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.
Seattle sunsets
A lovely sunset in Seattle…
I was in Seattle in November, and on evening was able to get down to Pike Place Market to take some shots. It had been a nice afternoon, with some clouds, and I was hoping that the sunset would turn into something decent. So I popped into a place to have a beer, and when I emerged it was full-on sunset. I was frantically running here and there to capture the light, because it was just beautiful. Luckily I didn’t miss this one!
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.
A lovely Seattle sunset
A stunning sunset in Seattle…
Oh man this was a beauty!
I recently spent some time in Seattle, and on my first night there I was treated to this stunning sunset, right behind Pike Place Market. I was shooting all around that area, which I love to visit, and when the light started going off I ran behind the market to get an unobstructed view of the sunset. It was a stunning display for sure!
Sunset in Seattle
Sometimes you just show up at the right time and get lucky. That's exactly what happened to me one evening in Seattle. I'll take it anytime! ;-)
I am still enjoying the wonders of Italy with the family, but of course I have a tremendous backlog of photos from previous trips still to share. I feel like I could turn this into an Italian photo blog, I've taken so much! But, I haven't had much time to process the photos, so I am taking a quick break from Italy to share these photos from a sunset I captured in Seattle. Both were shot at the Pike Place Market, which is a wonderful spot to visit if you find yourself there!
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!
Some goodness from Seattle
I love to visit Seattle, and luckily we made a stop there on our big trip this past summer. Unluckily, it was only for 1 night. But I did get a wonderful sunset out of the stop, so I can't complain about that! Here are some pics from Pike Place Market during that sweet, sweet sunset!
Have you been to Seattle? I think it's a beautiful city.
We spent a quick day/night in Seattle this past summer, as we were turning back to Texas and making the long drive home at the end of our summer of awesomeness. The city deserves (and frankly, requires) quite a bit more time than we were able to give it, but it wasn't our first time there and likely won't be our last. It was a short stop by design (sadly).
The primary thing we did was wander around Pike Place Market, and we did that a couple of times: sunset on the night we arrived, and the following morning before we departed. I was rather pleased with how the sunset turned out, and rather pleased that I had my camera with me (though you wouldn't really expect me not to, right?).
So today's pics are a handful from that evening's sunset, all taken at Pike Place Market, and mostly of the signs there, which I love. I actually have a large backlog of photos that I have processed from past trips (San Francisco, Copenhagen, Glasgow, France, etc), and I am trying to work them into the blog here when I can. This isn't exactly a chronological blog in any way, so I tend to mix things up anyways. It makes it more fun for me, and hopefully you enjoy the varied assortment. Plus, I am a little scatter-brained at times. :-)
Anyways, I am currently distracted with working on pics from my recent trip to Norway and Scotland, which was an awesome trip by the way, thanks for asking! :-) I have a dozen or so processed from Norway and I will be sharing those soon, so be sure and come back for a look.
Thanks for clicking by today!
Dear Seattle, you are beautiful
Today's post is an ode to that wonderful city in the Pac Northwest - Seattle, the Emerald City. I love it there, just absolutely love it. I hope to return someday soon (but it's not currently in the plans, darnit!). Take a look at all 22 photos - yes there are 22, count 'em! - and let me know if you love the city as much as I do!
In my continuing quest to publish more photos, today's post is a bit of an ode to the Emerald City, Seattle. It's so beautiful. Have you been?
I have been there several times, and I guess I am lucky because I have never really been rained on there. Maybe it's my timing, or just luck, but I have generally gotten great weather and sunshine when there. Not entirely, mind you - but plenty often.
Now full sunshine doesn't always translate to great photo opportunities - just ask any photographer about that - but nonetheless I have been able to work with it and piece together a decent collection of shots from my various trips.
