May 5, 2012 – “Super Moon” rising behind the Seattle skyline as viewed from Ursula Judkins Viewpoint near Magnolia. As we setup well before sunset, we weren’t sure we were going to get a shot of the moon low behind the city. Clouds on the horizon threatened to block our view. Fortunately a nice gap opened up and made for a suitably dramatic scene!

I had the opportunity to work as a volunteer judge for the Seattle FIRST Robotics Regional Competition this past weekend. This was my second year doing so.

It’s an amazing experience seeing how enthusiastic and creative the students are when it comes to designing, building and then operating robots to competitively solve each year’s game challenge.

As a judge, a lot of my time during the weekend is spoken for with team interviews and deliberations among the judges to select teams for awards. I still carry my camera and manage to watch a handful of matches.

Because of the number of teams that participate in our regional, FIRST actually conducts two complete regional competitions simultaneously… the Seattle Cascade Regional and the Seattle Olympic Regional.

I judge for the Cascade Regional and most of these photos are from there, but there is a sprinkling of photos from the Olympic Regional shot during the limited time I had to observe their matches.

The photo above is FIRST Founder Dean Kamen — inventor of the Segway among other things — speaking at the competition on Friday evening.

When it comes to New Years Eve celebrations in Seattle, the annual party at the Space Needle is the biggest show in town. Not being a fan of crowds or traffic, rather than head into the city I wandered over to the West Seattle side of Elliott Bay to capture the fireworks from a distance. I like to show events in context, and I just love the light reflecting off the water.

Here are a few more shots from New Years Eve. You can click individual thumbnails to view the full size photo.

The Seattle skyline the night of the harvest moon – September 12, 2011

Looking down Pike Street towards the market on the waterfront in downtown Seattle

Driving south on Seattle’s Alaskan Way viaduct

Rainy view of Downtown Seattle from atop the Space Needle