Washington Mutual Tower (again) – Seattle

02. October 2012 · Comments Off on Washington Mutual Tower (again) – Seattle · 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.

Gum Wall – Seattle

29. September 2012 · Comments Off on Gum Wall – Seattle · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , , ,

Just under Pike Place Market on Post Alley is the Seattle Gum wall.  The wall is outside the Market Theater and back in 1993 people in line for the theater started sticking gum to the wall just before they went inside.  Initially some used to stick gum to the wall and place a coin in the gum too (I have no idea why you would do this but that’s what they did).  Anyway the theater were pretty cross and would come outside the follow day and scrape all the gum off the wall.  This was clearly seen as a “challenge” to the people of Seattle who really went for it and covered the wall with more.  Eventually (after numerous clean ups) the theater gave up and the cite accepted the wall as a (rather discussing) tourist attraction.

The wall itself is pretty big and covers around 30 square feet.  You would be amazed just how much gum is on the wall and how high people get it!  Every now and then the city comes round and cleans up the very bottom of the wall and of course the floor where all the gum falls off.  But the leave the majority of the gum there.

The wall is a very popular location for wedding photographers (every brides dream I should imagine to get photographed here), also it’s common to see “I love you” or signs  like “Julie will you go to the prom with me”? All spelt out in gum!  So the wall looks cool (I think) and is kind-a fun, except for the smell, which is horrible.  It just smells of sticky sweet candy and really isn’t very nice at all.

However, on the other side of the Alley, the city has decreed that no gum is allowed, they even have signs saying “No Gum”.  Again, another challenge for the city residents.  They of course cover this wall with gum too and decorate the “No Gum” sign for the city too (which is nice of them I think).  Every week the city cleans the wall and the residents of the Seattle start again.

I couldn’t resist this side, I think it’s funny that it’s covered with gum too and had to get a shot.  Maybe there’s a little rebel in me too!

Now I have no idea what Orbeez are, but they start really small and grow when they are put into water.  Needless to say, Master Chief and Carter decided to make some toeday.

Sunflower – Pike Place Market

28. September 2012 · Comments Off on Sunflower – Pike Place Market · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , , ,

I don’t know if you have been to Pike Place Market on a Saturday afternoon, if you haven’t let me tell you it’s rather crowded.  The market itself is pretty large and mostly under cover with stores on both sides of the walkway.  Trying to walk down the walkway is pretty difficult, you spend a lot of time bumping into people, getting stepped on or being pushed. So imagine what it’s like trying to take some pictures in that kind of environment!  It’s pretty difficult.

We were in there trying to shoot some flowers and fruit.  The market sellers don’t really mind photographers there, I guess it kind of goes with the territory, I mean when your store is in a major tourist attraction you gotta expect pictures.  As long as you don’t get in the way of purchasing customers they are fine.

Anyway, we saw these sunflowers that were just under some tungsten lights and were totally of back lit – so the petals looked almost orange.  So I “eased” my way forward and shot off some frames and got the image below.  Now those of you who visit my blog know I don’t shy away from photoshop.  But this image is directly out of the camera.  I didn’t do a thing.  Check out the petals across the top of the flower, you can see that they’re back lit as the middle at the front is slightly darker than the outer (thinner) edges.

I loved the narrow depth of field in the image, the way the background is out of focus keeps you looking the foreground flower.

Master Chief and Carter had a bet tonight to see if a small flashlight would power a solar powered flower toy.  It did.  Master Chief won.

Hammering Man – Seattle Art Museum

27. September 2012 · Comments Off on Hammering Man – Seattle Art Museum · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , ,

On Saturday on the Seattle photo walk we visited Seattle’s Art Museum (or SAM).  Outside the museum they have a large Hammering Man moving sculpture.

This 48 foot sculpture was made out of steel and aluminium and has a motorized arm that moves up and down.  The arm is holding a large hammer, hence it’s name, the “Hammering Man”.  It was erected in 1992 and built by artist Jonathan Borofsky.  There are several Hammering Man sculptures around the world, ours is one of the largest.  The arm hammers from 7am to 8pm every day and takes one day off a year, Labor Day.  The statue is suposed to represent the working man so I guess taking Labour Day off makes sense.

When we got to the museum our guide (Chandler) gave us a challenge.  He said that he comes here quite a lot with different photography parties and always see’s the same images. So our chalenge was to try and capture the sculpture from a different perspective, something Chandler hasn’t seen before.  So for the next 15 minutes we tried everything, walking around the sculpture, shooting from under trees, from behind bus shelters, I’m sure you get the picture.

Anyway I took loads of pictures and in the end found this composition.  Below and some distance from the sculpture is a street lamp.  By lying on the floor (nearly) and looking up (at a certain angle) I got this picture so it looks like the Hammering Man is hitting the light.  Yes I know it’s not brilliant, and according to Chandler it’s not original either.  But it was the best shot I got.  He did say it was the best version he of this he’d seen, but I have no doubt he says that to everyone.

So here is my “original” Hammering Man image, with him bashing the crap out of a street light – what a vandal.

Today we were discussing what would happen if we had a flood, Carter explained that he had a plan and got one of James’ size 13 shoes!  Not sure I’ll fit but the Halo dudes are certainly going to be ok!

Dead End – Seattle

26. September 2012 · Comments Off on Dead End – Seattle · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: ,

While on the photo walk in Seattle this weekend I captured this picture in Post Alley just behind Pike Place Market.  I loved the composition but there were quite a few things wrong with it and I started making changes.  I like the end result but it’s totally fake – I do love Photoshop.

So what was wrong with it, what did I do?  Well firstly the sky was a horrible drab grey color.  It wasn’t white just dirty!  So I grabbed some sky from a shot I took over Lake Mead in Nevada.  The sky was a little too blue so I had to lighten it a little for image.  Then there was the Post Alley sign.  Only the word Post was lit up, Alley was broken.  So I fixed that too.  Then there was wall around the Dead End sign.  The wall is basically cement, and looked flat and boring, so I changed that to make it pop a little.  Then there were the bricks on the other side of the road, I made them redder and sharper and did the same for the cobble stones on the road.  The end result is the image below.

I know what you’re thinking, now you know what I did you can “see it all” and I’ve probably ruined it for you.  The end result is I probably spent too much time on this and arguable over processed it.  But I had fun doing it so what the heck!

What I really liked about this image was the composition.  A normal shot of the Alley wouldn’t have looked anywhere near as nice.  This one came out really well.  I should say a big thank you here to Chandler who came up with the idea for the shot (can’t really take credit for that).

Update 9/27: Someone asked me what the original image looked like, so I added it to the post.  Just hold the mouse over the image to see what I started with.

Master Chief found a jar of Maraschino Cherry’s and went a bit nuts tonight.  Abi won’t be happy when she get’s in these are hers!

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