Tony Seeley Photography

A couple of weeks ago I got a new camera and have been desperate to go out and take some pictures.  I actually had a day out planned today with some friends at work but they unfortunately bailed on me.  Not to be undone I decided to go out anyway on my own – but where to go?

Last night Lisa casually mentioned that there were a load of blossom trees in bloom on the University of Washington campus.  So I did some internet research and decided to visit the university today.

I got up at 7:30 and hit the road immediately.  Looking on line I found out that the trees are only really in bloom for 2 weeks and it’s a popular location for wedding, engagement or family portraits.  So I figured if I got there early I’m miss the crowds.  Haha, how wrong can you be?

I got there at 8am, paid my $5 parking fee and found the square that had the trees.  Guess what?  It was packed!  Loads of people, loads of photographers taking pictures of people and yes, lots of brides getting their picture taken too.  It was a zoo.

It was a real pity too as it’s stunningly beautiful, my shots really don’t do it justice at all.

But I was there to test out the new camera, so that’s what I did.  I took a load of pictures and selected the ones that had the least number of individuals in them, and then when I got home I hit Photoshop and removed the people.  Quite a few hours later I had the images below.

The purpose of the day was really for me to test the camera, and that was a great success.  The camera (a Fujifilm X-Pro2) is amazing, I LOVE it.  I don’t think I’m getting the best out of it yet as I’m still getting familiar with it but it feels great, handles well and produces some beautiful images.

After about 90 minutes it started to rain so I decided to head home.  As I write this now I’m wondering if I should have stuck around a little longer as everyone else may have left, but as they say hindsight is a wonderful thing.

On the way back to the car I found this small garden full of wild blue flowers.  I have no idea what type of flower these were but it was very pretty so I jumped over a hedge and grabbed some shots.

Here’s the irony, while I went there to shoot the blossom trees (and I got some OK shots), I liked one of the blue flower pictures most when I got home (it’s now my wallpaper), funny how that happens sometimes.

Anyway here are the images.  If you get the chance to see these blossom trees, I really recommend you go they are really beautiful.

This weekend my new Fujifilm X-Pro2 camera body arrived and I have to say I’m delighted with it, I LOVE this camera and think it’s probably the best one I’ve ever owned (and I’ve had quite a few).

It’s beautifully made, feels great in the hands, super fun to use and full of features. The rangefinder look and feel is great fun (just like my X100T) only now with 24 mega pixels and the new Arcos film simulation. I now also get my ±2 stops for exposure bracketing (about time fuji) so I can’t wait to get out and shoot some landscapes.

So what do I shoot for the first time? Well those of you who know me know I’m not a huge fan of pet portraits. Actually strike that, I don’t like shooting any animal period! I just don’t have the patience (or probably the talent) to get a good picture.

But this weekend Roxie was just sitting in the kitchen looking at me with a brilliant “I’m guilty” look on her face. I have no idea what she did (must have been something) but I thought I’d try and get a shot anyway. What was amazing was that she just sat there and didn’t move. And I got (I think) a great shot.

So here’s my first posting with the new fuji (I love this camera – have I said that yet?), hope you love the Guilty Doggy image 🙂

I recently bought a couple of new lights and they were pretty cheap too – which is actually unheard of in the photography world.  So I thought I’d check them out and see how they perform.  So I set up the lights out on the deck and convinced Abi to let me shoot her – and being the good sport she is we took some pics.

I should state that it was REALLY cold outside so we didn’t do this for long, I think we were only out there for around 20 minutes.

Anyway, one of the lights was behind Abi and I put a small grid on it to focus the light at her hair, this hair light provided some separation for her hair, as the trees behind were pretty dark.  The other light was in front of her and that had a small soft box on it also with a grid.  Both lights were on almost no power and just added that little kick of light to brighten Abi’s face and hair.

We took quite a few shots, some of them with Abi pulling the most bizarre funny faces (none of those are posted – if I did that she’d never let me take her picture again), the ones here are “sensible” except perhaps the last one which I had to post as I think she looks super cute.

At one point the light behind Abi fell down the stairs (not sure how that happened – but it did), the light hit the floor and came off the stand.  Amazingly, the light was fine, only a small $8 cold shoe broke – so I was super lucky there.

I think the images came out really well and am really pleased with the lights (at $70 each – which is 3 times less than I usually spend – don’t tell Lisa – I’ll be getting some more.)

This morning I decided to get up nice and early (5:30) and drive over to west Seattle to capture a Seattle cityscape shot as the sun was coming up.

Now people joke all the time about Seattle weather, claiming it’s always raining and cold but that’s just not true.  In fact we get less rainfall in Seattle than New York and we usually get four great summer months of 80 plus degrees.  The difference with rain is that we get drizzle while New York get’s a downpour.  The rain here is usually so light that it’s rare to see someone from Seattle with an umbrella.

Having said that of course, when I woke up this morning it was chucking it down!  The rain was pretty heavy and for one fleeting moment I considered turning over and going back to sleep.  What changed my mind was that the weather changes really quickly and just because it was raining in Redmond didn’t mean it was in Seattle too, so I got up anyway.

There were no cars on the road and I got into Seattle in 20 minutes, it took another 20 to cross the West Seattle Bridge and pretty soon I was in Alki West Seattle.  By the time I parked up it was a little after 6am and still raining, so I sat in the car for another 20 minutes wondering why I wasn’t still in bed.

Eventually it started to ease up leaving me with our usually drizzle, so I grabbed my gear and headed over to one of the fishermen’s piers.  There were a few people there already all with rods over the side but I was the only idiot there with a camera.

What was good was that while I had drizzle over me, Seattle looked pretty clear.  Even better there was some great cloud cover over the city.

So I found a good spot and set up the tripod and stated shooting.  After about an hour the sun was starting to come up and the cloud and rain had reached the city.  The light turned pretty flat with no sunrise colors, just grey everywhere.  So it was time to go.

I thought I’d hang out in Alki for a while, grab some breakfast and see if things improved, but after a good hour and a half it was still horrid.  The rain was now heavier over Alki and the city and there was nothing in the sky except grey cloud.  So after an excellent breakfast at Alki’s cafe (I can definitely recommend the Crab Egg Benedict), I headed home.

In all I took around 100 pictures and only ended up with a few I liked.

My favorite was a small panorama of the city (two shots wide) with this great cloud over the taller buildings.  The cloud was pretty low and I think it created a good image – well worth the trip.  So that’s my first image below.

The next two where shots of the harbor port with all the cranes that are used to unload ships.  I liked the lights across the water on these ones.  The last image was ironically the first one I shot.  It shows the fisherman’s pier where I took the pano (no fishermen included – they were at the other end).

So not a load of keepers, but that’s what it’s like sometimes.  I’m really pleased with the pano and may print that one out (if Lisa lets me).

Ironically as I write this at 2pm, it’s completely dry outside – typical!  The sky’s still boring so I think I was lucky for the hour in the morning.

Hope you like the pics.