Night Skyline – Seattle

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

You have to be careful going out after dark with a camera as you can get overly addicted to these kind of night shots.  I drove to Seattle to get a neon image of Pike Place at night and decided to drive around town after to see what I could find.  I went down to the waterfront to shoot some of the piers and went looking for somewhere to park.

Across the road from the waterfront is the Seattle Alaskan Way Viaduct.  This carries the SR 99 from north to south Seattle and is soon going to be torn down.  Under the viaduct (or really just past under the viaduct) is a car park.  I pulled in, to park the car so I could go and shoot the piers and thought the city buildings looked great.  So I grabbed this shot.  As it was pretty late there weren’t too many people walking around but as you can see there were still some cars left.

Ironically, I liked this shot more than the piers I photographed, so I thought I’d post it tonight.

This is a long exposure with a small aperture which gives me the star looking lights and brings out the night blue sky.

Had to do some home improvements this weekend, the Halo guys stepped in to help out and stopped for a picture!

Post Alley – Seattle

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

If you go to Pike Place Market you typically go into the main food, flower and craft area and walk around that, this is called the Main Arcade.  If you are feeling a little adventurous, you may find the stairs or ramps to go down stairs and find the stores below in the area known as “Down Under”, but that’s not all there is.

Pike Place is the road the Main Arcade is on (I know what a surprise), and the market is on both sides of the road.  Across the road from the Main Arcade is Post Alley.  Here you can find a number of retail stores, restaurants and cafes.  In fact it’s the best place to get a bite to eat in the market.

When I visited to take this shot the market was deserted (very rare) so I captured one side of Post Alley without any people in shot.  Most of this area is lit with neon signs and it’s amazingly colorful.   At first I thought I’d post a color shot as there is blue neon round the sign and red neon on the buildings and everything is lit up.  But the problem is the picture was overly bright and a little sickly.  Then I tried a black and white and added a copper tone.  I really liked this so chose this one instead.  Lisa liked this one with some color peaking though but I’m off those sort of shots these days – so this is what you’re getting.

Anyway, great part of the market, if you get the chance check it out, and also a nice place for a picture.

Apparently Master Chief is worried about his weight, so Carter told him to get some Saran Wrap on and sweat the weight off!

Night Market – Seattle

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

After my night shots in Bellevue, I thought I should do some more night neon pictures, so this evening I drove to Seattle to see what I could get.  I started off in Pike Place Market and took this picture overlooking Elliott Bay.

The market was pretty deserted so I was able to park up right in the market and walk around with the tripod and get some nice shots.  I chose this one as the first to post as I liked the contrast of the blue sky and the pinky-red neon.  Also the ferry in the distance came out really well, add to that the cool little fish in the corner and I had a nice image.

I tried to get a shot actually in the Market as well as it was empty and I figured how often can you take a picture in there with no people, but a security guard told me I wasn’t allowed!  I have no idea why, all I wanted to do was take a picture but he was quite big and a little scary looking so I just moved on.

Tomorrow I’m going to another car show (I like cars) so I may post something from that tomorrow.

Master Chief did some yard work today and needed some help cleaning up.  Carter helped.

Spitfire Mk IX – Museum of Flight

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

I haven’t posted a plane in a while so here you go (I looked back at my other aircraft postings and I say this every time – I’m clearly starting to repeat myself – sorry).  This shot was taken in the World War II exhibit at the Museum of Flight in Seattle.  If you haven’t visited this museum and you get the chance, go for it.  It’s a very cool place.  It’s located at Boeing Field (where they build the Boeing Jumbo Jets) and really is for all the family.

The museum has a number of different exhibit areas; there’s the main floor that has lots of commercial aircraft, a space exhibit area with information on space craft and the different NASA missions, a World War II area where you can see a number of old planes from the era and finally an outside exhibit area where you can view and walk in some old planes like JFK’s Air Force One jumbo (yes you can see where Jacky Onassis had a poo).  They used to have a Concord there and a Space Shuttle but I think they may have gone now.

So today’s plane is a 1944 Spitfire Mk IX.  When the Spitfire first came out in 1936 it was one of the fastest planes on the planet and four short years later held the German Luftwaffe (that’s the German Air Force) at bay in the Battle of Britain.  Ironically this plane probably stopped the invasion of the United Kingdom and arguably enabled the Allies to win the war.

The Museum’s Spitfire was built at Castle Bromwich in early 1944. Assigned to a fighting squadron by May, and was flown in support of the D-Day Invasion on June 6, 1944.  So this really is a piece of history.

Today Carter decided to do some painting, here he is just finishing his picture – pretty good eh?

Pike Place Market – Seattle

22. May 2012 · Write a comment · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , ,

You can’t really visit Seattle without going to Pike Place Market and when you do you’ll probable enter the market under the big clock.  This is the south end of the Market at the end of Pike Street and arguably the part that’s most famous.  At this end you find Rachel the bronze cast piggy bank which is usually covered in tourists trying to get a market picture, and behind Rachel is the Pike Place Fish Market.  This fish market is probably one of the major attractions as when you buy fish here the guy out front selects the one you want and throws it to the guys behind the counter who pack it for you.  Throwing fish is definitely their thing, but if you want that picture you need some patience – they don’t throw fish to order!

I chose to visit the market on a day off work.  It was pretty quiet in the morning and the sun was shining and gave me the opportunity to take the typical market shot.  I actually wasn’t going to post this one as everyone shoots the market from this location, but then I thought what the hell!  I live in Seattle, I need to get this one at least once – so here is my traditional Pike Place Market.

The signage above the market here is great and when it gets dark everything lights up.  I actually drove to Seattle late one Sunday night just to capture the neon lights.  It was raining when I went too which was fantastic as I was after red neon reflections in the road.  It takes around 40 minutes for me to drive there and I was going just for this one picture.  However when I got there the sign wasn’t on.  I was totally devastated and rather than look for other subjects drove home totally depressed.  I will get that shot this year though so look out for that one.

Today Carter felt the need to hit the road and ride his Harley.  As you can see his dream came true.

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