Dog Dream

This was created by moving the clarity slider in LR2 all the way to the left to get the soft look for the dry grass and flowers. Then the original was put on one layer in PSE6 and the soft version on another layer with a mask so the dog and the upper background had the minus clarity masked out. The whole image is very soft but the local contrast is reduced in the grass to make it blend into a liquid mass. To see the image without this effect take a look at the second photo under fun dog.

Sunday 3pm

Another photo taken in Magnolia Park Sunday Oct. 26, 2008 at 3:11pm.

A Walk in the Park

A woman walking alone in Magnolia Park at 3:08 pm Sunday 10/26/08. This is the sort of neighborhood where women can walk alone. At least they think so.

Two Benches

This was taken in Magnolia Park on Sunday 10/26/08. This park is along the south bluff overlooking the north west corner of Elliot Bay.

waiting for the sun

I had about five minutes before the sun disappeared to photograph this young man sitting at the edge of the south bluff at Fort Lawton looking across the water toward the southern end of the Olympic range, facing almost directly into the sun. Watching the sun is something people do here and probably everywhere else. I see something like this several times a week. Reminds me of my ancestors who gathered at Stonehenge.

Fisherman's Wharf - Ballard

Stopped by the wharf on my way home but it was too cold and windy for doing much night photography and working with a tripod isn't my normal way shooting anymore so I didn't do much. Took a few shots and then just decided it wasn't going anywhere and packed up the gear and came home.

Fun Dog

Went up to Fort Lawton today just to see the place. Took the cameras along just in case. These dog photos remind me a little of cave paintings. If judged by some mundane criteria for photographic quality like sharpness they don't pass the test. They were taken with an Olympus e510 + 70-300 ZD toward the long end 250-300mm at f8 1/250th IS mode one (not the panning mode, it didn't occur to me to switch to mode 2) , panning fast to keep up with the dog but not even an attempt to capture the movement of the dog. Mostly this was focusing practice on a fast moving object using auto-focus in mode one (shutter activated) with all three AF sensors active. This reminded me of the dispute a year or so ago about the Olympus E3 in Africa promo video where the cheetah was running and the camera was trying to grab something with one of the AF sensors and only when the cheetah was in the clear where there was no competition for a focus target did the AF lock on the animal. In view of the now notorious focusing problems with the E3 it is kind of humours to look back on the discussion of that video in which we were speculating about the capabilities of the E3 to track a moving subject.

Steel Works - Blue Door

The steel works in south Seattle has a new building. I took some photos of the old building as it was being torn down. Here is a door on the south wall.

Weelbarrow

Two Men - The Plaza south of Pioneer Square

Two men sitting at the same table. The man in the orange hat doesn't seem to change. The other man is in a constant state of transition. A series of photos in chronological order.

Tug on Duwamish

Did some shooting late Sunday Oct 19 in South Seattle. Took about sixty exposures of this tug as it was approaching and then departing.

Beach Dream

This one was taken the same evening with October Tree. A little nighmare quality here, reminds me of the beach scenes of Bill Braynt. I almost erased this shot in camera when I saw how soft the bird was but a little voice told me not to erase it and now I see why. The out of focus bird isn't really an issue, since the bird isn't the subject, however without the bird there would be no photograph.

For another bird dream see Two Pigeons.

Dog on Leash

Same time and location as October Tree. The man with the husky is a local. See him all the time.

October Tree

This was taken on Oct 10th 2008, just minutes before sundown. The light coming over the water was very soft, filtered through a light fog. To preserve the look and feel of the scene I resisted the temptation to increase the midtone contrast with the clarity slider in Lightroom2. I gave the overall grayscale curve a steep slope with a flat shoulder at the highlights and a long toe in the shadows. I boosted the fill light to about 50 and then I did something counter intuitive, I decreased the clarity to -25. I have posted both the grayscale and color versions. I like the softness of the tonal transitions in the midtones. That is what it looked like.

Angelic

Fooling around at the beach today. The gulls and crows were fighting over some dead fish. This gull was bathing in the waves.

619 Post Ave

This is a shot taken just north of Yesler in Post Ave. This part of Seattle has a lot of old brick that will probably disappear when the viaduct gets torn down.

Opening Time - J&M Cafe & Cardroom

J&M Cafe is on 1st Ave & Washington St one block south of Yesler which is part of the historical club district dating back to Seattle's earliest days. Both a night club and a daytime tourist trap. I haven't spent much time inside in the five decades I have been walking the district.

A Horse on Alaskan Way

This was taken August 23, 2008 late in the day just before sunset. The location is on the water side of Alaskan Way just south of Pier 56 where all the tour boats tie up. There are several horse drawn carriages that work that location in the summer time.

The reason for the crop was simple, I had a long lens mounted and this was as wide as I could go. The maple trees cast a leaf pattern shadow on the back of the horse.

Smoke Break

Parking Meter

Post Alley at Pioneer Square.

If you take a close look at the wall on the dark side of Parking Meter, just under the vent you can see the remains of an arch over a former window. This is archeological evidence left over from the 19th century when this would have been the the second floor not the ground level. The street was filled in and raised one floor in 1906 leaving an under world called underground Seattle by the the folks who want to sell you a tour. When I was in college we had our own unofficial tour of underground Seattle, places that were not on the regular tour. It didn't last long. Police issues.