Nothing much to add. Biggest challenge with this one was getting some saturation on a super overcast day. HDR helps, but only so far.
| Camera & Lens | Canon EOS REBEL T1i (Canon) & EF28mm f/1.8 USM | Shutter: | 1/320 s | |||
| Creation Date: | 2011:09:25 10:20:28 | Aperture: | f/9.0 | |||
| Artist: | Ari Brown | ISO: | 200 | |||
| Exposure Mode: | Normal program | Focal Length: | 28 mm |
Aurora Avenue seems like it probably has a storied past. These days, the story is urban highway and blighted business districts. At one time, it seems like everyone decided it would be a great place to build glorious old-timey motels. Back before the Motel 6s and Holiday Inns, everyone had cool names and even better signs. At present, most of those places are out of business, but some remain, and better yet, they haven’t torn down the relics quite yet. I don’t think they’ll last long, so this will be the first in a series of what is left. All of these are on Aurora Ave N (State Route 99) north of downtown Seattle. First up, the Thunderbird Motel.
| Camera & Lens | Canon EOS REBEL T1i (N/A) & EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM | Shutter: | 1/160 s | |||
| Creation Date: | 2011:09:20 07:52:01 | Aperture: | f/8.0 | |||
| Artist: | Ari Brown | ISO: | 200 | |||
| Exposure Mode: | N/A | Focal Length: | 35 mm |
Most recently, this place was actually called the Fremont Inn, but I’ll defer to the huge neon thunderbird. This was actually one of the first of the motels to be forcibly shut down under the nuisance laws. I can’t say I’m sad that it isn’t up and running but I hope they turn it into something worthwhile instead of just another vacant lot or hole in the ground.
I think it’s safe to say, this place has seen better days.
Summer in Seattle makes the winter almost worthwhile. Yesterday was the solstice and it was light out until almost 10 PM. Not a cloud to be seen and perfect weather.
| Camera & Lens | Canon EOS REBEL T1i (N/A) & no lens info | Shutter: | 1/25 s | |||
| Creation Date: | 2011:06:11 21:36:59 | Aperture: | f/2.0 | |||
| Artist: | Ari Brown | ISO: | 400 | |||
| Exposure Mode: | N/A | Focal Length: | 28 mm |
I’ll admit that this picture wasn’t from the solstice proper – I took it a week or two back, but it was on one of our other perfect days. Downtown doesn’t have as much of a focal point as I’d like – the space needle is way too far north and most of the bigger and more distinct buildings are buried down the hill. The twin circular towers of the Westin are about the more distinctive things we have. It does remind me of the World’s Fair 1960′s style stuff that still lingers (space needle, monorail, etc) so I guess that’s ok.
The Stranger ran a great piece last year about suicide and the Aurora Bridge. Our humble bridge stands right behind the titanic Golden Gate as the second-most jumped from bridge in the world. The article also went on to discuss the psychology of suicide – how making it slightly more difficult to jump drastically decreased the odds of someone trying. Between that and the fact that Adobe is really tired of people landing in their parking lot below, the fence is now going up on what is officially known as the George Washington Memorial Bridge (how fitting, right?)
| Camera & Lens | Canon EOS REBEL T1i (Canon) & 12-24mm | Shutter: | 1/100 s | |||
| Creation Date: | 2011:02:02 17:55:19 | Aperture: | f/7.1 | |||
| Artist: | Ari Brown | ISO: | 200 | |||
| Exposure Mode: | Normal program | Focal Length: | 13 mm |
Hit the jump for more pictures and words and such.
