Seattle - Pike Place Market

Hardly any point to getting up in the morning if there will be no opportunity to dance.  This young couple decide to have a twirl as the blue grass band played.

Seattle Pike Place

Just hours before these fish were swimming.  The Pike Place Fish Market in Seattle claims to have 10,000 visitors a day.  They were almost bankrupt a few years ago and then the staff had the idea of being a bit more entertaining.  Now, orders are taken from the patrons on the customer side of the counter then the order is shouted out to the boys in the back who repeat the order in perfect unison.  The required fish then are thrown to the back where they are cleaned and packed ready to take home.  It's quite the show - and unless they are shopping for fish there are no gloomy bankers around anywhere.

Seattle - Pike Place Market

The Pike Place Market is world famous and for good reason.  It is quite vast and goods of all types are available.   I think these glass objects look better from behind with the grid over layed; it gives the photo more structure than if it were photographed right way 'round.

Seattle - Experience Music Project

This is a detail shot of architect Frank Gehry's 'Experience Music Project' in Seattle.  The building is supposed to resemble pieces of  cut up guitars.  It's a bit of a mess architecturally - in my opinion at least - but there are some pretty cool reflections in the metal surfaces.

Seattle Space Needle

Here's another perspective of the Space Needle as viewed through the tubing that comprises an enormous scuplture nearby.  This photo was taken at the expense of great personal suffering and humilation as after I took it I vigourously cracked my head on the sculpture as I turned.  The nearby homeless person no doubt heard my crying out and my taking of the Lord's name in vain.  He offered no assistance to someone he clearly - and perhaps rightly - catagorized as a lunatic.

Seattle Space Needle

The Seattle Space needle was constructed for the 1962 World's Fair.  It the was conceived by Edward Carlson, president of Western International Hotels and is styled loosely after a similar tower in Stuttgart, Germany.

Seattle Orientation

Here's the opposite view from yesterdays posting - taken from the Seattle Space Needle.  Tallest building on the horizon is the 77 storey Columbia Tower.  On the left you can see an aircraft on  approach to Sea-Tac Airport to the south.

Seattle Orientation

A good way to get yourself oriented in Seattle is by ascending the space needle or the 35th floor observation deck atop the Smith Tower.  This is the Smith Tower view looking north; you can see the space needle in the distance.

Seattle - Musuem of Flight

On February 9, 1969 Jack Waddell pulled on the yoke and the first Boeing 747 took to the skies for its maiden flight changing the world of air travel forever.  The aircraft is now on permanent static display at the Museum of flight in Seattle.  Currently plans are in place to build a hangar as mother nature is starting to show her mark.

The Mother Ship

We took a trip to Seattle recently and the next few blog postings will be from that journey.  Seattle's Pike Market is the home of Starbucks store number 1 and this is the sign out front.  This is the only Starbucks in the world with a unique logo.  In this version the mermaid character is a little more cherubic than all the others, and she is anatomically correct; just the way it was when the store opened.

Not your normal landscape photo

I was standing in a shallow stream when I looked down and say this amazing tangle of plant material and other stuff stuck in the mud.  Taken in Banff National Park in October 2009.

Not your normal landscape photo

Sometimes when I'm hanging around waiting for the light to improve other photographic opportunities are discovered.  This is a close up shot of a soldered joint on some abandoned mining equipment at Lower Bank Head near Banff, Alberta.

Faded Warnings

Here's another shot of the faded and peeled warning reflector I came across in the forest near Prato, Italy.

Faded Warnings

At one time this reflector warned people that there was danger about but whatever it was has long since grown over and the paint has peeled off.  Taken on a woodland walk near Prato, Italy.

Not your normal landscape photo

Last of the three photos in the blog photo contest.  Any guesses as to what this is?

Not your normal landscape photo

Here's the second of three images in the blog photo contest.

Not your normal landscape photo

Announcing my first every blog contest!  I'll preset 3 photos over the next 3 days of the same subject.  Let me know what you think it is via e-mail at jimdobiephotography@shaw.ca.  Or you can send me a message asking about it an I'll tell you.  There's no prize but if you get it right you can tell your friends I think you're really smart.

New Portraits

Here's the last of the new portrait series.

New Portraits

Sixth in the new portraits series.  This is our friend Ruth Anne; she's a very talented artist and I wanted a shot with ther hands in the field of view.

New Portraits

Fifth in the new portraits series.

New Portraits

Fourth photo in the new portraits series.

New Portraits

Third in the new portraits series.

New Portraits

Second in the new portraits series.

New Portraits

I've been doing a lot of potrait photography over the last while; I'd like to share some of the better ones over the next week or so.  Names of the people photographed withheld out of respect for their privacy.

Urban Landscape

I'm not really too sure what the artist was trying to convey here; this is a little paint work added to the blue tiles of a small 'funky goods' store in Victoria.

Urban Landscape

This is a photo of some mosaic tiles that caught my eye a couple of years ago while prowling the streets of Victoria one Sunday morning.  I like the way the sunlight gives the glass tile an oil-floating-on water look.

Weird Stuff

I like the rythem and structure of this shot; I intend to see what it looks like enlarged to a good size.  Often I find that small elements look really good when they become larger than life.  These are screw tye band connectors uses to join pipe together.

Weird Stuff

The G11 struggled with finding the focus point on this shot; these are the fins of some fin tube radiation piping.  The get banged around a bit on the job site as you can see.  I like the rythme of this shot; if the fins - maded of very thin aluminium - were factory perfect it wouldn't look half as good.

Weird Stuff

Soon to be buried in the walls and ceilings, these copper pipe fittings looks quite lovely in colour but even better when converted to black and white.

Weird Stuff

I think that concrete straight out of the form looks amazing.  In its raw state this heavy, gooey stuff is wet and runny and I like the way the end product still has that look even though it has cured to become an amazingly strong building marterial.  Sometimes great effort is put in after the fact to get rid of the humps and bumps and fill in the holes but I think that ruins it - concrete is supposed to look like what it is.  Then when you place a material in front of it that is absolutely uniform, as in the case of this water line piping, the contrast looks remarkable.