Seattle 2016

SweetPotatoFries · Jul 13, 2016

We left on July 6th for our first trip to Seattle. My sister has lived there for 10 years and we were so excited to visit.

Our trip across the time zones meant that we had a good part of the afternoon and evening on the 6th to explore the area of Mukilteo where my sister lives. We had an amazing dinner at Ivar's on the water near the ferry then explored the Lighthouse Park. The weather was bright and sunny, about 72 degrees.

This photo was a test to see what it would look like to take a picture through the driftwood.

The Lighthouse Park had a large carving on driftwood in the parking lot. I would estimate it at about 12ft tall. Focus here was on the carved area rather than the entire driftwood.

And a little humor ...

I took a gazillion pictures while we were in Seattle, so you will have to hang in there with me as I post a few at a time. Some are family vacation snapshots while others I really tried to pay attention to creating a nice photograph.

WoodButcher · Jul 13, 2016

Bird shot is funny, and well composed. Boat wasn't directly behind it so it didn't distract, but having it there helps tell the story. Or in my opinion it does.

I like the porthole through the driftwood idea. I can't tell what f-stop that was shot at though, but a higher f-stop might, and I say might because you are so close to it, have given a little more detail to the driftwood. I don't think I'd want it in sharp focus though, but a little more would help frame it.

Good stuff and I'm looking forward to more. The instagram shots that Emily did while you were there, were those your camera? Or something else?

SweetPotatoFries · Jul 13, 2016

WoodButcher said:
Bird shot is funny, and well composed. Boat wasn't directly behind it so it didn't distract, but having it there helps tell the story. Or in my opinion it does.

I like the porthole through the driftwood idea. I can't tell what f-stop that was shot at though, but a higher f-stop might, and I say might because you are so close to it, have given a little more detail to the driftwood. I don't think I'd want it in sharp focus though, but a little more would help frame it.

Good stuff and I'm looking forward to more. The instagram shots that Emily did while you were there, were those your camera? Or something else?

Thanks for the feedback. I took a couple through the driftwood, but don't think I got one with a higher f-stop. Will check.

Em was using her iPhone. :-)

. She has a good eye.

SweetPotatoFries · Jul 14, 2016

Rusty, both shots of the dock through the driftwood were an F4.

SweetPotatoFries · Jul 14, 2016

We wandered Pike's Place market, the city center, and Ballard Locks on the second day of our trip. Good thing we were walking a lot because we were also sampling great food!

Here is Gravelguy in front of the brewery

And, of course, the fish market. Not a great photo I know ...

We saw these cute sculptures near the Space Needle.

And this one at the locks

This is one of my attempts at red flowers on the grounds of Ballard Locks. It was an overcast day.

And love these pink and purple flowers

Windmill · Jul 14, 2016

King Crab, did I read 39.99/lb? WoW! :eat:

SweetPotatoFries · Jul 15, 2016

Ballard Locks was really interesting. I lived in Panama as a kid and had an opportunity to go through the locks in the Panama Canal. This was a neat experience for the kids to see boats going through. We watched several sets going both directions

There is also a lot of history with the Salmon Ladder. My pictures under the locks didn't turn out well (really dark), but there were viewing windows where you could see the fish.

Salmon Ladder

Interesting architecture

And of course, pretty flowers on the grounds!

There was a gentleman feeding the birds and squirrels popcorn

I edited the seagull out of this one as the focus was tight on the squirrel and the bird was out of focus.

TexTom · Jul 15, 2016

Looks like typical summer Seattle weather. :sun:

TG

SweetPotatoFries · Jul 15, 2016

TexTom said:
Looks like typical summer Seattle weather.
TG

It was beautiful!!! Overcast some days, some rain, highs around 70.

WoodButcher · Jul 15, 2016

Nice shots. Specially the flowers. Keep them coming.

SweetPotatoFries · Jul 16, 2016

Editing a few at a time ... this thread should take awhile :trust:

The grounds at the Ballard Locks were beautiful. There was a nice hill that Mason and Emily decided they needed to roll down. Tried to get me involved, but I'd probably break something.

Mark took this one of me and the kids on the grassy hill. The sun was to our backs, so even though it was overcast you get a lot of shadow on our faces.

And my silly babies posing ...

And of course many more flowers. I've given up naming them because I don't know what most are.

This strikes me as something similar to a dandelion.

And, difficult red flowers ...

A thistle perhaps? Check the bee ...

WoodButcher · Jul 16, 2016

Last two flowers are really nice. Love the family shots. It's nice when they are willing to get pictures taken. Mine always had a limited tolerance.

M38A1 · Jul 16, 2016

Your Ballard Locks pics made me smile.... Wasn't too terribly long ago I was there and this brought back some good memories.

