All the Ingredients for an Excellent Photo Went to Waste by Me. #SeattlePlayedOut

Went to Discovery Park's West point Lighthouse to observe a confluence of events: king tide, strong wind gusts and gradual clearing of skies. The hope was to get waves crashing near the West Point Lighthouse. Unfortunately, the tide began to recede quickly and by the time the light was good, the waves could no longer reach the point. The result was a bunch of mediocre photos that I decided to use for practice in Lightroom instead. Maybe I can sell a couple of these to a church for use as flyers or book covers or something.

2019-02-19 0

Seattle Living Up to Stereotype (Glazer’s Queen Anne Photowalk)

Cold, wet... a lot more rain fell than originally expected when I left the house. It was an absolute mess but Fujifilm proved to me how well they sealed the X-T3. Combined with the 16-55mm ƒ/2.8, the combo remained water-tight in steady wind and rain with no attempt at protection. Because of the weather, I was obviously a bit low on inspiration, but figured I'd post what I got for the sake of others who took part.

2019-02-17 0

Silent Night. #snowmageddon #seattleplayedout

Normally in Seattle, we'll get a couple of inches of snow per winter. This winter, the snow showed up both late and in force, dropping 5 inches of snow on downtown in a single morning. This is on top of a few inches earlier in the week plus a few more inches a day later. As the snow begins to melt from slightly warmer weather bringing rain in the 24 hours since, I've managed to get a few photos processed that reflect the views around downtown in the early hours, shortly after the snowfall stopped. I walked around downtown at 4am capturing the empty city streets and landmarks between Chinatown and Pier 66. While not very significant compared to other parts of the country, and even the region, the snow was one of the largest single accumulations in recent history for downtown.

2019-02-11 0

Glazer’s Photowalk: West Seattle

It'd been a while so I decided to attend the Glazer's Photowalk on Sunday, Jan 13th in West Seattle. The weather cooperated despite being in the bowels of winter but it was a bit TOO sunny, creating harsh shadows and contrast for the outdoor exercise. I chose to shoot with my 85mm equivalent, the 56mm ƒ/1.2, allowing me to keep some distance between me and my subjects while permitting me to fill the frame with subjects should I choose to do so. The large aperture also allowed for shallow depth of field shots. To do so, I used a 6-stop ND filter, giving me the ability to shoot with a shutter speed that prevented motion blur despite the bright, cloudless skies. It also gave me enough leeway to add blur by drilling down the aperture only a bit.

2019-01-20 0

The Space Needle’s Saucer Section Receives a Glass Cockpit

I went out early on Friday morning to take photos of downtown from Kerry Park and was greeted by wildfire smoke blotting out the sunrise. All attempts to capture a golden sunrise on what was essentially a cloudless morning were thwarted, so I popped on the 50-140mm and 2x teleconverter and aimed the front element at the Space Needle. After spending nearly a year under an ugly veil while undergoing renovation, the scaffolding came off a few days ago and revealed the new, modern look. So, in spite of it all, I ended up getting some clean shots of the Space Needle's new look.

2018-08-15 0

Air Show! Seafair in Seattle means the US Navy Blue Angels are here to put on a show.

I decided to climb up onto the roof of my condo to catch their second practice on Thursday. The weather was shit, so they practiced their "low show," a flight demonstration that is performed mostly below 3000' MSL, so I got a lot of opportunities to get close range shots.

2018-08-03 0

Discovery Park Lighthouse at Sunset

Discovery Park is the result of the former Fort Lawton grounds being returned to the city of Seattle. On the grounds remain a few reminders of its past and one of the sites is a lighthouse on the park's northwest corner, a point at the mouth of the Lake Washington Ship Canal just south of Shilshole Bay and Golden Gardens Park. After a stop in Magnolia, we went to Discovery Park for the walk, hiking the loop and stopping at the beach and lighthouse so I could take a few photos during the sunset.

2018-08-01 0