Space Needle, Pike Place Market & Kirkland

14. May 2016 · Comments Off on Space Needle, Pike Place Market & Kirkland · Categories: General, Photography · Tags: , ,

Friday turned out to be a really beautiful day and as we had family (Regan) in town I decided to take a day off work and go out and enjoy the weather.  We all voted and picked Seattle as the location thinking the view from the Space Needle would fantastic.

So first we hit Pike Place Market.  The temperature was over 80 degrees and the tourists were out in force but we had a great time walking through the Market grabbing pics along the way.  I love the flowers, fruit and veg stalls and took a load of pics at each.  We found an interesting pasta stall and I got some great close up shots of pasta, I can see some of these making great wallpapers.

We walked past the gum wall which was recently cleaned and found that people had once again started to “decorate” the alley (much I’m sure to everyones delight – I don’t think anyone wanted Seattle to remove all the gum).

Then it was onto the Space Needle.  Now I’ve taken so many pictures of the Needle it’s difficult to come up with something new or interesting.  I got one shot I quite liked standing below the needle looking up and a couple of others getting the needles reflection in the “Experience Music Project” (EMP) building.

As expected the views from the top of the needle were amazing.  You could see for miles and even Mount Rainer was super clear.

To end the day, we finished up in Kirkland grabbing some Seattle Hot Dogs (you definitely need to try a Seattle dog if you never have) and then spent some time sitting by Lake Washington.

I took (as usual) a TON of pics, I’m just posting a few here today.

Really pleased I took the day off as I’m typing this on Saturday morning and it’s raining outside – you gotta love Seattle weather!

 

Christmas Space Needle – Seattle

18. December 2012 · Comments Off on Christmas Space Needle – Seattle · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , , ,

You can’t really go to the Seattle Center with a camera and not take a picture of the Space Needle, that would be just silly! – there’s probably a law somewhere that prohibits that!  So I figured I should take a picture while there on Saturday.  The rain was coming down pretty hard and I was soaked.  But being the “professional” I am, I still got out the tripod and set it up in front of the needle.

At this time of year it’s all lit up and they even have a Christmas Tree in the fountain at the front.  Being Seattle it’s not a traditional tree obviously, it’s made up of a collection of balls that are covered in lights.  But it still looks pretty cool.

When I took this picture it was pretty dark.  But as I put the camera on a tripod and took the picture with a long exposure, the sky looked quite light and you can easily see the blue color.  Having said that of course the needle is nicely lit and the water on the road gives some really nice light reflections.  I used a really wide lens on this picture, it was the only way I could get the needle in the picture.  But lenses this wide introduce some distortion.  You can remove this but you lose some of the picture.  In this image the tree in the fountain appears to be leaning over to the left, but really it was standing straight up but as I wanted to keep all the details in the image I decided not to correct it.

Today Master Chief showed Carter his new Santa Hat – really nice!

Lisa & Abi at the Space Needle – Seattle

27. March 2012 · Comments Off on Lisa & Abi at the Space Needle – Seattle · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , , , ,

I’m really angry with myself as last night I passed up a fantastic picture (because I was too tired) – how lame is that?  I was driving home and it was a lovely evening, nice sunset, warm, blue sky (you get the idea).  Anyway I was driving past some field and right near the fence was a tiny calf (yes that’s right a baby cow).  It was eating grass and very close to the side of the road.  There was even a place to park up!  But no, I was too tired, so I drove on and went home.  All the way thinking, I’ll get the picture tomorrow, it will be there then.

So tonight I leave work and it’s raining really hard.  I get to the field and there isn’t a cow, calf, duck, goat, chicken in sight – nothing.  I bet I NEVER see that bloody cow again.  As a result I didn’t get a picture and am forced to post something I captured the other day.

On Sunday Lisa, Abi and I went to Seattle and I got this shot of Lisa and Abi at the Space Needle.  I don’t get to photograph Lisa very often so this was clearly a special occasion.  I really like this image but that little cow would have been great too.  All I can say is, Bugger!

Carter was playing “Show me the Money” tonight from his quarter throne.