Lori Takes on the City

I've taken random shots in DC. I've taken random shots in New York. Might as well add San Antonio, Austin, Baltimore, Portland, New Orleans & San Diego to the list, too. What's missing? The city in my own backyard... Seattle. I had intended to spend the whole day randomly wandering about. I envisioned starting at the market early in the morning while everyone was setting up, grabbing some coffee in Belltown, wandering up the downtown area, perhaps a swing through the side gardens of Volunteer Park, maybe even a stroll through Ballard? oooo how'bout Fremont?? I figured my eyes were so used to the usual sights of Seattle that it would be interesting to view it from the eyes of an artistic traveler.

Well, it didn't exactly happen that way. I slept in & then spent a while doing the "lori dawdling" that I am known for. It was a luxurious morning. The flip side to the comforts of home is that I only had time for one destination. Can you figure it out from my photographic clues?

First Picture
After I left the parking garage, this is the first picture that I took. I knew it would be a wacky, random day.

Clues Numbered Two & Three

Does the shadow of the artwork offer any insight? How about the fountain feature below?

Art, Past & Present

Ok, now this one should tell you. Actually, if you were standing where I was standing and you looked up, you would know EXACTLY the location of my photo shoot. But, there were some people having their wedding pictures taken in this spot, so I skidaddled out of their way.

Under Exposed

I loved the old lights in this place. I took a few shots here. The first one below is intentionally underexposed (I thought it looked cool); you can't even tell that I took it in broad daylight. The second one below has brighter exposure. I steadied my camera on a post, but still would have liked a tripod. (oooh, I bought a new tripod today, too, btw. I am now in the Manfrotto club. Thanks for the recommendation, dma).

Inspiring Window 1 & 2

I was checking out the view, basking in the sun, when I noticed the writing on the window sill. Sharpies can be so inspirational.... do the scenes in the back give you any clues on my locale?

Ta-da!

Ok. If you are from Washington you should know where I am at by this picture. If you can't figure it out then I am going to talk to the proper authorities about having your Washington State citizenship revoked. Remember, I have macro super powers ;)

And Why...

And why did I chose Pike Place out of aaaallll the possible cool places in Seattle? Well, a couple reasons :) for starters, Pike Place is such an iconic destination; who doesn't take their out of town visitors to Pike Place, or at least recommend it for "someday"? I thought it would be a good challenge to take my random shots in such a popular place. The other big reason is for the flowers. A lovely bouqet of birthday flowers are gracing my living room. These lovely petals reminded me of how nice it is to have fresh flowers around, so, naturally, I headed to the market in search of flowers.

The pics below are the first of many. I like the expression of the people in the top one; un-posed, natural, with motion. However, I didn't have a good focus on my flowers. That, I don't like. The one below it is a bit better. I like the flowers this time, but wish I had better candid people shots.

Can't Decide 1, 2 &3

Oh man, I don't know which one of these I like better. I included them all. I like the trail of color in the first one; I like the glow of the sun on the brown paper on the second one; and I like the people in the background on the third one. The third one looks like stock photography; and I can also think it is sweet to see the dude buying flowers. He is solo; so maybe the bouqet is destined to be a nice surprise for someone?

Behind the scenes

Luckily it wasn't too crowded at the market. I had a chance to walk around to the back of the flower stands and snap this shot.

Don't Steal Art

How do you know when you are truly in Seattle? The level of passive-aggressivism goes up about, umm, three notches. I had envisioned the picture below as an example of the funkyness of the market... you have creativity of art next to beauty of agriculture, leading towards the roughness of the fish market. HOWEVER... as I was mentally composing this shot (and of course in a bit of a dreamy daze thinking about what to do, technically speaking) I got in someone's way. I realize that it was closing time and he was in a hurry. I did get out of his way, and gave him a friendly smile and an "oops sorry!". He didn't even have to slow down. Yet, as he trotted past me and onto the brick road outside the market the hollered back "don't steal art" without so much as a glance in my direction. pffssshhht. whatever. So, to join into the Seattle passive-aggressive nature, I have named this picture "don't steal art." Ha.

