Escala – Seattle

06. October 2012 · Write a comment · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , ,

It was an interesting week this week.  First l sold some images that are going to go on a web site (that’s pretty exciting), and secondly I was asked to photograph this building.

The building is the Escala Luxury Condominium building located on 4th Avenue in downtown seattle.  It’s also the the residence of the leading male character in a very popular novel.  Anyway I was asked to shoot the building so went there this afternoon to check it out.

As buildings go it’s very nice.  Has nice lines and a distinctive curve around one of it’s sides.  But finding a good composition was a challenge.  Firstly the building is very tall and getting it all in was difficult, hence the reason I shot it in portrait orientation.  Then there was the traffic and people, there were loads of them and they were in the way most of the time.  Finally the end of the building with the interesting curve I mentioned above, was ruined by a large number of overhead power-lines and the look of the 1st floor windows that were full of ugly advertisements for buying a condo.

Consequently I had to shoot the building from the front.  So I crossed the road and started capturing some shots.  I tried some with the building straight (with the bottom horizontally level), but they looked boring.  So I tried tilting the camera a little.  There were some trees across the road too and standing behind one added a little foreground interest in the image.  Eventually I ended up with this image.

I really liked the trees, I thought they added a lot to the picture, but unfortunately there was a lamp post directly infront of the building, right in front of the Escala sign.  So when I got home I had to remove the lamp post.  Then I had to get another copy of the Escala sign and add the “E” that was obscured by the lamp post.  (Hope this doesn’t ruin the image for you).

So I ended up with an image I liked.  The problem was the image was a little monochrome – boring.  So I tried it in black and white and got a much more compelling image.  I even printed it out to see what it looked like on paper (it looked really good).  Hope you like it too.

Tonight Carter asked Master Chief to help him with his hair.  He looks so much better now don’t you think?

Downtown Clock – Redmond

05. October 2012 · Write a comment · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: ,

I was trying to decide what to post today, and came across this shot of the Redmond Downtown Clock.  This is a little embarrassing as I’ve lived in Redmond for nearly 10 years but I never knew this clock existed until last week.  I was walking around Redmond with Abi and found in above a sign that said “Welcome to Downtown – Historic Redmond” (I didn’t know the sign existed either).

The clock isn’t that tall and it sits on top of something that looks like a bus shelter with a load of old pictures of Redmond inside.  Around the “shelter” are benches with elaborately carved back rests – is it me or is all this new?  I mean I’ve never seen any of this before!

Anyway I took loads of pictures and actually had a few I liked.  We did a little test this evening and Lisa and Abi liked this one most so that’s the one I’m posting.  While I was there I was looking for a different perspective or composition.  So I got down low and shot up (just missing out the shelter).  Having a nice blue sky and fluffy white clouds helped make I think a nice image.

It’s amazing what you see when you walk around with a camera in your hand!

Master Chief wanted to show Carter his plums, he’s very proud of them.

Lonely – Redmond

04. October 2012 · Write a comment · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , ,

Fall is definitely here, it was freezing outside today and the trees at work are starting to lose their leaves.  Last year I spent ages trying to get that perfect image of fall.  I drove everywhere shooting trees in all states of leaf loss and at the end of the day I had some pretty trees with red and yellow leaves (just like everyone else)!

This year I wanted to do something different, try and capture fall in a different way, and this is my first attempt.  I was in Redmond Town Center and came across loads of fallen dead leaves. At first I was just looking for that “dead leaves on the floor” look, but then I saw this little yellow lonely flower (or weed) poking through.  I loved the simplicity of the image, the fact that this little weed was trying to push through to survive seemed really cool.

So I captured a few shots.  I had a massive focal length and big aperture so got a really narrow depth of field (that’s camera talk for “I made it blurry”).  This was shot in shade with natural light and I think the image camer out really well.

