Harbor – Seattle

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

This is my last picture from the harbor in Seattle – well at least for now, I can’t promise I won’t go back.  I posted the the ferris wheel the other day and that was on the left hand side of the pier.  This shot was taken on the right hand side, looking back towards Seattle.

The boats moored at dock are vessels from the Argosy fleet right next to pier 55.  The boats were rocking from side to side and you can see this as the mast of the sail boat has a lot of motion blur.  This happened as it was getting dark so I had a longer than desired exposure.

In the far distance is Centurylink Field which is the stadium that’s the home of the Seattle Seahawks and Seattle Sounders (that’s an American Football team and a American Soccer team for any Brit’s who read this).  Just out of shot past Centurylink Field is Safeco Field the Seattle Mariners stadium – our baseball team (I figured I should mention that too so people know we have all three).

While I was there a few people came onto the peer to take pictures too.  It was kind of funny as I’m there set up with my tripod and huge camera bag taking loads of pictures and people walk up, pull out their iPhone, take a snap, look at it and say “awesome” and then walk away!  They must think I’m nuts as I was there for ages.  There was one other guy there with a camera on a tripod who was there when I arrived and was still there when I left.  His camera was pointing in the same direction the whole time and he was sitting there waiting – I’m not sure what for but I couldn’t be bothered to wait and see or ask him.  I was happy with my 150 pictures.

Anyway, tomorrow I’ll move onto something else.

Master Chief decided he didn’t know his seven times table, so Carter was helping him with flashcards.

Royal Argosy – Seattle

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

If you ever visit Seattle and take a trip down to the city water front on Elliott Bay, you may be tempted to take a boat trip out in the bay and do a tour of the city from the water.  Alternatively you might want to jump on a boat, go through the locks at Ballard and get into Lake Washington and do a sightseeing tour there (who knows you may see Bill Gates in his house in Medina, Bellevue).

Well if you want to do either, you will have to take an Argosy Cruise.  This company provides all sorts of cruises out of Seattle and they all start from Pier 55 on Alaskan Way right down on the waterfront.

Now I have done most of their tours over the years (some multiple times as it’s a great place to take friends and family who visit), but I’ve never done one of their Dining Cruises.  They actually have a few different types including a lunch cruise, a dinner dance cruise and even a murder mystery dinner cruise (I’d like that one).  All of these take place on their largest vessel the Royal Argosy.

It just so happens that when I was there shooting the other night, the Royal Argosy was coming into dock after one of it’s dinner dance cruises.  The ship was beautifully lit and when it docked hundreds of people came off all dressed up in the best evening gowns and tuxedos.

I took this picture from the end of the pier looking back at the Royal Argosy which had docked at port with the city skyline in front of it.  Pier 56 to the left in the picture has some restaurants on it that were all lit up providing cool reflections on the water.

It all looked really nice and made I think a lovely picture.

Tonight the guys decided to play “Littlest Petshop” on Abi’s Nintendo DS.

Elliott Bay Sunset – Seattle

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

Tonight I’m posting another image from last nights visit to Seattle.  Shortly after I got there I caught a ferry coming in as another was going out.  The sun was really over the Olympics mountain range but the sky was a great orange, red color.

It was getting dark at this time so I had to shoot either with a long exposure or with high ISO. As the ferry was moving, long exposures were out, it would just look like a blur going across the water, so I had to ramp the ISO up on the D4.

Now with my older camera, if I went above 800 ISO the picture had a load of “noise”, this looked like heavy grain in the image, almost like a really old picture from the early 1900s.  Sometimes this looks cool, but only sometimes, so high ISO was kind of useless on my old camera.  But this D4 is amazing.  I pumped up the ISO on this image to around 6400 and managed to get a stationary ferry with a nice exposure with very little noise.

I love the orange sky in this shot and the black clouds, catching both ferries cross paths also get some strong foreground interest.

Carter found a bracelet that he liked and started wearing it around the house.  Not to be outdone, Master Chief did the same.

Ferris Wheel – Seattle

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

After 6 months of waiting I finally have my new camera and would you believe that since it arrived, it’s not stopped raining.  I wanted to go out today to get some shots (as yesterday was totally written off) so I jumped into the car after breakfast and drove over to Issaquah.

I thought I’d go to the Lake Sammamish Park and see if I could shoot something on the water.  It was dry when I left home and spotting as I entered the park, but I figured I had enough time to get some pictures.  How wrong can you be.  As I parked up, the sky’s opened and it was like a bucket of water was pored over my car, I couldn’t believe how heavy it started to come down.

So, feeling dejected I headed home convinced that this would be another day with no new pictures.  When I got home Lisa was going to Bell Square Mall so I thought I’d go with her, we were dropping Abi off at a party and thought we’d hang in the Mall for a couple of hours.  While there I popped into the Talls Camera store and saw they had a D4 for sale.  I asked the guy working there when he got it in and he told me he gets them in every week – has for ages – and has sold loads!  I couldn’t believe it – I could have had my camera months ago!  So it was clearly turning into a really crappy day.

After we picked up Abi we headed home and the skies cleared and the sun came out – typical. Lisa, Abi and I went out for dinner (James wasn’t interested) and got home at 8:30 at night.  On the way home the sky looked great and the sun was going down.  So I decided to go out again with the camera and look for a nice sunset shot.

So I grabbed the gear and drove to Seattle, I had around 40 minutes to get to the city, find a parking place and get a shot.  Fortunately the roads were pretty empty and I made great time, I was parked up on the water front in 35 minutes.  I ran to a pier and looked for a subject to shoot.

I haven’t been to Seattle for a while and apparently Seattle had decided to put up a large ferris wheel, similar to the London Eye in England.  It isn’t open to the public yet, Lisa told me it wont be until later in the summer, but I thought it might make a good subject.  The sun was going down just behind the wheel and the pier was lit up with red and orange lights.  So I set up the tripod and started shooting.

I’m pretty pleased with the image I got and just relieved that I finally captured a nice image with the camera (and it stopped raining). Hopefully I’ll get some more shots tomorrow.

Carter and Master Chief decided to make a model of the Space Needle today.  Here you can see Master Chief adding the finishing touches.

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!

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