Empty Spaces 1, 2 &3

At one point during the photo shoot, I realized that I had taken a handful of shots in empty spaces. While I was taking them, I hadn't thought much of it. They caught my eye. They lured me in. The said "look at me!" It made me wonder; am I feeling empty? Am I like these empty spaces; unneeded and forgotten? I dunno. Or maybe it is as simple as an inner need for quiet contemplation. still dunno. I converted these three to black & white to give them similar tones.

Token Random Shot

So, after I took the reflective, solemn shot above, I headed back to the row of flower stands to pick up some truly beautiful little bouquets. On my way there, I stopped take a picture of these fun, zany bowties. Because bowties are just too "boring" on their own, gotta mix 'em up with funky fabrics. Oh dear. These things make me chuckle. So, with that I end my trip to the market with this token random shot. Enjoy.

just just just Kerry Park!

Today's adventure brought me to Kerry Park in Queen Anne. Actually, it was a bit of an adventure... I got lost! Well, at least now I know where Glazer's is located! Anyway, I made it to my destination... I think it is only the second time I have been in Queen Anne (the first being about a year ago when I went to Chopstix for my going-away party. Yes, dear friends, it has been just about a year since I left for DC!) I love it up there....

So, the park looks pretty unassuming from the street....

But then, look at the art work....

Ah, isn't the view amazing?

Amazing at sunset...

... Amazing at twighlight...

An amazing view of Alki...

... And yes, amazing at night.

I had fun up there... I used aperture priority, but it usually set the shutter at 30 seconds. Interesting. I started in ISO 400, but ended up going to 1600 as it grew darker because of the whole 30 second thing. NOTE TO SELF: put a remote timer on the list of stuff from Kits (or maybe Glazer's???). OH, and a new tripod; oh man, my tripod came apart twice while I was there. oh dear. I didn't use any filters (well, UV is a given, no?) and had fun going up and down the park looking for the right angle. There were quite a few photographers there; particularly at twilight, and it was a very pleasant atmosphere, in general.

As I left, I found another little park-like area at the end of the street that would probably have some fabu shots of the Olympics at sunset (did I really just write fabu? man, I am sleepy.)

Thanks for checking out my cool Seattle skyline shots! Hope you have a good weekend.

It is a tradition

Ok, we figured it out... Del and I visited Mt. St. Helens the day after his birthday last year. That trip was awesome; we were enchanted by the magnitude of the mountain and the gravity of its history.

We knew we would be back.

After an internship in a place far far away, six crazy months of grad school, and an intense roller-coaster ride we made it back... on Del's birthday-ish again! It has been on our radar all summer; I have the webcam and 7-day weather forecast bookmarked! This weekend turned out to be a good fit for weather and busy hiking schedules.

Turns out that early September is spectacular on the volcano. It was a gorgeous day & perfect for hiking... sunny but not too hot, and (almost) perfectly cloudy.

The plan? hahaha ha.. Thats funny. Like our many other ventures, this hike had a rough idea of places we wanted to go, but ended up following whatever adventure the wind had planned for us. Today's exploration started with a closed road that shouldn't have been closed. Luckily, we had a shiny new Garmin Rhino in hand (thank you Al! you are so awesome) to help us figure out alternative routes. A muddy, boggy, branchy, yet beautiful side trip later we found ourselves back on course for the Fawn Lake Trail.

