With our visitors, we took a trip to West Seattle. The afternoon light on the city looked nice and a pano seemed to be in order. Here is a Zoomify version of it so you can look around the city at your leisure.
Our trip over the Cascades took us through Washington Pass. There was an overlook area with parking which allowed us to stop and wander around a bit. The view of the pass was gorgeous. There was snow on the peaks surrounding things and a hint of snow on the ground too. The road drops down dramatically from the pass and comes down the valley below the overlook. You were almost looking straight down on vehicles as they passed beneath.
There were plenty of places to walk. The overlook area itself was not far from the parking lot but a short trail wandered up and around the rocks to give a wide variety of views. The autumnal light was nice and low even though it was very sunny. Being quite high up meant the sun was a bit stronger than normal. The panoramic views meant standing and staring was the order of the day. We ended up staying there for quite a while. It will soon (if not already) be snowy up there. As I write this, the road is already closed for the winter. Hopefully we shall head back up that way when spring arrives.
I briefly saw Tokyo Station last time I was in Japan. This time I wanted to take a better look. While the station has been significantly redeveloped over the years, the west frontage that looks towards the Imperial Palace has retained the brick structure designed and built over 100 years ago (although some rebuilding was necessary over the years). I think it is an interesting looking building and an interesting contrast with the high-rise developments around it or even the old buildings that can still be found in the city.
I got there in mid-morning and my brain was obviously not firing on all cylinders. The front was in shade with the sun quite high in the sky and I thought for some reason I had left it too late. I ended up taking a bunch of pictures of the building, none of which I was terribly happy with given the shadow on the front and the bright overall conditions. I did shoot some of the details around the hallways and overhangs which were fine.
It was only later when I returned from the Palace grounds that I realized which way the building was facing and that the sun had now come around to the front of the station, not retreated. Consequently, things were a lot more brightly illuminated. Let’s not kid ourselves. Midday sun is not the greatest thing for shooting but, for getting snapshots for the trip, this was a significant improvement. With such a wide and low structure, a panorama was obviously going to be tried!
Any visit to a base includes time when nothing much is going on. This can be time to take a break, have a snack, text someone an update on how things are going or even nap. Or, you can take panoramas. In the morning the light on the ramp was not ideal. It improved later in the day. Even so, you never know how much stuff is going to be out at any one time so shoot while you can. You can always delete later. Here is a zoomable and pannable pano from Hyakuri.
The building that is MOPOP is both an interesting shape and a mixture of finishes. When the light is right, the red metallic section really pops. I took a piano of the building to show the three different finishes. It is an interesting place.
Before we knew we were moving to the Pacific Northwest, we took a vacation up here. Ironically, we did it because it was relatively close and we thought the next move might take us away. Guess we got that one wrong. On that trip we jumped between the islands a little and part of that involved driving up Whidbey Island and crossing Deception Pass. Consequently, this post exists which describes my brief exploration of the bridge as we were passing over it in weather that was a little less than great.
Our recent visit to the Deception Pass State Park allowed us to walk along the beach and up towards the bridge. This was a different perspective to the previous visit. The shoreline is quite long and, for a while the bridge does not look that impressive as you are seeing it from quite a distance. However, as you get closer and start to make out the traffic on the bridge, you get to appreciate how large it is and how high over the water.
Since it is actually two bridges, it lends itself to a panoramic format when you are looking from a distance. It is only as you get closer to the bridge that you can start to compress the whole thing into something that fits the normal frame a little better. This was the third leg of a day trip so I was beginning to get a little worn out so I didn’t go and explore all of the possible angles. I will definitely be back and will try that another time but, given that I still had to walk back to the car, I decided I would save that for another day and focus on the trip home.
A work trip required a quick dash across the country to New York. I got into the city at the end of the day and checked in to my hotel for the evening. It turned out that my room was at the top of the hotel and had a view straight across at the Empire State Building. The weather wasn’t great but what are you going to do when you have an iconic building across the way? Of course I took some pictures. I even did a panorama.
When I got back from dinner, the building was lit up nicely. The clouds had not dissipated but, at night, you don’t notice them unless they envelope the whole thing so I tested the low light capabilities of the camera. It did just fine. I headed out of town the following day. It snowed in the morning but was bright and sunny by the time I was at the airport. Too late to get a better shot sadly.
We spent a few days in Yachats, Oregon between Christmas and New Year. It was a nice opportunity to have a break, see some pretty scenery and relax. Yachats itself has a nice harbor and, as you drive around the south side of the harbor, you can pull off onto a smaller road that runs parallel to the shore in amongst the many houses that have been built there. You are on the opposite side to the town itself and the view across the water and the sand flats looks nice with the low winter sung angles.
The US Courthouse building is an impressive structure that started out its life as Union Station. It still carries the name on the side of the structure which is dominated by a large dome. However, the station was moved to a nearby location in the 80s and the building abandoned. It was eventually restored and converted for use as the Courthouse and that is what it continues as today. We had lunch across the street from the building and, while I didn’t have my main camera to hand at the time, I grabbed a few shots with my phone which I could stitch together. I did take some other shots later from the other side. A cool looking building.
While I was wandering around by the SR-71 at Evergreen and taking some pictures, one of the museum docents approached me and asked if I wanted to go upstairs. I had seen the stairs and a gallery but the signage showed it as closed off. If I had an invitation, I wasn’t going to say no, though! The location put you above the Blackbird giving a great perspective that you don’t normally get. However, I was pretty close in so the lens I had was still not wide enough. Time for a pano instead. I took a sequence of shots to try and cover the whole thing as best I could. Then it was up to the software to do the stitching. The above shot was the result.