Posts Tagged ‘seattle’

This Is How It Starts

It isn’t usually that cold here.  Seattle isn’t known for snow, or freezing, or any real extremes.  This week, however, is not effing around.  My computer is telling me it’s 25 degrees out right now, on its way down to 16 overnight.  This is not normal or ok.  So far, it’s been freezing but dry.  At this temperature, however, just a little moisture and you get what we had last year, almost to the day:

Nighttime Snow in Seattle

Camera & Lens   Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT (Canon) & 50.0 mm     Shutter:   1/13 s
Creation Date:   2008:12:13 23:08:31     Aperture:   f/1.8
Artist:   Ari Brown     ISO:   400
Exposure Mode:   Normal program     Focal Length:   50 mm

Right now it’s all happy and bare out there, but never forget people – this is how it started.  You remember what happened after that, right?

Wet Makes Moss

Sometimes it rains in Seattle.  I mean it – it only rains sometimes.  Wet, however, is a state of almost constant being.  Seattle is damp.  Seattle is drippy. Seattle has moss.

Mossy Green Wall

Camera & Lens   Canon EOS REBEL T1i (Canon) & EF50mm f/1.8 II     Shutter:   1/50 s
Creation Date:   2009:10:31 14:30:39     Aperture:   f/2.8
Artist:   Photographer: Ari Brown     ISO:   100
Exposure Mode:   Normal program     Focal Length:   50 mm

I can’t say that scenes like this are rare, but the forest-like nature in the middle of the neighborhood seemed just right to me.  It reminds me why I like carrying around my camera while I’m taking walks on rainy days.  It also bewilders me why people feel the need for specialty lenses like the Lens Baby line. They’re not cheap enough to be toys (well… except when compared to real lens prices) and they create an effect you could otherwise create in Photoshop, if you didn’t want to do it yourself, like above, with a small aperture.  Just sayin…

Bingo At The Port?

Unbeknown to many, the Port of Seattle has a bunch of parks with, if not water access, at least a water view.  Typically, the deal is that you may or may not see some nondescript sign, which directs you down an alley, across some railroad tracks, slightly to the side of a sign that clearly reads DO NOT ENTER and behind a warehouse surrounded by chain link fence.  As much as they’ve spent money to *create* something you can visit, it seems pretty obvious that they don’t care if anyone actually comes.  Often times you end up in a parking lot with a view of the port, but in certain cases, at the end of the hidden road, there is actually something worth seeing.  Jack Block Park is one of the ones that makes you wonder who, exactly, decided to spend so much money creating such a nice park that nobody knows exists.  Great views and a great walkway.  Maybe I’ll post pictures of it sometime.  The part I find most interesting is the view of the working port and cargo terminal next door.  Can anyone tell me what these things are all about?  Longshoreman bingo or something?

seattle-port-number-signs

Camera & Lens   Canon EOS REBEL T1i (Canon) & EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM     Shutter:   1/200 s
Creation Date:   2009:08:16 16:27:32     Aperture:   f/10.0
Artist:   Photographer: Ari Brown     ISO:   100
Exposure Mode:   Normal program     Focal Length:   24 mm

Before The Globe Stops Spinning

For now, Seattle has two newspapers – the Seattle Times and the Seattle Post Intelligencer.  They’re both middling at best, but at least the Seattle PI has a great spinning globe atop it’s office building.  It’s been around since 1948 and even moved with the PI to their current location 23 years ago.

Seattle PI globe lit by neon at night

(more…)

Seattle Icicles

Seattle Icicles

I’ve lived in Seattle for about 7 years now. I might not be a native but I’m hardly fresh off the boat either. As you might know, the show Grey’s Anatomy is set here in Seattle. I don’t think it’s filmed here, which makes a lot of sense if you actually watch the show (which I don’t – just sayin’). Anyway, some pretty ridiculous stuff happens on said show. They seem to think everyone commutes by ferry, and doing so only takes a couple minutes. Doctors who work 24 hour shifts seem to have plenty of time to hit the bars, and most recently, a doctor found herself being impaled by a massive falling icicle. It’s pretty funny to watch the icicles spontaneously break off and stab poor Christine but the really funny part is that Seattle doesn’t have icicles. It snows maybe an inch every year – more than that every five or so, but icicles take cold temperature and snow and lots of things that just don’t come together here. And then this last week, it snowed. Tons. And there were icicles almost everywhere. So I’ll take back my laughter at that particular item from Grey’s. As long as I can snicker about story lines involving sex with ghosts, I suppose I’ll be ok.
  • ApertureValue: f/8
  • DateTimeOriginal: 2008:12:16 13:48:15
  • ExposureTime: 1/250 sec
  • Flash: No Flash
  • FocalLength: 58 mm
  • ISOSpeedRatings: 100
  • Model: Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT

Snowy Seattle Night

Snowy Seattle Night

I’ve been taking pictures lately, but all of them are within a few blocks of my house. Snow in Seattle is usually a once or twice a season treat. It’s funny how with another dozen inches and a few days later, it really feels like a whole different kind of hell. For a different take, I thought I’d do some long exposure shots. Very low light photography isn’t that hard, especially with digital since you can see what you’re going to get. You definitely need a tripod and you may or may not need a cable or remote shutter release to ensure you don’t shake things taking the picture. I was looking for the light trails and motion against the stillness on the street, so I closed down the aperture as far as it would go and dropped the ISO speed to my camera’s slowest to get this exposure at 20 seconds. The nice thing is you don’t have to be too careful staying out of the frame – unless you’re wearing a flashlight, you won’t even show up. There is a lot more that can be done with this technique – I’ll post more when the snow melts.
  • ApertureValue: f/22
  • DateTimeOriginal: 2008:12:22 21:15:07
  • ExposureTime: 20 sec
  • Flash: No Flash
  • FocalLength: 24 mm
  • ISOSpeedRatings: 100
  • Model: Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT