About Braiden Rex-Johnson

I am a bestselling author, avid photographer, and enthusiastic world traveler. 

For more than 25 years, I wrote about Pacific Northwest cuisine and wine. During that time, I authored seven books including the Pike Place Market Cookbook (1992 and 2003), the Pike Place Public Market Seafood Cookbook (print editions were published in 1997 and 2005, and the e-edition premiered in 2011), Inside the Pike Place Market: Exploring America’s Favorite Farmer’s Market (1999), and That’s Fresh: Seasonal Recipes for Young Cooks (1995).

My seminal work was published by John Wiley & Sons in 2007: Pacific Northwest Wining and Dining: The People, Places, Food, and Drink of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and British Columbia.

For four years I was a contributing writer to The Seattle Times Pacific Northwest magazine, penning “Taste” columns on such wide-ranging topics as savory desserts, Caesar salads, oak wine barrels, and hard cider.

I served as food editor of Seattle Homes & Lifestyles  magazine for five years and as a columnist for Wine Press Northwest for more than a decade. I penned columns for CityFood magazine (based in Vancouver, British Columbia) for three years and contributed a bimonthly article to NW Palate magazine for two years early in my career.

In 2010, I founded and edited FiveMoreMinutesWith.com, an inspirational-tribute website. It features a wide array of heartfelt tributes written about dearly departed family members, friends, teachers, and pets. The site also includes an ever-changing collection of Inspiring Moment photos.

After retiring from food-and-wine writing at the end of 2014, I wrote a fictionalized memoir about my father’s final years. But struggling through countless rewrites and edits made me realize that nonfiction writing was my true calling and passion. 

In March of 2018, I launched BraidenBlossoms.com, a place of beauty and a respite from everyday life. It features iPhone photos of my floral arrangements, world travels, and whatever else catches my eye. The “base” photos are often enhanced using the Waterlogue “painting” app or the Hipstamatic analog app. Categories of photos include Food, Remains, Whimsical, and Nostalgic, among others.

For 48 weeks in 2018, I wrote the Braiden Blossoms blog. The blog features the Bouquet-a-Week Project, in which I photographed the Pike Place Market bouquets I purchased every week during the growing season. Once home, I  disassembled the bouquets and then reassembled them into elegant arrangements. 

Next, I photographed the “new” bouquets, “painted” them using the Waterlogue app, then described my process in the Braiden Blossoms blog.

My fourth website, SeattleWaterfrontWebcam.com, launched in April  2018. It is a rebranded version of the Puget Sound Cam, which started in 2009.

The Seattle Waterfront Webcam live-streams images of the downtown Seattle Waterfront, the ship traffic in Elliott Bay (ferries, container ships, and cruise ships), the Seattle Great Wheel, and West Seattle 24 hours, seven days a week. Please have a peek and sign up for our e-newsletter for updated news and views from downtown Seattle’s famous Waterfront!