The fam pics are great. Good looking bunch you have there! (pics too... :mrgreen:

)

SweetPotatoFries · Jul 17, 2016

Thanks! I really enjoyed seeing the locks and the gardens. The thistle is cropped tight so you can see the bee. In the full picture it looks more like a fly

My sister got several pictures of me, guess what is in front of my face in most of them? :photo:

She got a picture of the boys on top of the driftwood from the first set with me taking the picture. Is kinda funny.

Kids will be still for a little while, but I don't get that long to get the shot right before they move on, or make faces at me (those are usually the ones I capture).

Jenn

SweetPotatoFries · Jul 17, 2016

So, here is a struggle. When you have sea, land, clouds and the clouds are rolling in ... how do you get good color? When I look at this, it looks like it did that day. Is that ok, or is there something I should have done differently?

45 mm prime lens (micro 4/3 camera)
f8
1/640

Jennifer

Hoodcounty · Jul 17, 2016

Last time I was in Seattle, the Space Needle WAS the skyline, and it was painted dayglo orange. Been a few uh...years.

Thanks for the photo memories!

Tracker · Jul 17, 2016

Great shots all around, Jennifer. Not really much to offer in feedback; they were all great.

On the driftwood porthole shot, you might think about cropping the blue sky upper right off. For me, it was a distraction.
On the last sea/sky shot, I think I would go for the horizon aligned with the bottom third. The sea is not as interesting as the sky. Also, rotate the shot so the horizon is level. I have seen some sea/horizon/sky shots work with the horizon dead middle, but generally, I think they come out better of the horizon is aligned along the thirds, depending on whether the foreground or sky is the more interesting part of the shot.

WoodButcher · Jul 17, 2016

Jennifer, I downloaded your pic and did a couple of things. Gradient filter to lower exposure on darker clouds, dehaze filter. Changed the color temp slightly. And cropped to remove some of the ocean and leveled the horizon. Overall, it is not radically different, but a little lighter and bluer. Is that kind of what you were thinking? I think pictures should be close to what you remember seeing most of the time.

SweetPotatoFries · Jul 17, 2016

So, perhaps more like ...

And ...

Jennifer

SweetPotatoFries · Jul 17, 2016

WoodButcher said:
Jennifer, I downloaded your pic and did a couple of things. Gradient filter to lower exposure on darker clouds, dehaze filter. Changed the color temp slightly. And cropped to remove some of the ocean and leveled the horizon. Overall, it is not radically different, but a little lighter and bluer. Is that kind of what you were thinking? I think pictures should be close to what you remember seeing most of the time.

Thanks! I am still using Photoscape X and have not learned all the tools yet. I like the way the water looks better in your version. I did a few adjustments based on Tracker's feedback as well.

Jennifer

WoodButcher · Jul 17, 2016

yep, there is no single correct answer. It is a creative process, so the final decision is what you want it to look like. Tweak, see what you like, tweak it again.

cdc · Jul 17, 2016

WoodButcher said:
Jennifer, I downloaded your pic and did a couple of things. Gradient filter to lower exposure on darker clouds, dehaze filter. Changed the color temp slightly. And cropped to remove some of the ocean and leveled the horizon. Overall, it is not radically different, but a little lighter and bluer. Is that kind of what you were thinking? I think pictures should be close to what you remember seeing most of the time.

Question, the copyright changed hands?
:ponder:

SweetPotatoFries · Jul 17, 2016

Finishing the set from the locks:

A seagull waiting for the water coming out of the locks to churn up potential mid afternoon snacks.

Boats waiting to come in from the lower side of the locks:

Here is a better view of the bridge. A sailboat with tall masts went through at one point while we were there and the bridge was raised. Not sure how I missed a picture of that :doh:

So, exploring meant we were navigating via Google maps. Traffic from downtown Seattle back to Mukilteo was terrible and I was trying to find a different route. We accidentally ended up in Golden Gardens Park as we missed the turn off the park road. But, since we were at a "beach" we had to get out and look around. The rain was coming back ... the pic Rusty and I have both edited belongs in this group as well.

M38A1 · Jul 17, 2016

cdc said:
Question, the copyright changed hands?

I'm guessing that was done inadvertently on Lightroom export. I've been tripped up by it a few times. (that and on import changing parameters to remove me as the copyright holder in the EXIF)

cdc · Jul 17, 2016

M38A1 said:
I'm guessing that was done inadvertently on Lightroom export. I've been tripped up by it a few times. (that and on import changing parameters to remove me as the copyright holder in the EXIF)

That's what I thought, but wanted to give a hard time to R.

Seattle 2016

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