I'm so thrilled that of all the images this beautiful magazine had to choose from they are printing my photo of Seattle! They called and requested it for their five star directory photo for Washington State. When the mass email went out asking for local area landmark imagery I had just been to Seattle.
While I was up there on business I decided to spend a day running around my native stomping grounds and photographing favorite scenes and buildings the week before the magazine sent out the call. You may have seen my picks in two of my previous posts. (Spending any time or energy photographing anything that is not a person is highly unusual for me. Other humans have always been the draw that keeps me shooting.) While shooting I had the idea that I could use a skyline shot with tons of sky for a background on my website.
Thinking it might be good for my future destination wedding page I went ahead and photographed the Space Needle from a few different places around the city. One is the famous little park on lower Queen Anne Hill. The view is incomparable really. Love the shot I got from that vantage point. Before I ever lived on Queen Anne my dad had taken me along with him on a business excursion to photograph scenery for his studio. It seems I must have been as young six or seven when we first went to that park to photograph the skyline with the Space Needle in the foreground. Later, in my early twenties, I lived just up the street next to that sweet old library on the top of the hill. Just walking down to that park through the neighborhood is nice, then you get to the view at the park, and I love it on any day - stormy skies or piercing blue. This photo below was taken on a gorgeous spring day with clear blue skies. My color choices were a mix of my processing technique mixed with a little curves and saturation in the digital darkroom. Creamy skies are not for everyone, but I like the twist. It feels familiar with a mix of other worldliness.
However, that view does not grace us with a good shot of the EMP (Experience Music Project) building. The beauteous mess that is a Gehry construction is a sight to see. Though many dislike it's intrusion on the landscape - I'm partial to the vibrant color and whimsy it has brought. As I was heading down Capital Hill from photographing the Bailey Mansion and the Volunteer Park Conservatory, the road took me onto the I-5 overpass toward Denny.
That is when I noticed a nice view of the Space Needle with the EMP nestled at it's feet in plain view. At the time I was headed to shoot something else I had in mind and didn't stop. Later in the day it kept coming to mind and I knew I would regret it if I didn't head back and try for a good shot from that perspective before heading home to Portland. After driving back to the view I parked my car at the begining of the ramp and realised it just wasn't going to work with the bushes and chainlink fence in my way. I wouldn't get the shot unless I walked onto the overpass all the way past the curve in the bridge, past all the traffic with the I-5 corridor rushing along below me. Though I am not afraid of heights, the thought of falling or dropping my camera sent a shiver down my spine while I walked across the freeway overpass to capture the shot.
Thankfully none of the huge semi trucks or school busses flew off the road and hit me, nor did I manage to drop my equiptment. In the end it looks like the extra effort is paying off. The photograph below will be printed at 10x12 for a full page image in the new Grace Ormonde Wedding Style Magazine.
The moral of the story:
Respect the compulsion to do the things you love!
