From November 7th to November 11th I took a little trip up to the Northwest to do a little hiking and photography. On the 3rd day of the trip heading from Palouse to Olympic National Park. Along the way I found myself here outside Seattle on the 12th Street Bridge where the 90 and 5 freeways meet. This would be a little journal log of this photo and the trip along with why this is an afterthought.
Shooting Palouse falls in the morning was awesome and I hope to have a photo soon of this amazing place. But after the morning shoot I jumped in the car and prepared myself for the 7 hour drive to the North west Coast of Olympic National Park. After about 4 hours of driving in the rain I decided to stop and gas up and get a bite to eat. It is about 2pm and wanting to make Ruby Beach for sunset was probably not going to work its way out because of the sun setting at 4:40pm or so (this is the part where you learn not to take a trip up to the Pacific Northwest after daylight savings time because it gets dark early), while sitting and eating I came up with another plan of instead heading south down the 5 to the 101 and out to the coast I would head up the 5 to Seattle shoot this infamous shot and then head out to Olympic National Park. I didn’t get on the road until 3:20 or so and with the sun setting fast, again starting to rain and traffic I doubted very much if I was going to make the spot by sunset.
All this while in the background the Seahawks game was going to be letting out at the same time so traffic wasn’t looking good. (Century link Field is in the same area)
It rained on and off on the way up and after a traffic accident that delayed my arrival and a wrong turn I did finally hit the spot just before 5:00pm. It was late it was semi dark but the rain had stopped. I parked out on the street just above this area at Rizal Park and walked to the over pass. The sky was a dark blue and traffic was pretty backed up. I set up my tripod and camera and proceeded to shoot some long exposures. The bridge vibrates when a big truck or bus passes by so you have to wait to let those things pass before shooting each shot.
This shot for instance is a 80 second exposure at F/11, ISO 50, no filters. I put my long exposure knowledge to work, I wanted to get maximum amount of shots in before it was to dark. I figured I didn’t need more than 90 seconds or so to get good cloud movement and that would give me the look I was searching for.
I had to work fast before the light was totally gone. After about 10 minutes of shooting the light started to dissipate fast and after another 5 more minutes the sky was black and it started to rain once again. I knew that was my clue to pack it up and be happy to have something in the can.
This photo you are looking at is pretty much right out of the camera.
The Equipment:
>Tripod, Remote shutter release, Canon 5D Mark ii, 17-40L Lens
The Shot:
F/11, ISO 50, at 35mm, 80 second exposure
Post Processing:
>Raw processing with slight adjustments to white balance, black and fill light
>Opened in CS-5
>Cloning out of any dust on sensor
>Topaz Denoise to remove noise in sky
>Slight cloning out of guard rail on lower right side
>Nik Color Efex 4.0
>Pro Contrast
>Tonal Contrast
>Dark/lighten
>Curves layer for selective lighting of sky and city
>Slight sharpening used on the city
>Cropped to taste
This trip consists of 4 nights (Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday)
I sleep in my rented small SUV on Saturday and Sunday where ever I can. Saturday Night at Palouse Falls and Sunday in a grocery store Parking lot.
I covered 1300+ miles and my route:
Seattle to Columbia River Gorge
Columbia River Gorge to Palouse Falls
Palouse Falls back into Seattle
Seattle to Crescent Lake via the Bainbridge Ferry
Crescent Lake to The Hoh Rain Forest
The Hoh Rain Forest to Rialto Beach
Rialto Beach to Ruby Beach
Ruby Beach to back to Federal Way
Federal Way is where I spent the night before flying home Tuesday morning
Sometimes life is an adventure, this for me would be classified as one.
Not sure if I could have spent the time more wisely, that would be for the history books to figure out.
I love the blue of the sky and how its coolness contrasts so nicely with the warmth of the building lights. This is a great example of being open to what you come across as opposed to being “locked in” on what you think you are going to shoot. Wow, you are real road warrior, sleeping in your car!