As I am writing this I am realizing that I have about a hundred stories from the day. Since I aim for brevity but have trouble stopping myself when I am on a roll, I better just wrap things up... so here is the day in a nutshell: headed out EARLYish Saturday, learned that Applebees in Chehalis doesn't open until 10am, couldn't take the road we wanted, found another way (thanks again, Al!), hiked.. a lot, got sidetracked in mud, del almost sunk in quicksandish mud, found the trail, talked to the nice hunter guy who had many maps, took some great pictures, found the "trail" despite not seeing it (um, al, thank you ssoooo much), hiked up and up and up to places I never imagined in my life I could hike to, reached our destination (fawn lake) which turned out to be absolutely amazing (even more so after seeing some pics of what it looked like after the eruption.... see links below), took the nice forest service roads back to the truck (Pinky Vista!), still had enough daylight to explore Coldwater Lake & watched the sun set behind the ridge as we left the park. The day was complete with a trip to Olive Garden in Olympia, because.... it is a tradition.

Now that you now about the day in a nutshell, here are the pics... enjoy.

The Log by Pinky Vista

I am not sure if this was taken at Pinky Vista, but I think that it is the closest Way Point... I love how you can see Mt. St. Helens in the background, and the cloudline covers its current ridge. You can just imagine what the dome must have looked like before the eruption.

Forbidden Flower

Much like my attempts to macro at Rainier, today's macros were challenging due to wind. To get the shot below I held the flower with one hand and hit the shutter release with my other hand. I used my new f1.8 50mm and Canon close up filter.

The Third Plateau

I used an f22 aperture and a circular polarizer for this. There is a long story with this shot, but the basic idea is that at this point in the day I felt very accomplished. It was at this point that I realized I never, ever imagined that I would be able to accomplish the hike we were on. My how my life has changed in recent years.

The Trail, 1 & 2

So, from the third plateau we climbed even higher to reach the Fawn Lake trail. For this set of pictures I tried to use the depth of field tricks that I learned two weeks ago on the Rainier trip. The first pic is how I initially composed the shot, then the bottom one is using the "put your tripod up high then angle the camera down" technique. I also used a circular polarizer and hand-held my cokin 2nd filter.

Wonderment

We did it. We made it the Fawn Lake overlook. I wasn't sure what to expect, and my goodness, the view was breathtaking. I didn't take very many pictures there because I knew I couldn't adequately capture its beauty.(Del can though, and I can't wait to see his pictures!) Both of the pictures below were taken hand held, the first with a polarizer and the second with just a UV filter. I did a little bit of editing at home; the first one was too dark and the bottom one was toooo bright.

I also did a little google search when I came home and found a few pictures of this area following the eruption: one is from the US Geological Service, and the other is from I don't know where. When I saw those pictures I was amazed at the resilience of the area; It is so lush now. One might even say lavish. Note, if you look at that first pic, we were stationed at the top of the ridge. wow!

Coldwater Lake, 1 & 2

A tradition wouldn't be complete without a trip down memory lane. We headed to Coldwater Lake to revisit a few sites from last year's trip. This is kind of a weird place, I can't explain it... must be the altitude. Anyway, the lighting is tricky there, and I spent a lot of time trying to take the first picture. I tried a UV filter, polarizer, 2nd filter, and blue gradient filter. I wanted to capture the rocks on the lake shore AND the peaks in the distance. The pic below is ok... still not what I was imagining, though. Another day then?

There is a trail that runs along the side of the lake. It is quite lovely. We didn't go on it last year, but Del's eagle-eyes spotted it from across the dock this year, so we headed over to explore. I like the way that this pic below turned out.

And, of course, I took some more macro shots. The Coldwater Lake trail is perfect for me for macros because the hillside shelters most of the wind! Unfortunatly, time was quickly zipping away, and I managed only one last macro to wrap up the day.

As always, thanks for looking at my pics! Mt. St. Helens is beautiful, and I am thankful to have had the opportunity to have an adventure...

St. Edward the Fourth

Well, I tried it again.... I attempted to get some shots from St. Edwards State Park ...for the fourth time. My previous attempts to get some pics from the park were complicated by looming darkness and crummy weather. This time, my challenge was time; I had just over an hour to spare Thursday afternoon between work (in Bothell) and a meeting (in the U-District). In my world, Kenmore is on the way to the U-District. (just like Bellevue is on the way home from Ballard). I did enjoy my little trip there, and yes, will be back... hopefully for more than an hour.