I was with Abi when I shot this and right after I stood up she jumped on the flower – with both feet!  I think she called it a “bunny hop”.  So this poor little thing fought it’s way through the leaves to survive was crushed by a cartwheeling 9 year old 62 lb girl.  Life sucks if you’re a weed.

Play-Doh rocks!  Carter was making interesting animals, and Master Chief was trying to suffocate himself.

Caesars Palace Mall – Las Vegas

03. October 2012 · Write a comment · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , ,

I thought tonight we’d go back to Las Vegas.  On my last day there we had some time before our flight left, so decided to check out some of the other hotels.  (It was pretty hot outside so the idea of spending time in an airconditioned building sounded great).  As Caesars Palace is so grand, we thought we’d go there.

Most of the hotels aren’t too keen having photographers walking around the casino taking pictures, but they don’t mind you shooting images in the shopping areas.  Which is cool because Caesars has the most amazing shopping mall – I guess that’s what you call it but it’s like no other mall I’ve ever seen.  Firstly everything is inside but to make it look like you’re walking the streets of Italy they paint the ceilings blue with fluffy clouds.  Then every now and then you reach a super elaborate section with big pillars and statues and usually a beautifully decorative ceiling with amazing sky-lights giving you lots of natural light.

Of course you can’t have a mall without a huge fountain!  They have several, some with water features that shoot water across the room.  Again very very impressive.  At the end of the shopping area (I can’t bring myself to call it a mall again), is this three floor collection of shops which again is very decorative (following the theme of Caesars Palace of course).  They have these beautifully curved escalators the take you to each floor and some of the most expensive shots your’ve ever seen.  Think of a designer label and it’s here.

As the shopping area at the end was so impressive I had to take a picture.  So I set up the tripod so it overlooked the majority of the shops and captured the image below.  The light in the area wasn’t that bright (there was some natural light coming down from skylights above) but I had to have a long exposure to get the shot.  This of course meant that any movement looked blurred but I quite like this in the image (especially the people on the escalators).

Looking at the image I think it would make a pretty cool puzzle, there’s so much detail so finding matching pieces would be fun.  The colors are all bright and the statues are great (never photographed so many boobs in my life).

The guys got some “personal” flashlights tonight, all color co-ordinated to their uniforms. I think they looked pretty cool!

Washington Mutual Tower (again) – Seattle

02. October 2012 · Write a comment · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: ,

Tonight I thought I’d post the last of my Seattle Walking Tour images.  Sure it’s true I have hundreds more, but this is the last one I’m going to share.  Especially as I’m about to hold my own photo walk.  Now I’ve shot and posted the Washington Mutual Tower before, but that was just the top of the tower at night (check out the posting on June 29th).  This one I think is more interesting.

We had just left Post Alley and were approaching the Seattle Art Museum and we came across this view of the tower.  Now I can bore you with details on composition, talking about line, shape, negative space and color etc., (it’s all pretty boring let me tell you I’ve read loads of books on it), but this view provided something an art major might call “interesting”.

The large sweeping curve of the walkway above and the way it almost wrapped around the Mutual Tower and the pillar with the very strange light on top appearing to be in parallel to the tower add interest.  Add to the fact that the picture is pretty monochromatic (except for the tower) draws your eyes to the subject.  When I look at the picture the large curve grabs me first and takes me from the top round to the bottom of the pillar   Then I find my eyes are drawn up the pillar, basically going completely round the tower.  Nearly every time I look at the picture I do the same thing – it’s very strange.  Sometimes I get caught in a loop going round again.

We stood on this spot for some time on the tour discussing the view and why it was interesting to the viewer (and of course we took many shots).

It is kind of a strange composition but I do find the image quite compelling.  Sure it might not be your cup of tea but I like it, so it’s my posting for tonight.

Lisa is very organized.  She already has my Halloween candy bucket all ready and filled it with goodies for me.  Tonight, I caught Master Chief and Carter “rescuing” some candy from the bucket.  Obviously I made them put it back.

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