Tag Archives: store

Olga

All of the communities on Orcas Island are small but Olga, despite being pretty tiny, had caught my attention because of its store.  Currently closed, this had been a long lived facility.  The community is currently working to try and get it opened up again.  I imagine it is going to be a struggle since there aren’t too many customers within range.  Hopefully they can do something.  We stopped off and had a brief wander around the area near the store and down to the water’s edge.  With the sun out, it was a tranquil spot, even if we did wonder whether someone was going to come out and ask us what we were doing there.  (They didn’t but we did feel like we were an oddity there.)

Starbucks Number One

When you don’t drink coffee, as I don’t, Starbucks is not something you pay much attention to.  However, when you have the tourist route to do in Seattle, the first Starbucks shop down at Pike Place is part of the routine.  You have to get in line if you want to order something because there are plenty of people also looking to check the place out.  Meanwhile, some musicians are set up outside the door to keep you entertained while you wait.

Once you get inside, there is coffee to be ordered.  There are also plenty of souvenirs which seemed to be selling well.  Since I didn’t have anything to buy, I was able to watch everyone else doing their thing.

An Evening with Vincent Laforet

Okay, maybe not a full evening but an hour and a half so close enough.  A damp Monday evening in early November is not the sort of time that you are planning a trip out.  However, Vincent Laforet was giving a talk at one of the local Apple stores and I was keen to be there.

I saw Vincent once before at my first ISAP symposium in Pensacola FL.  He was still predominantly a still photographer in those days.  He gave a talk about his aerial photography in New York and an unbelievably moving account of his time in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina which was accompanied by some equally moving imagery.

When Canon released the 5D MkII, Vincent filmed a short called Reverie to demonstrate the capabilities of the camera and it went viral.  I don’t know whether this was the start of his move to film or whether he was already on the way there beforehand but he is now a director and a bit of a go to guy on the techie issues with HDSLR video.

His talk was a combination of some of his history – a fair bit of stills work since his audience included a lot of photographers – along with some of the video work he has been doing.  I follow his blog so the video material was stuff I had already seen but that was not a problem.  He talked a bit about what the newer technology is bringing to the video world and how different the workflow is.

The real interest came at the end of the evening though when he had a Q&A session.  This really got to the heart of the issues people were interested in and he was very frank in his answers.  He challenged people to think about what they were doing and who was going to be coming after their work environment (and what that environment would even be).  He answered technical questions and gave thoughts on how to self-teach some of the things associated with film making.

He was a very approachable guy and willing to talk to everyone who wanted to get a moment with him afterwards.  If you get a chance to see him at any event, I would certainly recommend it.  In the mean time, his blog is well worth a look.  He doesn’t always blog regularly but, when he does, it is good stuff.  He also has a great gear page if you want some insight into the stuff he uses himself.  Check it out at blog.vincentlaforet.com if you are interested.