Seattle Photographer

Above is Seattle City Councilman Tim Burgess being interviewed by a local TV station on Yesler Way Tuesday night, outside City Councilwoman Sally Clark‘s election party at Merchant’s Cafe. Burgess was  commenting on his re- election victory and the passing with a strong margin of the Families and Education Levy which he supported. I had an excellent time yesterday on election night,  following around Seattle City councilman Tim Burgess who cruised to victory in his re-election to another 4 year term. The first results were announced around 8:15PM. They indicated he had the lead with 81% of the votes over opponent David Schraer.

Earlier in the evening, Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn, Tim Burgess and other Seattle officials supporting the Families and Education Levy, gathered at Elysian Fields. Since there was not a dedicated TV broadcast concerning the election results the had to  and search on their smartphones for the first word on the first results of the election being announced which was supposed to be at 8:15PM. Members of the media were assembled in the restaurant waiting to hear their reaction to the results.

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Well the Blue Angels are back in town so it must be the start of Seafair week. I love watching these precision US Navy jet fliers passing over our city and lakes except for when like today I did not make it across the floating bridge of US 90 on my way back from an appointment in Bellevue. Sitting in traffic when I need to be traveling is not my idea of fun. Still they are a blast to watch. Just have to remember not to ty and get across Lake Washington during the day. Traffic all over the region will be messed up from 10 AM to the start of rush hour as these guys practice their display and then performance over the weekend.

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My friend Jason Eskenazi is working on a new book project and is seeking help in funding it. He has a page on the website Kickstarter where you can go to learn more about him, his previous work and his newest project and maybe pledge some funding.

His first award winning book “Wonderland: A Fairy Tale of the Soviet Monolith” was a jewel of a masterpiece and I am greatly anticipating the publication of “The Black Garden”.

THE BLACK GARDEN – A New Photography Project by Jason Eskenazi:

“My project The Black Garden is a photographic investigation of the East/West divide. Basing myself in Istanbul for one year, I will photograph the texture of life throughout the Middle East and beyond as the Muslim world continues to confront the tide of western-style ideals for better or for worse.

I want to understand the contemporary dilemmas of our civilization by seeking modern equivalents to the East/West dichotomy. From the mythic Trojan War, to the split of the Roman Empire, to Islamic control over Western Europe, to today’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and to the revolutions in Egypt and Libya, human history has been plagued by successive waves of both territorial and cultural conquest across the Eurasian divide over the course of 3000 years. This ancient world spanned the same locales where many of the world’s crises are now taking place.

After 9/11, the real battles and new borders of the 21st century are no longer being fought over physical territory, but over imagination, West vs. East, of how best to attain, order, and maintain a society. I want to investigate this dichotomy.”

To continue reading, go to Kickstarter

Awards & Grants:
Best Photography Book POYi, 2008 “WONDERLAND.”
Fulbright Scholar, 2004
Guggenheim Fellow, 1999
Dorothea Lange/Paul Taylor Prize, 1999
Alicia Patterson Foundation Grant, 1996

Here is an picture from the weekend of Luna flying through the air to catch a ball. She is pretty devoted to retrieving it and loves to jump up to catch it on the fly. Share on Facebook

A wave approaches Miyako City from the Heigawa estuary in Iwate Prefecture after the magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck the area March 11, 2011. Picture taken March 11, 2011. (REUTERS/Mainichi Shimbun)

I am amazed by many of the news picture coverage of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan the past couple of days. I lived in Japan for 1 1/2 yrs many years ago, and experienced a few earthquakes there but this is entirely different. My heart goes out to the victims of this disaster. We can all be so vulnerable at times and unaware. It brings to mind how we too in the Pacific NW are living close to the same type of fault lines and scenes like these could be happening on our coast someday. Share on Facebook

If interested see some more of these pictures on the Boston Globe’s site The Big Picture and also on the Alantic Monthly’s site In Focus
Minamisanriku is submerged after Friday’s strong earthquake-triggered tsunami in Miyagi prefecture, northern Japan, March 12. (Kyodo News))

Officials in protective gear check for signs of radiation on children who are from the evacuation area near the Fukushima Daini nuclear plant in Koriyama. (Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)

A man holding a dog walks on a street in Kesennuma city, Miyagi prefecture on March 12. (AFP/Getty Images)

Photography blog by  Daniel Sheehan who creates photography for editorial publications and corporations and is available for commercial photography assignments.

On an assignment for the magazine Businessweek, prior to it being acquired by Bloomberg, I got to go to Everett, WA and photograph the Boeing 777 as it was being assembled. The Boeing 777 is a long-range, wide-body twin-engine jet airliner manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. It is the world’s largest twinjet and is commonly referred to as the “Triple Seven”. The aircraft has seating for over 300 passengers and has a range from 5,235 to 9,380 nautical miles, depending on model. Its distinguishing features include the largest-diameter turbofan engines of any aircraft, six wheels on each main landing gear, a circular fuselage cross-section, and blade-shaped tail cone. Developed in consultation with eight major airlines, the 777 was designed to replace older wide-body airliners and bridge the capacity difference between the 767 and 747. As Boeing’s first fly-by-wire airliner, it has computer mediated controls; it is also the first entirely computer-designed commercial aircraft.

