Restaruants – Carillon Point

20. June 2012 · Write a comment · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , ,

I’ve posted a few pictures of Carillon Point and talked about the waterfront, harbor and the restaurants and Woodmark Hotel.  All the other shots I’ve posted have been down by the water, I posted one image that looked down at the water from the upper area where the shops and restaurants are but nothing really from around the shops and the hotel.

So tonight’s image is from the upper section.  There’s this really nice paved area that is almost like a very large roundabout with shops.  Cars can drive round the area to drop people off or you can hand your car to a valet service for the restaurants and hotel.  But there is very little traffic.  In the middle are these large pillars with lights on top and a seating area where you can sit and watch the world go by.

Around the outside of the roundabout are a number of restaurants, shops and, of course, the hotel.  You can’t actually see the hotel in the shot below (it’s to the left of the image), but you can see the restaurants and bars lit up.  It’s actually a really nice quiet place to hang out (if it’s a nice evening).  You can enjoy a lovely meal while watching the sun set over Lake Washington (that was behind me when I took the shot).

Party time tonight as the new camera is here tomorrow, so Carter and Master Chief helped me blow up some balloons.

Market Neon – Seattle

19. June 2012 · Write a comment · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , , ,

I know what you’re thinking, how many nighttime neon shots can you take?  Well the answer is quite a lot.  Ironically tonight’s image is the subject that gave me the original idea that started this off.  I remember driving past Pike Place Market one night on my way home with James, and seeing the sign lit up.  It was one of those “oh I’ll come back and get that another time” moments.

Well several weeks later (and after one failed attempt when I drove to Seattle and the sign was not turned on) I finally got the shot.  The market was empty and the sun had set.  There were actually a few people standing below the sign taking the same picture but I’m sure mine is best (joke).

I was lucky as I managed to find a parking place actually in the market, so it was literally drive up, grab the shot and go home.

One of the challenges I have is that I don’t go to that many new places – I do work for a living you know.  When I do go somewhere I take loads of shots of the same thing, and then find myself with a dilemma.  Do I post all my night time shots of Pike Place or not?  If I was posting less frequently I would be much more selective but I really don’t have that luxury.  I posted a similar nighttime shot of Pike Place back on June 1st, but that was a different sign so I’m letting this one go up too.

On a positive note, my new camera (Nikon D4) will be here in two days time and I know I’ll be out and about with that and am bound to get some exciting new images.  Arguably not because the camera is better, but just because I’m excited to go out and play with a new toy.  There is a whole back story to the camera, which I will post when it arrives, so look out for that.

The guys were feeling musical tonight, so made themselves an instrument and gave us a song.  It was terrible!

Truck – Snoqualmie

18. June 2012 · Write a comment · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , ,

Here is a great example of the madness you experience when you try to post a picture a day.  I was driving through Snoqualmie and this truck caught my eye.  I don’t really know why, it’s not that attractive, that new or old, but it had something.  There was something about this scene that made me think, there’s a picture.

So I found a place to u-turn and went back to take the shot.  I parked up, jumped out and grabbed the camera and tripod – remember I always have them with me, and got the shot.

When I got home I did what I do every night, I sat down and went through any new pictures I’ve taken that day and post process them (just a bit) to see if they are promising and if so drop them in a “processing folder” on my hard drive.  Then I go through my “processing folder” looking for pictures to put up here. (One day I’ll write up my workflow of what I do – it won’t be that interesting to everyone, but I have to write something every day so you’ll have to give me a break).

The funny thing is, just because I think an image has promise when I take it, two weeks later I frequently feel differently, to the point where some I just don’t like!  This image has been sitting in the processing folder for a while now.  Not because I don’t like it, I just didn’t know why I did.  Well tonight I saw it again and thought, OK, let’s finish off the processing and see what it looks like.  That and Lisa walked past and said Ooo I like that.  I asked her why, and she didn’t know either!

