Those of you who follow my blog on a regular basis know I’ve been working on a personal project documenting Seattle. Last week, Tanya, Carson and I took another day trip up to Seattle to work on the project. At this point in the project, I’m filling in “holes” in shot list; so the sites we visited were scattered across the city.Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t that great (a common theme for western Washington). It was overcast, but at least it wasn’t raining. Consequently, most my images (as you can see my the examples included here) avoided showing the sky, which would have turned out totally white/blown-out.
Many of the most photogenic sites in Seattle are along the Elliot Bay waterfront. However, Seattle sits between two bodies of water: Elliot Bay and Puget Sound on the west and Lake Washington on the east. I needed some coverage for Lake Washington, so our first stop was Seward Park. Seward Park covers the 300-acre (a21 hectares) Bailey Peninsula, which sticks out into the lake from the western shore like a sore thumb. As well as two miles (3.2 kilometers) of shoreline, the park has the largest remaining patch of old growth forest in the City. We took a short hike through the forest down to the lakeshore, where I took photos and Carson took a swim (both under the watchful eye of an immature bald eagle).
From there, we traveled to Gasworks Park. Gasworks is on the northern shore of Lake Union, north of the downtown area. It is on the grounds of a former manufactured gas plant, and much of the old machinery has been left in the park – some of which is painted with bright colors. The park also has a great view of the downtown area, but with the cloudy sky, I focused most my shots on the machinery to avoid the sky.
Our tour continued to one of the City’s quirkiest icons – the Fremont Troll. The troll, an 18-foot (5.5 meter) tall sculpture located underneath the northern end of the Aurora Street Bridge, looks like he has popped out the ground and grabbed a Volkswagen Beetle just as he was frozen into stone. By the way, the artists who created the Fremont Troll sculpture, and hold a copyright on it, are Steve Badanes, Will Martin, Donna Walter, and Ross Whitehead. I asked permission to use a copy of their work here, and they gave permission, but wish to state that they discourage commercial use without permission.
Following our stop at the Troll, we headed over to Discovery Park, but first made a quick stop at the Fishermen’s Terminal. I did take a few shots there, but since the docks were largely empty with most the fishing fleet out making a living, we didn’t stay long.
Discovery Park is the largest park in Seattle and is dedicated to providing Seattle residents with an open space of quiet tranquility (according to the Seattle Park’s website). Therefore, though large, most of the park is only accessible by foot or bicycle. The one road through the park to the beach is open by permit only. We opted to not go to the beach, but instead wandered through the historic district – former home to the US Army’s Fort Lawton. The fort was largely built in the early 1900’s. Most of the buildings are gone, but a few remain in a large open field in the center of the park. We also visited the military cemetery, located away from the historic district, near the park’s east entrance.
That pretty much covered our Seattle trip. Hope you enjoy the images. Before closing though, I’d like to give a nod to Jennifer Wimsatt and her blog A Bipolar Journey Through the Rabbit Hole. Last month, Jennifer kindly nominated me for the Sunshine blogger award. Though as a rule I don’t perpetuate awards of this type, I truly appreciate her nomination and her very kind words about my photography. Jennifer’s blog is about her own special journey through life with bipolar mood disorder. She hasn’t blogged much recently, and I do hope to see her posting more in the future.