Although the plant is illuminated partly by florescent lighting which gives everything a green cast, I corrected for that. The green cast on the body of the 777 is a protective coat and is removed before it completed and painted. Boeing doubled the size of the Everett factory which is one of the largest buildings in the world, to accommodate production of the 777.

Every time I fly on a Boeing 777, I remember how they look as I saw them on my tour to watch them come together here in Washington State.

Last year around this time, I was out at a bar in Seattle having a beer at the High Dive in Fremont, watching “The Buckets”, a local band my friend Michael plays guitar in. When the show was done I headed towards the door and saw these Zombies at a table and photographed them and wondered why they had been let in to the bar dressed like that. Then I hit the streets and it looked like the Zombies had taken over the city. I started taking photos as they walked by. There were thousands of them around. I did make it out of Fremont ok. It turned out that more than 3 thousand people participated that Friday night  in Fremont in an attempt to break the Guinness World Record for most people in a zombie walk.

After the walk the zombies went for a viewing of some outdoor movies, Shaun of the Dead, and playing of Michael Jackson’s Thriller for zombies to dance to. More than a thousand zombies danced to Michael Jackson’s Thriller. The event was scheduled before his death, and so it turned into a tribute to him.

As it turned out, Fremont broke the world’s record for the most zombies in one place with the new official record of 3,894 zombies. Then England stepped in and took away the record. So this Saturday is the second annual Red, White & Dead event. Seattle can then lay claim to the “Zombie Capital of the World” once and for all in the “Dead” Center of the Universe. The goal is to outdo the Brits, who hold the zombie walk Guinness World Record through the Big Chill Music Festival in England. From noon to midnight Saturday at Fremont Outdoor Movies (3501 Phinney Ave. N.), there will be an attempt to beat Guinness Book of Records with most “zombies” in one location. 3,575 are expected. From 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., zombies will dance and walk on sidewalks in Fremont, with North 35th Street closed from Phinney Avenue North to First Avenue NW. his year also marks the “Year of the Zombie” and Seattle seems to be the center of attention, as 2010 marks another first for Seattle with ZomBcon, the world’s first Zombie Culture Convention infecting Seattle on Halloween weekend at the Seattle Center and Experience Music Project with over 100 Exhibitors, 10 interactive fan workshops, panels, a SIFF-curated film series, and Halloween Masquerade , Zombie Prom party. We plan to have a collection of experts, authors, filmmakers, historians, celebrities and all the gear and fan fare for the Quintessential Zombie fan. Here are some pictures from last years zombie walk.

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Editorial photography by Seattle photographer Daniel Sheehan, who shoots corporate and editorial photography and portraits for publications and Seattle Wedding Photography with an artistic photojournalist style.

Monday night the poet Jorn Ake was in town giving a reading from his latest book at The Elliott Bay Book Company in their new Capital Hill location. It was the first time I had visited Seattle’s legendary independent bookstore’s new location and was impressed that they very much kept the spirit of the old bookstore in the translation to Capital Hill. I first met Jorn in Prague where he and his wife Claudia were living and I was visiting with my wife Jana. It was good to see them again.
The New York City-based poet Jorn Ake read from his Blue Lynx Prize-winning new collection, Boys Whistling Like Canaries (Eastern Washington University Press). “Boys Whistling Like Canaries is a collection haunted by the grim history of the 20th century, and by how its legacy continues to so troublesomely endure. Ake tackles the most vexing subjects—among them our current wars, the Holocaust, and Cold War totalitarianism—yet he reckons with them without resorting to bromides, polemics, or the benumbing timidity with so often afflicts the work of American poets when they seek to confront injustice. In his rangy and querulous approach, Ake recalled the work of two of our finest poets of social justice, George Oppen and Thomas McGrath. To be linked with them is no small accomplishment.” – David Wojahn. Jorn Ake’s 2001 debut, Asleep in the Lightning Fields, received the X.J. Kennedy Poetry Prize.
Photograph by Seattle Photographer Daniel Sheehan specializing in photojournalism, portraits and photography for publications and corporations.

Recently I was working on my archive and I stumbled upon this executive portrait of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer which I shot on assignment for Yahoo Business Magazine. Although he did not give me a ton of time Ballmer was very gracious with me despite what I had heard from others. Coincidently Mocrosoft today announced that driven by Windows 7 sales, their profits grew 35 percent in the 3rd quarter beating all industry analysts estimates. Microsoft had $4.01 billion in profit, or 45 cents a share, on $14.5 billion in sales in the third quarter, which ended March 31. This was an increase of 6 percent compared with the same quarter a year ago, when the company made a profit of $2.98 billion, or 33 cents a share on $13.65 billion in sales.
Ballmer has a long history with the company and joined Microsoft in 1980 and became Microsoft’s 24th employee, the first business manager hired by Bill Gates and was named CEO in January of 2000. Photograph by Seattle Photographer Daniel Sheehan specializing in photojournalism, portraits and photography for publications and corporations, and a wedding photographer, with a candid photojournalist style.