The Seminary

The first two shots are of the old seminary. It is such a neat building. I used my polarizer on the top one (awesome sky, huh?) and used my new depth-of-field skills to capture all that lovely grass in the foreground. If only they were flowers. The bottom picture is a close up of the brick near the rear entrance of the seminary... I used my new canon f1.8 50mm, canon close up filter AND a little sideways cokin action.

In the Grotto, Part I

My mission for this trip was to find the grotto. It was surprisingly easy to find! I took many pictures here, mostly messing with the white balance (hmm, shade, sunny or auto?) but also mixing up the composition a bit, too. The bottom two pictures were taken from the same spot, only adjusting my tripod up and down. I didn't use a polarizer or cokin filter for these, and kept my aperture at f22.

In the Grotto, Part II
It was a little eerie to hang out in the alcove section of the grotto. I am not sure if it was an alter or what, but it was vibey. I felt weird taking pictures there and like I was offering up my camera when I set it on the ledge to switch out filters and lenses. Oh well, guess that's where faith comes in handy, eh?

For "In the Grotto, Part II," I have three pictures taken from the same spot. The first one was my first attempt. I set up my camera, I think at f22 still, metered and pressed go. Well, you can see, the rocks in the foreground are too, too dark. I had a bright idea... use fill flash! So, the middle picture is an example of what the rocks look like with a little flash. Better, but still not quite natural. Then, I figured it out. Try a mid-range f-stop (I think it is around f14?), keep the shutter open a little longer & use my cokin filter sideways to tone down the sunlight. Sideways cokin is the new orange.

In the Grotto, Part III

And then I busted out my new lens & close up filter.

Random-ish Side note: I have a little story that makes me chuckle; when I was taking the seminary picture (the very first one on this post) some landscape workers zipped by in their trendy golf-cart-mobile and one guy said "look at that weird chic." At first, I was a bit annoyed (um, who are YOU calling weird? Weirdo.) but then I thought, "wow, if he thinks I am weird taking pics of the building I wonder what he would think of my macro shots... ha!"

So, with that funny notion in mind... here is a mossy rock. Macro, of course. Taken on the steps into the grotto, of course. On a tripod with a self-timer, of course (btw, I NEED to get a handy little remote, the 10-second timer is getting old...). And, in true Lori-dawdling style, it took me about five minutes to take this pic because I kept experimenting with different settings. Take that, weirdo landscaper guy.

Now that I am using some powerful close-up tools, I have a new appreciation for the wind. Before, if there was a nice breeze, I would take it for granted, its coolness going undetected. Now though... now I am trying to get some beautiful berry shots I am supremely aware of the wind. Their delicate branches sway so easily in the faintest of breezes, resulting in many blurry shots.

The shot below is of the trail that runs near the grotto and heads down to the lake shore. It is a fine example of my multi-tasking abilities. I managed to set up my tripod, compose a shot with a limited range (50mm grrr!) and carry on a conversation with my mom (complete with directions to Home Depot). Not bad.

Newman Roses 1, 2, & 3

I arrived early to my meeting and was delighted to see a bunch of roses outside the chapel. How lovely! I used my tripod for all of these, an ISO of 200 (it was windy so I wanted the ability to use the fastest shutter speed possible) and a bunch of different f-stops. I also moved the camera around to different angles & heights. I used my close-up filter on the top two, but removed it for the bottom one. Also, the bottom one has some slight editing (white balance, curves & contrast); I only took one shot at this angle. I didn't have a chance to try any different settings because by that point my friends were arriving and I drifted into conversations....

Another day, another shoot. I have had the XTi for one month now. I am amazed at how comfortable I am with it, and with the adventures I have had this past month. September is looking like it will be an adventurous month, too... ;)

Thanks for checking out my pictures & for reading all my random commentary. Aren't those roses beautiful?

Takin' A Break

Hi there! I had a busy weekend, but no pics to prove it! I plan on heading out to some cool places this week, though, so check back again in a few days.