Anyway, I tightened it up in Photoshop and here it is.  If you like it and can say why let me know, maybe Lisa and I like it for the same reason.

Carter lost Red and Master Chief, then found them playing in Lisa’s Jewelry Tree.  I’m not sure he approved!

Harbor Stairs – Carillon Point

17. June 2012 · Write a comment · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , , ,

Here’s another image from Friday night at Carillon Point.  In the picture you can see the waterfront at the bottom of the stairs, you can also see the pier that goes out into the lake and around the harbor (on the left).  All along the water front and the pier are big round lights that make it look really nice once the sun has set.

The sun had gone down so I captured this shot with a long exposure so it almost looks almost like daylight.  The clouds in the sky are clearly visible in the picture, but when I was there you couldn’t really make them out.

At the top of the stairs are the restaurants and the Woodmark Hotel.  This is a really nice hotel that overlooks Lake Washington.  If you could make out the skyline on the other side of the lake (on the horizon) you’d see Seattle.

Fortunately there weren’t too many people working around, they were all in the restaurants enjoying their dinner.  But I wouldn’t be surprised if they all walk off their meal after they leave walking along the waterfront.  As it was quiet, I had plenty of time to compose the image and take a few shots.  I think the exposure time was around 4 seconds, so ironically even if someone did walk past they would only appear as ghosts.  That said there was very little work to do in Photoshop.  Hope you like the shot.

Cater and Master Chief started a game of “Find-it” just after breakfast and they were still playing 4 hours later!

Hanging Fuchsia’s – Redmond

16. June 2012 · Write a comment · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , ,

A couple of weeks ago Lisa and I went to Redmond to the weekly farmer’s market.  I think it was the first one of the year so there were a lot of people there milling around checking out all the fresh fruit and vegetables, flowers and crafts.  We didn’t have any intention of actually buying anything we were just wandering.  However we saw some fuchsia hanging baskets and thought they would look lovely on the porch.

So we brought two baskets and struggled with them back to the car – they were massive.  One was still wrapped in paper but the other was opened up and hanging so we had to carry it up in the air.  Fortunately none of the fuchsia blooms had opened up so it was all stalks and leaves.

When we got them home we hung them up and inserted our sprinkler system hoses into the baskets.  I also turned on the sprinkler system so they would be watered every day.  Unfortunately though the water wasn’t coming out!  Lisa called the landscape guy who put the system in and arranged for him to come over and fix it.  It took nearly two weeks for him to get to us and I had to periodically manually water the baskets when I got home.

However once the water was back on the baskets started to get the sun and water they needed and these beautiful fuchsia flowers came into bloom.  I thought they’d make a great subject for a daily posting, so today I put the macro lens on the camera and went outside with a tripod.

Now these baskets were hanging from the porch roof and it was windy today and they were swinging and spinning around.  I tried to get a shot but my lens choice needed a long exposure with a small aperture and every shot had motion blur.  I really wanted the flower with a green background but it wasn’t happening out front.

So I cut one of the stems and took it into the back garden and pinned it to a light stand.  I had the trees behind as a nice green backdrop and tried again.  Once again the wind was killing me, I really needed the flowers to stay motionless for around 3 seconds so this wasn’t working either.

As a result I tried plan three.  I pulled the light stand into the house, shut the patio sliding door and tried again.  Now the flowers were not moving, but the ambient light meant that the flowers were dark for the outside exposure, or the green trees outside were blown out for the inside exposure.  ARRGGGGHHHHH!  So out came the lights.  I put a small softbox on the flowers to the right and some fill light off to the left and captured the picture below.

I’m sometimes asked how long I take on a picture.  Some are really quick, you walk up to the subject and away you go.  Other times you have to go out of your way to find the subject, and others like today you just have to work it until you get the shot you want.  I’d like to say that most times it’s quick, but that’s not the case, it’s usually a lot of work.

Even halo guys like a good sucker!

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