22 Sep 11. If architectural photography is something in which you are interested, Seattle ought to be on your list of places to visit. There is likely no city in the U.S. with a more varied set of building styles and designs, period. A marvelous mixture of the very old is complimented by some very interesting and daring modern designs. Perhaps the most photographed building in the city, aside from the Space Needle and now the Experience Music building(s) in the Seattle Center, home of the '62 World's Fair, would be the Seattle Public Library main branch building. This bold design combining metal lattice work and glass with color offers a different face throughout the day literally changing as the sun makes its orbit across the sky, clouds or otherwise. The design is continued within making the interior a lessor representation of the exterior, although for my taste it is not nearly as interesting save for a couple of isolated spots. Still one could literally spend an entire day working the subject and not tire of the myriad of possibilities provided between sunrise and sunset. This May shot was taken at roughly 1300 PDT which equates to the noon sun time, the time of day when you hear that you should never be taking photos; however, I rather like the effect that the noon light was providing giving everything a pastel feel. I could of course have increased the contrast but for this image but I felt that the more subtle color was more effective. Those of you who are puzzle fans may find this a fun image to use for a puzzle. ISO 200; 1/641 sec (middle of 5) @ f / 6.3.
23 Sep 11. Another image from the Day in Seattle outing for today and one which serves to illustrate, hopefully well, the concept of the vanishing point. Seattle has relatively "recently" added a passenger only (foot ferry) service to its vehicular service for those wanting to commute across Puget Sound. The outing was my first time to see it, and in truth, didn't actually even realize what it was I was photographing until I got around to working on the images shot that day. Vanishing points serve to give us size relationships, distance, scale, and most obviously, draw our eyes to a specific location.There are multiple sets of vanishing points working in this image, of which my favorite are the arching light poles. Added to those are the superstructure, the railing, the decking, and, to a lesser degree, the clouds, all of which should make you focus on the ferry, small though it may be. I spotted the vessel a ways out and then got into position such that the boat had to come directly under the curved light poles. It could have been a better shot had I caught the boat just a few seconds later requiring some considerable editing, but it was getting larger quite rapidly and I was quickly loosing my desired result. I tried some shots with the boat further back and thus smaller but it rendered the vessel so small as to totally loose the effect. I gave some thought about cloning out the last two "offending" light poles which would have made a more perfect composition, but decided against it primarily because I don't have a good example of a very small ferry to use to fill in the removed portions correctly. As it was, the original required a fair amount of straightening to get this "correct" look ISO 200; 1/500 sec (middle of 5) @ f/11.
24 Sep 11. While subbing on Thur & Fri of this week I noticed a rather nice retaining wall outside this newly remodeled school which was "crawling" with some lovely vines. Portions were turning a vivid red and most of the rest were a vibrant green. I thought the wall with the vines would make a nice image, but I didn't have the camera with me and, even if I had, the crowds of students would have made the shot all but impossible. So Jan and I went there this afternoon, and with NO kiddies anywhere near, I was able to get several nice images. The wall runs in two portions along the entire length of a city block, with a break in the middle for the steps to the school. As it turned out, each of the images I took would stand on their own quite nicely, but I thought that putting them together to show off 1/2 of the wall would make for a much nicer presentation, so that's just what I've done. This is the western half of the retaining wall that fronts Hamilton International 6-8. ISO 200; 1/200 sec @ f / 5 for each of the 5 images that make up the panel.
