This shot looks just like a million other people’s shot of Seattle. I have been to Kerry Park plenty of times but I had never been there at night. This time I was having dinner with some colleagues and, when we were done, I figured I would pop up and grab some pictures. Here you go.
Helicopters are constantly moving around McCarran. There are tourist rides operating seemingly around the clock so hearing a couple of helps is not a surprise. However, these two were close to each other and seemed to have a more powerful sound. It turned out that they were two USMC AH-1Z Vipers coming in to an FBO. Paul was able to try and get some shots as they landed but I had to move the car. I settled for watching them for a bit and then got the camera as they were shutting down. It was unbelievably dark given how much ambient light there is in Vegas so I was pushing the camera’s capabilities a bit. The closer one shut down first which was unfortunate but let’s not get picky. They were still there the following morning when we were shooting departures as I could see them in the background of some shots.
If you take a garbage truck and attach it to a power pole that you aren’t supposed to attach it to, you are likely to cause some trouble. We had a blackout as a result of such an event. The pole ended up punching a hole in the roof of a nearby house (thankfully it wasn’t raining) and power to our area was cut off. I got home as the light was fading and got a few shots of the damage. The power lines are strong and they had succeeded in taking down two lamp posts as well.
I popped back out to see how things were progressing and to watch the teams at work fixing the situation. Making the initial pole safe took a lot of time as bits of it were removed. A new pole was put in place and the old pole lifted back up and attached to the new one. I assume this was a temporary fix. Focus then shifted to the next pole which was leaning at an angle that suggested it had taken a bit of the load too. This one just got straightened up and didn’t need to be replaced. I gave up watching after a while since I preferred to be indoors in the warm. Power came back on at 9pm so we were able to sort out the things that had been cut off before turning in for the night.
A new Johnson Street bridge has recently opened across part of Victoria Harbour. It has replaced an old bridge that was apparently in bad condition. The new structure is a bascule bridge to allow larger boat traffic to access the inner areas of the harbor and it has a really cool design. While the bridge carries the road across the water, it has excellent access on either side for other users. The two sides carry both bike and foot traffic and they are wide enough to provide plenty of space for all users. There was plenty of foot traffic when I was there which might have had something to do with the Christmas Parade that evening.
In the evening, the bridge is well illuminated. The curvy nature of the structure provides lots of interesting details. The mechanism for raising the bridge is not concealed either so you can see the gear wheels involved in lifting it if you look below. On my walk back one evening I ended up spending a fair bit of time on the bridge because it provided so many possible angles to shoot it either to get the full bridge or to focus in on individual parts of it.
No story, just a photo. This one of the Space Needle was one I took with my phone as we were walking back from a work event. Thought it came out quite well.
While I was staying in the same hotel as last time during my recent visit to Tokyo, I was on the opposite side of the hotel. This gave me a view across to a large radio mast a couple of kilometers north of Minato. In the early evening, the mast picked up the setting sun quite well. Once things had got dark, it was well illuminated and hard to miss!
I have been in downtown Dallas a couple of times recently for work. One of the places we have had dinner is across the road from a small park area that has a sculpture of a giant eyeball at one end. It is a bit creepy to be honest. I photographed it on my way to dinner when the sun was still going down. When we came out, it was fully dark so I figured I would get another shot.
One of my meetings in Tokyo took place in the Akihabara district. The company had a cafeteria on one of the higher floors of the building which served food and beer after work and they invited us up there. Aside from having an enjoyable meal and fun company, we also got to enjoy the view of the city as the sun went down. Tokyo is a city that is lit up at night and it looks beautiful. I took along a camera because that’s what I do and grabbed a few shots of the view. It would be good to have set up a time lapse as the sun went down. If I ever get invited back, maybe I’ll try and get that done.
Last year we were living in Kirkland when July 4th came around. We checked out the fireworks in the town and I took the camera along. Unfortunately, we picked a place to sit in the park that meant the fireworks were behind a tree so I didn’t get any pictures that I was happy with. This year we have moved a little up the lake so we decided to try out the fireworks in Kenmore.
We turned up later in the evening and the park was busy with lots of families out enjoying the warm evening and waiting for the display. We found a spot down near the water that seemed pretty convenient and set up. I wasn’t too bothered about shots but will take them anyway since it is easy to do while enjoying the display. We had some people in front of us that I thought might make good silhouettes in the shots too.
The display started at just after 10pm and lasted about twenty minutes. They were launching from the pier in Log Boom Park so the fireworks were out over the lake. The team had choreographed a great performance and everyone seemed to be pleased. These are a few of the shots I got while enjoying the show.
A trip away included a late arrival back into Seattle. I hadn’t thought about which approach we might make to SeaTac so my seat selection was accidental, but I ended up on the side of the plane that was overlooking downtown Seattle as we made our final approach. Having the M6 provided me with a bit more flexibility on shooting than would be the case with the phone and something far more maneuverable than if I was using one of the SLRs. It handled the low light levels surprisingly well.
I also think the smaller lens elements of the EF-M are better able to handle the distortion of windows. The distorted bits could cover more of the field of view of course but you have more of a chance of getting between the worst bits. With the big lenses, it is almost impossible to get a good clear patch for the whole lens when you zoom in to check the details.
