A sunset in Seattle
A lovely sunset from Seattle…
From a recent trip to Seattle, when I got out around sunset and stumbled upon this little marina over in Ballard. The light was just right, and I loved the look of this boat.
Vlogging in Seattle
A little vlog I crafted while out shooting in Seattle recently…
Here’s a little vlog I crafted while out shooting one morning in Seattle - enjoy!
That peaceful, easy feeling
I spent a morning shooting in Seattle’s Japanese Garden, and came away with a lot of keepers. Here’s one of my favorites…
On my recent trip to Seattle, I spent a morning exploring and shooting their Japanese Gardens. It’s a gorgeous park with amazing reflections available thanks to the pond at the center of the park. One of my favorite spots was this little Japanese pagoda/temple thing on a rock, right on the edge of the pond. I spent quite a while here shooting away, but I think this is my favorite shot of it thus far.
The Pike Place fish counter
I love Seattle, and in particular I love to visit Pike Place Market. It's touristy but awesome. Here's a shot of the fish counter, plus a couple of extra creative edits. It's always good to experiment, right?
I love to wander at Pike Place Market in Seattle...
Having visited Seattle a few times in my life, it qualifies as one of those places that I love to photograph. There's plenty of the town that I haven't shot, so I guess that means it qualifies for a return trip!
Most of my time has been concentrated around the Pike Place Market, which definitely doesn't represent the whole of the city. I've seen other parts too, and several outside of Seattle, but something about Pike Place just draws me in each time I am there. It's touristy but I find it quite beautiful. I've gotten up at sunrise to shoot it, and been there at sunset too. I've shot it in the middle of the day (crowded!!) and just about everything in between.
We made a quick stop there last summer on our epic roadtrip, and I got out first thing that morning to shoot Pike Place (again). The first thing you see, assuming you come in the "main entrance", is this fish counter. It's famous for being the place where they are tossing the salmon around - it's quite fun.
But being interested in art, and just having fun mixing things up, I decided to create a couple of different versions of the above photo. The first one is a pretty traditional black and white, which I converted in Tonality by Macphun. It's a great product for making monochromes and if you want to read more, you can check my review here. While there's NO WAY I could ever abandon my love of color, I sure am becoming more interested in black and whites.
This next one is just pure fun, not a serious photo at all, but I like it. Here I used FX Photo Studio by Macphun (read my review here) to create this mirrored-symmetry look. Kind of cool, right? It's not a complicated thing to create either - this was a single click edit. Gotta love that about Macphun!
Sunset at the lighthouse
I lucked into an amazing sunset at Lime Kiln Point State Park on San Juan Island, Washington - amazing clouds and superb color. It was a real stunner. Click on in and see all 4 pics!
I caught an amazing sunset at Lime Kiln Point State Park in Washington!
Considering how much I wrote for that last post, I think I will keep this one pretty short. On that summer trip, we spent about a week on San Juan Island off the coast of Washington State. One evening we made our way over to Lime Kiln Point State Park. Obviously there is a lighthouse there, but the main attraction is that it's a fabulous place to watch for passing whales.
Sadly, we never saw any whales that day, but I couldn't really complain considering the awesome sunset that arrived! I stood on a rock outcropping and fired away for quite a while as the light changed and got more intense. It was beautiful, and I was surprised that there were only a few people around. I was the only photographer standing there and firing brackets into the sunset.
All 4 of these photos are 3 exposure HDR's which were combined in Photomatix with filters applied in Color Efex Pro and final touch-up in Lightroom.
Do you ever get a place all to yourself like that? Isn't it awesome?
Catching a ferry to the islands
I got pretty lucky one evening. We took a ferry from the mainland in Washington State over to the San Juan Islands, and happened to catch the last ferry of the day. And then, sunset happened, and it happened big. Luckily, I was hanging off the end of the boat with my camera in hand!
Have you been to the San Juan Islands yet? You should go!
As part of our super summer road trip, we took off up north of Seattle and caught the car ferry from Anacortes over to Friday Harbor (on San Juan Island, Washington State), where we stayed for about a week. It's a great place. Very quaint and quiet and very beautiful. I have plenty of shots still to process from my time on the island...but today I am sharing shots I took on the ferry ride. It was quite the ride my friends!
Because we were driving up from our stay in Oregon, we happened to schedule our ferry ride for the evening and as such were on the ferry during sunset - oh darn! Sometimes you get lucky, and this was one of those times. Every now and then it happens.
We departed Anacortes for the ~1 hour ferry ride and immediately I knew that sunset was going to be pretty kickass. You know, sometimes you can just tell, right?
So as soon as we were on board, I left the car with the camera in hand (no need for a tripod when your method of transportation is moving, right?) and headed up stairs to get on the back deck. I wanted some shots of the ferry terminal and then I planned to walk around and shoot for the hour.
It turns out most of the sunset action was behind us, so I was in a great spot already. I did some meandering just to make sure (I can't stand to miss something) but always ended up back on the back deck of the ferry, firing madly into the sunset. It was pretty awesome and only got better and better.
If you ever find yourself in Seattle and want a little break from the city, I highly recommend hopping over to the San Juan Islands - well worth a visit!
