Posts Tagged ‘snow’

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

Snow Fountain

Snow Fountain

Here’s another one from a snowy night at Volunteer Park. Generally I’m a fan of regular objects – one of my favorite pictures I’ve ever taken is of a fire hydrant. For some reason the city saw fit to endow this particular part with extra nice fittings and fixtures, perhaps to match the great Deco look of the Seattle Asian Art Museum. I love the octagonal rim, standing silently at attention, waiting at the ready. I love the glow of the ambient yellow street light (way better than what happens if you use a flash), and I love the bokeh from the f/1.8 lens.
  • ApertureValue: f/1.8
  • DateTimeOriginal: 2008:12:13 22:03:31
  • ExposureTime: 1/4 sec
  • Flash: No Flash
  • FocalLength: 50 mm
  • ISOSpeedRatings: 800
  • Model: Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT

Snow Lines

Snow Lines

It’s snowing in Seattle. It never snows in Seattle, which means that the city can’t cope with it. Which is the fun part. I went for a walk with friends last night to see what there was to see. Other than an amazing snowball fight, the best pictures were the simple things. It was dark and hard to shoot with falling snow, my tiny 50mm lens and wet gloves so I have a lot of things that might otherwise have been cool. This is a longer exposure, even under the lights, and I love the moving snow crossing the stark and clean power lines. Geometric pictures like this are some of my favorites.
  • ApertureValue: f/1.8
  • DateTimeOriginal: 2008:12:13 22:36:50
  • ExposureTime: 1/13 sec
  • Flash: No Flash
  • FocalLength: 50 mm
  • ISOSpeedRatings: 400
  • Model: Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT