Tag: life

Seattle Adventures

For my next adventure, I headed to Seattle, Washington for a long weekend. And due to my wide variety of activities, I’m going to split it up into three posts.

Part One: Photo Mission: Seattle

After the electric-charged photo flights above LAX, there was no question whether I was going to schedule one for my upcoming Seattle adventure. Classic Helicopter Corp is based out of Auburn municipal airport which is south of Seattle and offers a range of services to suit your needs. I chose an hour-long Instagram photo flight that covers both the views of downtown Seattle and the beauty of the natural landscape of the surrounding area.

I’m not going to share a play-by-play commentary of my photo flight. I hope my images will speak for themselves. I do want to share a fun moment of a series of images of the Space Needle. At the time of my flight, a TFR (temporary Flight Restriction) was about to go into effect over the downtown area due to a Mariners game. Meaning, we were not able to spend as much time above the downtown area as I wanted. One image I had envisioned before the start of this adventure, was of the Space Needle with the Seattle skyline in the background. And with minutes to spare, we did two quick orbits around the Needle. To put into perspective how close we orbited, I was using my 18-135mm lens and as we got closer and closer, 18mm was just barely wide enough to show the needle and whatever was behind it. While caught up with the breathtaking point of view and the pace of the circling, I felt I had missed my shot. It wasn’t until after the flight and back in my hotel looking at my results that I realized I did indeed have captured the shot I was after. I was so intensely focused on the Space Needle itself and composing the shot, that I never saw the Seattle skyline pass by in the background.

Here’s a list of things I saw during my Photo flight. 

Boeing Field, Blue Origin Headquarters, Starbucks Center (Starbucks headquarters), T-Mobile Park, Space Needle, Lake Union, Gas Work Park, Husky Stadium, Evergreen Point Floating Bridge, The house of Bill Gates along with Jeff Bezos, Bellevue skyline, Snoqualmie Falls, and Mount Si from Twin Peaks.

Click on thumbnail to view large image.

Big shoutout to Craig Simon and Catroins “Cat” Adam for their friendly service and amazing hospitality. If you’re on Instagram, check out and follow @seattlehelitours.

Until next post,

Steven


Gear used:

Canon EOS 90D DSLR

Canon EOS 5DSR DSLR

Canon EF 100-400mm F/4.5-5.6L IS II USM

Canon EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM

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Continue the Adventure with Part Two, Street Photography Around Seattle

And don’t forget about Part Three: Seattle Seaplanes

The Story Behind an Image, Part 7

Ever since 2004, I’ve had a passionate love affair with photography. And come to discover that I have a fondness with photos that comes with a story. Over the years, I have shot a few of them. Here’s the next story behind one of my images.

Part 7: The image that makes me smile

Any aviation enthusiast and or photographer who has ever been to a NAS Oceana airshow knows in the morning you do two things, shoot statics and shop for swag. During the airshow weekend, most of the squadrons based at Oceana sets up rows of tents and offers tons of squadron merch. From T-shirts, Cruise DVDs, challenge coins, coffee mugs to photos and illustrations. In 2008, I attended the show with two fellow photographers, Shawn Yost and Craig Scaling. All weekend long we were cracking jokes, quoting “Top Gun” and all around enjoying each other’s company.

Saturday morning, Shawn and I made our way through security, and met up with Craig. We made our way over to the “Squadron Mall” to buy all the swag we could not live without. Shawn and Craig both fancy squadron cruise DVDs and challenge coins. Zaps (squadron stickers) are my jam. After spending an untold amount of money, it was time to figure out where in the hell we were going to put it all. Remember, its morning. We still have a whole day of shooting ahead. You can’t hold on to all that swag and shoot jets?! You got to pack that shit up! After packing our swag into every nook and cranny of our cameras bags, we headed toward to show line to figure out where we want to shoot from. If I remember correctly, Craig wanted to head over to the static to reshoot something. Craig took off his backpack to put his DVDs away. With his hands full, he asks me to hold his camera. He then processes to stuff his DVDs into his overpacked backpack. With a devilish grin on my face, I nodded to Shawn. He instantly stuck the pose and I quickly framed them both and press the shutter. Craig had his camera set to continuous shooting and it shocked the hell out of me when I heard his shutter blasting away. And as quickly as it happened, I lowered Craig’s camera and Shawn recomposed himself. Craig asks for his camera back. ”You’re shitting me, Right?!” I said to myself. He didn’t realize what just happened?! So, I handed him his camera as if nothing even happened. Trying not to laugh, Shawn and I were both amazing he didn’t hear the shutter snapping away or pick up on what we just did. Looking back now, it was beautiful! Craig went off to shoot statics, Shawn and I in disbelief found a shooting location. We enjoyed the show, packed up our gear, and headed to the hotel. While there, dump cards, charge batteries, shower, dinner and get ready to do it all over again the next day.

Sunday morning, we woke up, got some breakfast, and head to the base. Again, parked the car, geared up, made our way through security, shot the show, and met up with Craig afterward. I do remember, we headed over to my parent’s house that night for a home-cooked meal. On the way over, We figure Craig would have said something about Saturday’s little photo shoot, but nothing. At my parent place, we eat, and we laughed. Heck, my dad even broke out his old cruise books when he served on the Ticonderoga (CV-14) and Saratoga (CV-60). Back in the hotel, we chilled, and eventually off to bed. Come Monday morning, we all headed our separate ways back home.

According to the EXIF data from the image, it was 10 days from the time I shot it to when Craig found it and email it to Shawn and I. He named the image “ShawnandStevearedead”. Key takeaways are. First, regardless of what’s you are shooting, Have fun! And second… Never let me hold your camera when Shawn is around!  

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< The Story behind an Image part 6

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Weekend in Miami

Over the long Memorial Day weekend, I headed down to Miami for the Air & Sea show. Here’s a few phots of Downtown Miami, my hotel views, and South Beach. The sites & sounds, the vibe of the city and the Cuban cuisine, Oh man! I was blown away. And if I’m honest, was a bit overwhelmed at first but I was there to have fun and I didn’t let it stop me from truly enjoying myself.

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Until next post,

Steven

Answering the call to Photography

I’ve been keeping myself occupied with my models. But last weekend, I didn’t want to spend it torturing plastic again. Sunday morning, I felt the familiar itch to go somewhere locally and do some photography. So, I grabbed up my gear and headed downtown. I had no expectations about this brief trip. I just wanted to spend some time behind my camera. While driving to Detroit, I figured something on Belle isle should be in bloom. And the large patches of yellow lilies on the approach to the bridge to the island was very promising. Once there, the crisp morning light illuminated the Detroit skyline against some approaching dark and moody clouds. I made my way over to the fountain where to my delight the Cherry blossoms were in full bloom.

Soon the angry sky was overhead, the sharp contrasting light faded, and a light rain slowly overtook the island. And in a spirited pace, I made my way back to the comfort of my car where I sipped on my coffee and reviewed my shots. With the rain beginning to let up, I wondered if there were any tulips in bloom around the conservatory. As I got closer, I spotted numerous colorful signs of spring blossoms. But unfortunately, the conservatory was closed. That was strike one.

Well, let’s go hit up those patches of lilies before the bridge. I headed off the island and found parking close by the lily patches, but this would be strike two. The passing rain clouds was still hiding the Sun, making the shots flat and muted. But my itch to keep making photos was still strong. So, I drove into downtown to look for other spring blossoms. If anything, it would chew up some time for the sky to clear and maybe come back to the lilies later.

answering_the_Call_5

Driving through the city, rekindled my love for Detroit. All the familiar sites along with some new ones. But still no tulips. So, I headed down Grand River boulevard to check for some new street art. There were a few blocks that was the epicenter for graffiti in Detroit. But now, there’s barely any to be found. I did manage to spot a new piece by Sintex and other artists. I’ll call this a foul ball.

With the sky slowly clearing and my desire to photograph some tulips unfulfilled, I head back downtown. I made my way to Campus Martius and guess what was in bloom and seem to be peppered everywhere? Tulips! Red, white, yellow, pink, orange… holy fuck! Where can I park? Eagerly searching for a spot, minutes seemed like hours and all the pretty little petals would be dead and gone before I would find a parking spot. After what seemed like a week, I found one.

Parked about two blocks away from the little beauties, I’m now facing a problem. What lense to bring? The 24-70mm or the 70-200mm? Fuck it, the 24-70 should be enough Right?! I slapped in on my 5DSR, put everything else out of sight, lock up and make my way to the plethora of tulips. Finally, tulips in bloom and in some gorgeous light. But after about 5 or 6 shots, I found myself wanting more focal length. The 24-70 could not get in close enough to produce the images in my minds eye.

Time to hike back to the car, switch lenses, walk back and continue shooting. This time, after the first few shots, I heard myself say, “I love this lense”. Home Run!

After using up all my bag of tricks and finally fulfilling my desire to photograph some tulips, it was time to head back home. Despite the hiccups, it was good to get out of my pandemic weekend routine and practice one of my other passions.

Until next time, stay safe and keep busy!

Steven

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