The very south-west corner of Washington is Lewis and Clark country. Other than oysters, it’s all “Dismal Nitch” and “Hungry Harbor“. As a photographer however, I’m pulled to the lighthouses.
| Camera & Lens | Canon EOS REBEL T1i (Canon) & EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM | Shutter: | 1/2500 s | |||
| Creation Date: | 2010:12:16 16:05:42 | Aperture: | f/8.0 | |||
| Artist: | Ari Brown | ISO: | 400 | |||
| Exposure Mode: | Aperture priority | Focal Length: | 24 mm |
Dating from 1896, this is one of two lighthouses that have steered ships into the Columbia river for over one hundred years. On the wind-blasted cliffs, these sentinels shine the way. I don’t know if it was visits to the Point Loma Lighthouse in my formative years, but I’m always drawn to these things. I shot this in HDR to bring out a little texture in the shadows, but on an overcast day it was hardly necessary.
Commercial detritus has always been a fascination of mine, especially things like old signs. I’m not the only one – you see the pictures everywhere. If I was making one up in my mind, I’m thinking a rough kinda industrial product, big letters, old peeling paint, decrepit building. I’m thinking something like this:
| Camera & Lens | Canon PowerShot S90 (N/A) & no lens info | Shutter: | 1/640 s | |||
| Creation Date: | 2010:04:27 22:52:51 | Aperture: | f/8.0 | |||
| Artist: | Ari Brown | ISO: | 200 | |||
| Exposure Mode: | N/A | Focal Length: | 10.7 mm |
That wasn’t really how things started. If you want to see the original and hear a little more, hit the jump.
My second favorite part of the port (you saw #1 last week) are those stacks and stacks of shipping containers. I liked them even before season two of The Wire. Something about the sort of adult building blocks nature they have going on, or maybe the bright colors they are often painted. Maybe the fact that they just pile them into mountains and leave them (for sale? to rust?) in large gated yards. I don’t know but something does it for me.
| Camera & Lens | Canon PowerShot S90 (N/A) & no lens info | Shutter: | 1/400 s | |||
| Creation Date: | 2010:04:01 00:30:01 | Aperture: | f/4.5 | |||
| Artist: | Ari Brown | ISO: | 80 | |||
| Exposure Mode: | N/A | Focal Length: | 18.2 mm |
My main problem is that they almost always sit behind big fences and if you can’t get close, you can’t get a very good shot. These were behind a fence, but they were close enough to it that I could get close and shoot up. If they’d let me into the middle of the stacks I’m sure I could get some cool shots, but for some reason they don’t seem to love random dudes with cameras in the middle of their business, so I guess I’ll settle for not being chased off for taking pictures from the outside. Once again, shot this hand-held with my S90, set to auto-bracket and attempted to keep things still to get 3 shots for the HDR. The containers came out pretty clean but it was windy – you can see the clouds moving between frames – probably 1 second total exposure time!
It must be stereotype day on yon blog. I mean… other than taking a ferry to Pike Place Market, I think sunrise over Space Needle with Mount Rainier in the background is about as typical as it gets, yes?
| Camera & Lens | Canon EOS REBEL T1i (N/A) & no lens info | Shutter: | 1/4 s | |||
| Creation Date: | 2010:02:04 08:21:18 | Aperture: | f/4.0 | |||
| Artist: | Ari Brown | ISO: | 100 | |||
| Exposure Mode: | N/A | Focal Length: | 70 mm |
If the view looks familiar, it’s because Kerry Park is one of the very few places you can shoot this view from, so the idea is hardly unique, but I was still excited to go up there for myself and see what it was all about. I did a bunch of panoramas too, so you might see some of those coming up. I like this a lot in HDR, but there is some ghosting – it’s a really busy picture and there are a lot of lines that will show any mis-alignment. I shot this on a tripod with a cable release, but it’s still not as sharp as I’d like. I guess there is a reason that my tripod was $80 instead of $500.
Standing up in the park on a cold morning made me think a little more about what it means to make a picture like this. Sometimes all it takes is a lot of luck and showing up to get exactly what you want, but the real pros put far more work in than you might think. I wanted sunrise, so I got up early. I wanted an interesting sky so I waited for some clouds but not too many. I wanted the sun between the Needle and Mt. Rainier, but when I got there I realized it was coming up much too far to the north – if you want that shot, you need to come back in a whole different season. Like I said, sometimes you might get lucky, but most of the time it doesn’t just happen!
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