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 ©2007 Ed Book I once served in the Navy... so many years ago that it seems it was a different lifetime or dream recalled. Between a year+ of electronics schools and another year+ of nuclear propulsion schools I spent a few months here and there aboard a few ships working as an Electronics Technician. One of the jobs given to the newbies was go out on the yardarms to repair antenna that lived in that rare air out there. I had a problem with it though. Although I loved getting high (physically), until that point in time, I had an intense fear of heights. Climbing the stairs of a fire tower, after a few stories, my feet would refuse to allow me to lift them to the next stair-tread, my fingers would grip the handrail so tightly that they would cramp. I could only loosen their grip if I was backing down. When given the chore to go aloft, I told of my fear and was told to take my time and use multiple safety lines and just do it. I was always game for trying... I put on three sets of safety lines and went aloft... I spent hours up there on the mast trying to get the courage to go out on the yardarm where the antenna I was to repair snickered at me. I couldn't do it and climbed down. My chief was understanding and said I could try again the next morning... I did, and again I failed but at least I enjoyed the view and the welcome breeze in the June heat. The third day, I tried again and inch at a time I conquered that yardarm. I got out there by not looking down. Luckily the ship didn't move and the wind didn't blow the man down. After the work was complete, I looked down... no big deal, I was so high on my accomplishment and the fact that I was so physically high that the ground appeared as if I was in a low flying airplane. I should mention that the ship I was on was the aircraft carrier USS America in the shipyard in Portsmouth, VA and the yardarm I had navigated was 250 feet up. The following few days the shipyard put up scaffolding to the top of the mast so it could be painted and the job would have been much easier... My chief had been both messing with me and giving me confidence. My division was the owner of the mast and all the electronic equipment - communications and radar antenna and we had to paint it all too. Almost everyone in my division refused to do the high work and I volunteered. I spent the summer aloft in the cool breeze with a view and a few friends... Our chief was afraid to go aloft himself to check on us so when the job was finished, we lingered a few more weeks till they took down the scaffolding... When the scaffolding was in place I didn't feel the need for a safety line let alone the three that I started with. Remind me sometime to tell of the time we dropped a five gallon bucket of redlead paint onto the flight deck from up there... and what we painted on the top of the TACAN raydome at the top of the mast that only the helo pilots could read. and what we left up there as a pennant on the lightning rod... bad boy after that, I had no problems with heights till I fell forty feet while rock climbing. Peace Tags: -print available-, alpenglo, nautical, puget sound, wa, whidbey island
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 ©2007 Ed Book'spent the past week helping Charles Needle with a closeup photography workshop up on Whidbey Island at the Coupeville Arts Center. It was a busy week with classroom time and visits to a few locations on the island to do field work. I signed up for this workshop as an assistant to be a student but because 20 students are more than a handful for one instructor, I didn't take my Canon SLR out till after the workshop ended. I did enjoy myself helping and kibitzing, giving assistance and ideas to the students and it was an especially rewarding experience for me. More about that later because I was seriously sleep deprived and a cold tripped me and beat me up. Today, I slept all day listening to my body. I stayed on Whidbey Island an additional day after the workshop and Charles and I visited one of the gardens again to record a few GBs of images for ourselves. On Saturday, the brig, Lady Washington and her consort, the ketch, Hawaiian Chieftain arrived for a few days of tall ships in Coupeville and I was there on the dock to make some images at sunset. Peace Tags: -print available-, alpenglo, nautical, puget sound, wa, whidbey island
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This past week, I attended an Eddie Soloway workshop on Whidbey Island. It was a good experience for me with an excellent and insightful instructor and sharing and talented fellow students. I highly recommend Eddie's book One Thousand Moons with photographs that I can best describe as inspiring. (you know I make good recommendations)I returned home from Whidbey Island via the Keystone-Port Townsend ferry across Admiralty Inlet and then south on the Olympic Peninsula and across the Hood Canal floating bridge to my home here on the Kitsap Peninsula. Because of holiday traffic, I had to wait about three hours in the queue while three sailings whittled at the waiting line of cars, trucks, and motorhomes. I worked on my laptop, read, and dozed while I waited in the rain. This time of year, there is only one ferry on the run and I imagine that the weather caused it to fall a couple hours behind schedule in it's expected half hour crossing. I could have returned home from the other end of the state in the time it took to travel the sixty-some miles. Here's a photo I made a couple days ago looking out across the Strait of Juan de Fuca toward the Pacific of the USS Stennis. I think it's home ported in Everett but it could have been in the shipyard in Bremerton about a dozen miles from here. (I try to avoid Bremerton and the shipyard in particular so probably wouldn't have noticed if it had been there.) (many years ago, I served on one of these aircraft carriers as a nuclear reactor operator and crossed the Pacific a couple times as well as all over the South China Sea, Tonkin Gulf and Gulf of Cambodia.) 