The Seattle skyline
I caught this Seattle skyline shot from a ferry when we were pulling back into town. I loved this view, even though I was pretty cold up on the rooftop deck. We had been up in the San Juan Islands for the weekend (you have to go there!) and on the return, I had the camera out firing left and right. When we arrived into Seattle and I saw the skyline there, I knew this was a shot that I really wanted!
Seattle houseboats
Here's something a little different! Although I like the "big" scenes that I shoot in HDR, sometimes it's fun to throw in a little something unexpected...like a pastel-colored, intentionally soft houseboat shot. :)
I caught this image while wandering along Lake Union in Seattle a while back. I had a few minutes before a meeting, and this area caught my eye, and seemed familiar. It turns out this is near the houseboat that was used in the movie Sleepless in Seattle (at least according to some locals, it is). I went for a soft, dreamy sort of processing here and thought it worked, especially with all the bright colors in the scene. It made me think of a painting.
Snug Harbor
For starters, I just want to thank everyone that commented on my photo yesterday here on the blog, or on Google+ and for all the shares, etc on Google+ as well. I really appreciate that so much!
This has been a crazy week, and it included a quick trip out to San Francisco but sadly no time for shooting while out West. Luckily though, I did get the opportunity to meet with Thomas Hawk and had a great time chatting with him. He is an insightful and interesting guy, not to mention a great photographer. More on that later, but I wanted to share the below shot which I posted on Google+ yesterday...taken with my iPhone. This is Thomas, hanging out with the Bay Bridge in the background.
Ok, on to the photo post for today...
I shot this one while up in Seattle earlier in the year. We took a weekend and ferried up to the San Juan Islands, which are fabulous by the way. We spent the weekend in Friday Harbor and at some point that weekend decided we wanted to go on a kayak tour around the coastline. The tour took us up to Snug Harbor, which is where we launched from, and the beauty of the area is just incredible. I took so many photos - many from the kayak itself - and have a lot more to share. So, you will see more of this place! It's beautiful all the way around!
Spray
I shot this one off the back of our ferry boat, heading north from Seattle up to the San Juan Islands. I just liked the water spraying out from the engines. The scenery is so gorgeous, and I just could not stay inside with everyone else! Great scenery + great weather + Nikon= pure bliss.
Cruising the strait
I took this shot from the rooftop deck of the ferry we were on, heading from Seattle, WA up to Friday Harbor in the San Juan Islands. The cruise is a beautiful one, as you are surrounded by incredible scenery such as this the whole way. It's very inspiring. It's jaw-dropping. It makes you (or at least, me) want to sell everything and move there! I spent a good part of the cruise up here on top of the ferry, snapping away and having a great time. I was also enjoying the weather quite a bit, as it was nice and cool, unlike Austin where we are still hitting highs north of 100 degrees! That's a great thing about photographs - they capture a moment and let you relive it any time you want. I freakin' love that!
Good morning, Seattle
Ah, Seattle, how I love thee! I shot this from my hotel room - through the glass - early one morning while up in Seattle for work. I really enjoy visiting that town, and each time I go there I return liking it even more. It's got some cool architecture, some wonderful landmarks (that's the tip of the Space Needle peeking out over that building on the far right), the greatest public market anywhere (Pike Place), cool signs, graffiti and of course there are some amazing landscapes nearby! What's not to love? (waiting for someone to say it rains a lot...)
Handbills at the market
When we were in Seattle a little while back, we found ourselves walking up to the Pike Place Market via some back streets and alleys. Normally that isn't recommended per se, but with a camera it is always an adventure. Lucky for me, we came across some interesting stuff, like a wall of gum (more on that in another future post) and this wall which was totally covered in handbills and some graffiti. In the old days (that is, prior to being a photographer) I would pass this by without much attention, and possibly consider it ugly and defacing. These days however, I consider it something worth closer inspection and I actually find it rather compelling (I will stop slightly short of calling it beautiful, but I think it has some beauty about it). Isn't it interesting how things change when you look at life through the lens?
Clouds over Snug Harbor
While we were in the San Juan Islands, off the coast of Washington State, we took one morning to go explore the coastline via sea kayak. We kayak semi-frequently in Austin, and enjoy it quite a bit, though it is obviously a bit different on the ocean. For starters, we saw a pod of orcas as well as a harbor seal, and I can't say I have ever done that in Austin. hehe Plus, the weather was cool and I had these fabulous clouds to look at, so all in all it was about the best morning I can imagine! This was one of many shots I took from the kayak that day. It's pretty hard to take pictures, keep your camera dry, paddle and steer a kayak, and enjoy the scenery all at the same time - but hey it sure is fun trying!
Seattle by Ferry
Pike Place Market, two mountain ranges, nearby islands, natural beauty, the Pacific Ocean, a great art community, cooler weather - what's not to like about Seattle??
Seattle is a great town - I’m a big fan. I have been there twice this year, and considering how dang hot it is in Austin, I am ready for another trip! I got this shot on my most recent trip up there. We took a ferry up to the San Juan Islands over a weekend, and this was my view on Sunday evening as I was returning to Seattle. It was cool and windy up there on top of the boat, but hey who minds that when you are snapping away? In case you are curious, the Space Needle is not in the shot, because it is out of frame to the left. I went for a tighter shot in this case, partly because I just love those clouds up there! Thanks for stopping by!