You have to be careful going out after dark with a camera as you can get overly addicted to these kind of night shots.  I drove to Seattle to get a neon image of Pike Place at night and decided to drive around town after to see what I could find.  I went down to the waterfront to shoot some of the piers and went looking for somewhere to park.

Across the road from the waterfront is the Seattle Alaskan Way Viaduct.  This carries the SR 99 from north to south Seattle and is soon going to be torn down.  Under the viaduct (or really just past under the viaduct) is a car park.  I pulled in, to park the car so I could go and shoot the piers and thought the city buildings looked great.  So I grabbed this shot.  As it was pretty late there weren’t too many people walking around but as you can see there were still some cars left.

Ironically, I liked this shot more than the piers I photographed, so I thought I’d post it tonight.

This is a long exposure with a small aperture which gives me the star looking lights and brings out the night blue sky.

Had to do some home improvements this weekend, the Halo guys stepped in to help out and stopped for a picture!

In the middle of Redmond Town Center is this seating area that surrounds a couple of fountains.   On the brick tiled flooring are three bear statues.  I took this picture quite late at night and nobody was around (no security guards either).  I wanted to bring out the texture in the brick floor and statues so this is an HDR image (what a surprise).

Obviously as this is late at night it’s a slow exposure, so you get to see the water almost frozen in time.  When I composed this I wanted the bears to be the primary subject, so I made them quite big in the frame.  In hindsight I wish I’d pulled back a little and showed more of the seating area.  As a result I didn’t post this image.  However someone saw this the other day and commented on the picture so I thought, what the heck!

This area always makes me smile.  My son James is almost 15 years old but I remember him running through these fountains getting soaking wet with his cousins, and then stripping off totally naked in the car park to change clothing.  Of course he wouldn’t be seen dead doing that now.  I reckon in another 5 years and after some time at college and he will once again be stripping off and running though fountains.

This weekend will be interesting.  On Sunday I’m off to Northwest Trek, which is a wildlife park for animals that are indigenous to the Pacific North West.   However it’s looking like it’s going to rain so I may end up with lots of pictures of empty wood.  Time will tell, so keep your fingers crossed for a dry weekend.

Tonight the guys decided to play BopIt! – They didn’t do too well though.

If you go to Pike Place Market you typically go into the main food, flower and craft area and walk around that, this is called the Main Arcade.  If you are feeling a little adventurous, you may find the stairs or ramps to go down stairs and find the stores below in the area known as “Down Under”, but that’s not all there is.

Pike Place is the road the Main Arcade is on (I know what a surprise), and the market is on both sides of the road.  Across the road from the Main Arcade is Post Alley.  Here you can find a number of retail stores, restaurants and cafes.  In fact it’s the best place to get a bite to eat in the market.

When I visited to take this shot the market was deserted (very rare) so I captured one side of Post Alley without any people in shot.  Most of this area is lit with neon signs and it’s amazingly colorful.   At first I thought I’d post a color shot as there is blue neon round the sign and red neon on the buildings and everything is lit up.  But the problem is the picture was overly bright and a little sickly.  Then I tried a black and white and added a copper tone.  I really liked this so chose this one instead.  Lisa liked this one with some color peaking though but I’m off those sort of shots these days – so this is what you’re getting.

Anyway, great part of the market, if you get the chance check it out, and also a nice place for a picture.

Apparently Master Chief is worried about his weight, so Carter told him to get some Saran Wrap on and sweat the weight off!

It’s been a while since I posted any tulip pictures and quite frankly I still have hundreds left so tonight’s image is of some white tulips and was shot at Mount Vernon during the tulip festival.  This was one of those shots where I got out my black bin bag, laid it in the mud and got down on the floor.  Passers by looked at me like I was nuts but I’m used to that now.

I wanted a shot of a tulip row disappearing off into the distance with a nice sky above.  This is what I got.  The dark pink tulips behind added to the image by making the white ones stand out a little.

Fortunately this was one of the few times when nobody was in my way stomping around the field, so absolutely no Photoshop here.

I haven’t posted any black and white for a while so tomorrow I’ll look for something to shoot that will make a good black and white image.  I also need to shoot more people so I’ll look for some subjects there too.

Carter found a can of crazy string and went a little mad today – poor Master Chief!

When you visit Snoqualmie and pass the large waterfalls you immediately come to the railway museum.  You drive along the road with old railway exhibits to your right and then hit the town main street.

Just as you arrive at the town you pass this large (well large isn’t really the right word, maybe massive or enormous would be better) log.  The log (or tree trunk) is actually behind a barred fence, when I first saw this I wondered what the fence was for I mean who is gonna steal this massive piece of wood?  But the fence isn’t there to stop thieves, no; it’s there to stop vandals!  Apparently before the fence was put around the tree truck, the city of Snoqualmie were getting frustrated with people carving their name in the wood.

So what’s a huge tree trunk doing near the main street?  Well fortunately there was a very large plaque next to the tree so I can answer that.  It appears that back in the day a major source of income for the community was lumber.  Once the railway was built the Snoqualmie Falls Lumber Company did a roaring trade in huge Douglas-Firs, Sitka Spruce and Western Red Cedars.

The Lumber Company had a mill about a mile north of town and used to move 15 foot diameter logs around town on massive carriages.  Of course all this happened in the late 1800s and the mills did really well until the mid 1900s when cheaper alternatives to these massive trees were found.

This huge log is a reminder of Snoqualmie’s past.  It’s pretty impressive even though the fence around it kind of spoils the view.  I had to push my camera through the bars to get a picture.  I tried shooting from further back but the bars ruined the shot.  And while the fence is doing a great job stopping those pesky vandals, they really need to find a way to keep the pigeons out!

The say an apple a day keeps the doctor away.  Does that work if you share it?