USS Stennis in the Strait of Juan de Fuca ©2006 Ed Book Peace Tags: nautical, ocean, sky, sunset, whidbey island
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Puget Sound from Whidbey Island, WA ©2006 Ed Book Last week, I was at the Coupeville Arts Center on Whidbey Island and when leaving, I stopped by Ft Casey to look around... Photo by Pentax S40 digital camera. My home is across the water beyond the ship. To get to Whidbey Island, I drive north about twenty miles and across the Hood Canal Floating Bridge to the Olympic Peninsula. Then, I drive north another thrirty miles to Port Townsend where I catch the ferry across Admiralty Inlet to Keystone on Whidbey Island. while I've got your attention look here (I approved this ad)) Peace Tags: landscape, mount rainier, nautical, panorama, puget sound, waterflow, whidbey island
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(NOTE FOR ALL WHO ARE SEEING THIS POST BEFORE THE REST OF THE IRON RING STAIRS SERIES: First, go look at this post-the beginning of the series and then work your way back here by clicking the "newer posts" button in the right margin... you'll understand as you progress...)For those who have seen the series: first of all, 'wonder how many clicked on each link and how many helped pull the ring at the end... I made this series when I was up at Whidbey Island last week helping out with Tony Sweet Workshop at the Coupeville Arts Center. These images didn't have anything to do with the workshop but a couple of the folks in the images were part of the workshop and got sucked into my fun. one afternoon, we went to the fortifications at Ft Casey to photograph and I looked for one of these rings to photograph. I hadn't seen this one before and set my camera up at the bottom of the stairs to catch the light falling on the wall and reflecting from the sky on the stairs. The image needed something so when someone walked by I asked him to "pull the ring". I didn't want the person to be recognizable so cropped in the camera to just show enough to tell the story of the image. Then another person came by and then it started... I asked each person passing by and when one guy with his wife felt too silly and said "uh, we're in a hurry" and then strolled away to spend another half hour hanging around so I quit. {can you say "uptight"}I love to spend time at the three forts built during the 'Spanish-American War" at the end of the 1800's. They were built on three prominent points of land around Admiralty Inlet (the entrance to Puget Sound) to protect the Navy shipyard at Bremerton and the five decade old settlements on the sound. Ships could be sighted and 'triangulated' from the three forts and bombarded from the hidden guns that lobbed 18" diameter shells and mortars at the ships. It was known as "deadliest place on earth" and rightly so... But, the Spanish attack never came and the guns were never fired in anger. What is interesting about the forts, to me, is the huge amounts of concrete they used to fortify the gun emplacements and explosives storage bunkers. Many of the echoey halls, tunnels, and concrete rooms are open for exploring and fun... fun for all... I love to take my Native American Courting Flute with me and play in the echoing chambers. It's literally the only time I can make music that sounds pleasing. I'll step into the dark around some corner and play to the echos and passers by won't see me and won't know where the sounds are originating. lots of fun... I've many stories to tell about my experiences but so little time........... Peace ps no, the ring and stairs aren't in my bedroom Tags: architecture, people pics, whidbey island
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