And in case you haven't noticed, more of these longer posts that I have been sharing lately have contained photos of signs that I encounter in my travels. It's not a new thing - in fact, today's photos were taken on a couple of different trips dating back a few years - it's just that I happen to really, really like taking photos of signs. Well, interesting ones at least. You're not going to catch me shooting in front of Walgreen's, for example. A guy has to have standards. :-)
But in the past, I was somewhat fearful of putting that sort of photo on the blog here. I'm not sure why, other than I thought it was so different from my "HDR travel" stuff that it would turn off viewers like you. But I have changed a lot over the last year, and have decided that I will be sharing here whatever it is that I find interesting in my travels, in hopes that you will find it interesting as well - even if the photo was taken years ago.
Some of today's shots are also from a family trip we took to Seattle a few years back, and from there we took a ferry over to Orcas Island - Friday Harbor, specifically. It's a part of the San Juan Islands, which are a fairly short ferry ride from town (seems like it was 2 hours or so, but I can't recall specifically - long enough to take some photos and drink some hot chocolate though!).
The entire area is just incredibly beautiful - that is, if you like seeing heavily forested islands dotting the sea, in every direction. I assume everyone likes that stuff. How can you not?
So once the ferry departed the terminal in Seattle, I went to the upper deck with the camera and fired away. It was pretty cold, but I don't mind suffering to bring art to you. I'll happily take that one for the team!
And of course you will notice several shots here from Pike Place Market, which is the famous farmer's market downtown. That place is a gold mine for photos, and fresh fish! :-) You'll also notice a few shots from Snoqualmie Falls, which is about an hour away from Seattle but well worth the drive (and the hike down to the trail along the river). That place is pure awesomeness. And just for fun, I threw in a couple of pics from the Wall of Gum, which is exactly what the name implies. You'll figure out which photos are from there pretty easily. Just another interesting spot in a town full of beauty and interestingness!
Anyways, enough rambling. Enjoy the photos, thanks for stopping by, and let me know if you have any questions!
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.
Life is a bountiful harvest
As you probably know, all of us here in the US are headed into a long weekend in celebration of Thanksgiving. In that spirit, I wanted to share a few things that I am thankful for as it relates to photography:
- Photography has given me new eyes, and I am thankful for it - I may look at the same things as before, but now I really see them
- Photography has taken me places that I would never have gone before - into certain buildings, down dark alleys, around deserted corners - and I am glad I went
- I have been given opportunities as a direct result of going to these places - print sales, commercial licensing opportunities, and making just enough money from it to reinvest in new equipment
- I am thankful for all the new Nikon gear I just picked up - it is incredible to have pro-level tools in hand
- I am incredibly thankful for the community of folks that I interact with, none of which I would have had the opportunity to meet without photography - and all of which I have learned something from
Thanks to everyone who has ever visited my blog, commented or shared my work on Google+, friended me on Facebook or "Liked" my page there, made me a contact on Flickr, or followed me on Twitter or elsewhere - I am incredibly grateful for every single bit of it, and my photographic life is richer because of it.
THANK YOU!
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?
Seattle stuff
Ok, back to Seattle. I was up there recently, and absolutely love that town. One afternoon we ventured over to the Space Needle in order to do the tourist thing, and afterwards I just had to wander around and try to find an alternative view of it to share with all my visitors here on the blog. Last time I was there, back in April, I came up with what I consider an interesting view, which you can see here.
Today's post is from a couple of weeks back. That is the Experience Music Project on the left, with the Space Needle there poking out of the right side of the shot. Please let me know your thoughts - which one do you like better, and why? I dare ya to leave a comment! (haha, there's a big challenge, huh?)
On a personal note, we spent the last 5 days down in Corpus Christi, Texas enjoying a little beach time. I actually was offline for most of those 5 days, and it felt great (except that I feel way behind). I witnessed a beautiful sunset last night (and yes, I have pictures to prove it!) and I got up early today and went out capturing quite a bit of the place in HDR. A last-minute work trip came up the other day, so I am grabbing a plane ride in the morning to Chicago, but the Nikon will remain at home as there is just no time for it, and I travel as light as possible as a rule.
So I wanted to thank everyone who takes the time to visit my site each day - I really appreciate it. And to those of you who also take the time to leave a comment, another heartfelt thank you. I will be visiting your sites soon and look forward to catching up with all the incredible photo work you do! Have a wonderful day everyone!