one location, This was the media area so it was often busy during the daytime hours.

My work around… since sleeping was difficult and almost impossible at times due to the steady hum of techno music that penetrated my van 24-7. I found that I could get all my images ready the night before, sleep a little, get up at 5am, make the short bike ride to the media trailer, and since nobody is there at that hour I could transfer all my images without any interruptions. A routine I accomplished every day until departing on Sunday.

For me it was an adventure of a lifetime, one of the assignments I will always remember with fond memories. The people were wonderful, and the event was more then I ever expected. So much going on, so much to see and photograph that at times it seemed incomprehensible.

A very special congratulation to David and Jessica Mendez from all of your family and friends.

Jessica and David

Congratulations Jessica and David on your wedding day August 22, 2010
Hope you have a wonderful life together.

Contrasting Waters

Water, sand, and afternoon light come together to form contrasting patterns in a swimming area along the shores of the Columbia River in Washington State 2010
PHOTO BY GILBERT W. ARIAS ©2010 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Anarchist

Two self-proclaimed anarchist watch as Seattle Police Officers from a line after police arrested two people during a anti- Bush rally at Cal Anderson Park in 2006.
PHOTO BY GILBERT W. ARIAS ©2010 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Happy 21 B-Day, Hannah

Check out the birthday video posted below

TATTOO GUY

Jeffery Love 35, aka “The Tattoo Guy” has been tattooing and piercing folks for over fifteen years.
Based out of his shop in Sequim, WA, Love and his family travel to various events around the country providing high quality tattoos from a custom built rolling tattoo parlor.
This week with the proceeds going to Children’s Hospital, “The Tattoo Guy” has set-up his trailer on the streets of Ritzville WA in time for the Ritzville Blues Festival on July 10, 2010.

His work can be seen at http://www.tat2guy.com/index.html






PHOTO BY GILBERT W. ARIAS ©2010 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

WAY IN

Entrance to a small gas station near Sprague WA. OK found my way in, now someone tell me how to get out.
PHOTO BY GILBERT W. ARIAS ©2010 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Hummingbird

Did you know that the hummingbird is the smallest type of bird and also the smallest animal to have a backbone? Like other birds, hummingbirds communicate using visual displays, they are very territorial and have been seen chasing each other as well as larger bird’s from their territories. A few years ago I witness two hummingbirds buzz the neighbor’s cat as he ran across the yard.
PHOTO BY GILBERT W. ARIAS ©2010 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

SPACE NEEDLE

Parking lot view of the Seattle Space Needle and Jack...

INVASION

A sniper takes aim at unsuspecting bystanders from the dashboard of a service cart at University of Seattle.
PHOTO BY GILBERT W. ARIAS ©2010 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Last Call

Jack Steidl holds one of his bulges as he prepares to play “Taps” at a recent military funerals. While many cemeteries have resorted to "canned Taps" played on a boom box, or an electronic device fitted in the end of a bugle, Steidl a 91yr-old retired military veteran has been keeping the tradition alive by playing his bugle at Tahoma National Cemetery in Kent.
Photo By Gilbert W. Arias © 2010

Street Vendor

A street vendor works the crowd as he sells fresh popcorn from his pushcart along the parade route at the Spring Daffodil Festival parade in Puyallup, WA. The annual event travels through the four city of Tacoma, Puyallup, Sumner, and Orting. The parade is the highlight of the Daffodil Festival that got its start in 1933…
PHOTO BY GILBERT W. ARIAS ©2010 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Tulips

A visitor snaps a photograph in a field of multi-colored tulips during the last week of the twenty-seventh annual Skagit Valley Tulip Festival at near Mt Vernon WA.
Photo by Gilbert W. Arias ©2010 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

On the Needle

Workers on top of the Seattle Space Needle stop for a photo opportunity as they install fireworks for an upcoming event.
I made this photo with one of my Holga plastic camera while standing in the roof access hatch. I love the camera’s unpredictably results, the vignetting, distortions and blurred images brings me back to simpler place and time, which I find to be a enjoyable alternative to the sterilize dit-cameras available today.
© BY GILBERT W. ARIAS……ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Pileated Woodpecker

A young Pileated Woodpecker rest on a stump before heading off to feed on nearby fir tree.
©Gilbert W. Arias2010

Gone But Not Forgotten

A Seattle Police Officer holds his hat containing the memorial service program for four slain Lakewood Police Officers while he attends the memorial service for Pierce County Sheriffs Officer Kent Mundell. Officer Mundell was killed in the line of duty while responding to a domestic violence call in December 2009.
The four Lakewood officers, Sergeant Mark Renninger, Officer Tina Griswold, Officer Ronald Owens, and Officer Greg Richards were ambushed and killed in the line of duty.

B-Time

A few more days of sun and we’ll be seeing more of these little guys.

Trunk n Door

A curious elephant investigates her surroundings before handlers unload her and other circus animals in Seattle WA.
This photo was taken in the mid 1990’s while I was covering the arrival of the Ringling Brothers & Barnum & Bailey Circus.

Kent Mundell Memorial2009

On December 21, 2009 Pierce County Sheriffs’ Deputy Kent Mundell was killed in the line of duty while responding to a domestic violence call in Eatonville, WA. He was the sixth Washington police officer killed in the line of duty since October 2009.
The photographs and sound were made during his memorial service at the Tacoma Dome in January 2010.