
Bainbridge ferry commuter Michael Diehl doesn’t take his cross
Sound commute for granted.
With his camera at the ready, Diehl has focused his attention on
what makes the ferry ride to and from Seattle a world-class visual
experience. Sunsets rippling on waves, fog-shrouded skyscrapers,
glimmering mountains.
Diehl has compiled his best shots into “Crossings,”
a photo-rich book focused entirely on the Bainbridge-Seattle
run.
What Diehl has captured is the what many ferry commuters forget
to appreciate. I know I did when I was a ferry commuter. Too often
the ride is a taken up by naps, newspaper reading (although that is
a very, very worthwhile thing to do), eating, napping, coffee
drinking, napping and laptop tapping. We get plenty of this at work
and at home. Lost is an opportunity to become familiar with the
landscape, getting to know the mountain peaks and the swaths of
land that many can identify on a map, but not when it’s right
before our eyes.
For more about “Crossings,” read Barbara McMichael’s review and
see a sample page below.

Bookmonger: Crossings Celebrates Our Affair with
Ferries
By Barbara McMichael
Born and raised locally, I have had a lifelong fondness for
ferries, and I have always regarded with suspicion those ferry
commuters who seem to be blasé about their daily transits across
Puget Sound.
To have those mountains! Those shorelines! The wind in your
face! The ever-changing scene in the shipping lanes! The
possibility of an orca sighting!
Why some people prefer to huddle inside and do a crossword
puzzle or nap is entirely beyond me.
Crossings: On the Ferries of Puget Sound.
Fortunately, Michael Diehl is not one of those ho-hum types. A
regular commuter on the Bainbridge Island-Seattle run, Diehl
carries his camera with him, and the images he’s captured over the
last few years first made their appearance as an Internet
posting.
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