Sakura Con

Sakura Con takes place annually towards the end of April at the Seattle convention center. It is the anime event where all types of people congregate and display their costumes and love for the genre. For a lunch break, several friends and I perused the character exhibitions and immersed ourselves, or at least tried to, in this culture if only for a short while. I wish we could have stayed longer, but we had to get back to work.

New York City

A recent trip to NY. It was a bit gloomy for the time I was there, but I managed to sneak away a few shots of various parts of the city. I think the area I enjoyed the most was the meat packing district, where the High Line is located. Lots of interesting new work going on there, very artistically inclined.

a crocodile

Some conceptual practice along with image layering practice. I made the attempt to create a story of this crocodile going to get 'human shoes' to discuss ideas of natural waste/environmental destruction and the lengths some people will go to try to 'stand out', but didn't really know where to take it and how to add images to the series. It has stopped here for the time being until I can figure anything else out, which may or may not happen...

Moving Earth

An exploration into the act of creation through construction, looking at how architects, engineers, contractors, and construction groups begin to affect the natural and built environments. These particular projects first involved the removal of earth, for a number of reasons, and thus created a 'positive' form from the 'negative' act of removal. Perhaps this work will become a renowned piece of architectural ingenuity, perhaps it will become a dilapidated slum...only time will tell.

eye see you see me

Originally uploaded by bade_md

Spectacles in the International District, Seattle.

Yellowstone - Mammoth Hot Springs

Yellowstone - Mammoth Hot Springs, originally uploaded by bade_md.

A fellow photographer in front of the Mammoth Hot Springs really gives you some sense of scale for the surroundings.

Mammoth Hot Springs

One of a few posts to come, this series is part of a recent trip to Yellowstone National Park towards the end of September. This series, shot at the Mammoth Hot Springs, was the first stop on our 1.5 day venture throughout the park. The stench of sulphur was almost immediate, as were the beautiful colors and intricate formations created from the geothermal activity. Unfortunately, these are not the hot springs to wade about in, as you would probably receive severe skin burns....too bad.

San Juan Island

I went to San Juan Island at the end of August for a weekend visit with my parents. The ferry ride out was nice, as the ferry ride always is, and we arrived to a sunny island and instantly began touring. We headed out to the American Camp beach for a short while, then out to one of the lighthouses to see if any Orcas were passing by.....they weren't, or at least we didn't see them. We continued touring through Roche Harbor and then to see if Mona the camel was hanging about. We didn't see her at first so we headed to our hotel. The next morning we headed back towards Mona, where she lingered in the corner of her 'house', but her Alpaca friend did come up to the fence to say hello. We then departed on our whale watching tour, where we saw plenty of sea-fairing creatures, including Orcas, sea lions, seals, and porpoises. Pretty awesome! We returned on the ferry during the sunset and watched the colors change on Mt. Baker as we pulled in to Anacortes. Awesome trip!
Photo 1 - f/11 1/500 ISO 100 @ 155mm
Photo 2 - f/10 1/400 ISO 100 @ 300mm
Photo 3 - f/11 1/400 ISO 100 @ 70mm
Photo 4 - f/11 1/320 ISO 100 @ 15mm

Ballard Shipyards

I took my first, and long overdue, trip to the fisherman's market in Ballard for some dinner and to explore a bit. It was the evening, close to the sunset so the light was great. I want to go back soon in the very early morning to see the fisherman bringing in their catch!
Photo 1 - f/5 1/400 ISO 100 @ 14mm
Photo 2 - f/5 1/400 ISO 100 @ 10mm
Photo 3 - f/14 13 seconds ISO 100 @ 22mm - ND.9 filter
Photo 4 - f/14 20 seconds ISO 100 @ 18mm - ND.9 filter

Snoqualmie Falls

A recent trip was taken to the Snoqualmie Falls with my parents with hopes of hiking to the bottom of the falls to check out the falls a bit more up close. Little did we know was that the whole hiking trail is now closed, and will remain closed for the next three years.....THREE YEARS!!! I understand a lot of things take time, but that seems a bit lengthy...who knows, though, it could be a more extreme project than I know! Anyways, the falls were nice, minus the cranes and general garbage at the top of them. I definitely want to go back here at winter once the mist has frozen onto the stone walls...that will be awesome!
Photo 1 - f/16 1 second ISO 100 @ 31mm - combo of ND filters used
Photo 2 - f/11 1/100 ISO 100 @ 70mm
Photo 3 - f/5 1/250 ISO 100 @ 157mm

Twin Harbors Camping

Recently a group of men went out to a campground for another installment of what we like to call 'ManCamp'. Twin Harbors was our destination, where such events as surfing, eating, and general manliness occurred. These photos were taken at our campsite through the implementation of some very long exposures, coupled with several headlamps and flashlights for added effect. Great weekend!

Opposites

So I didn't have to really 'wander' anywhere for these photos, except to the local grocery store for some food and props and then to my kitchen table for the actual shooting. These images are for an assignment revolving around the them of 'opposites and their common ground'. Sure there are some issues that I could have delved deeper into metaphorically, but with minimal time and overall resources, I decided to pursue a more humorous route, and thus the emergence of the food-related battles came to mind: Mustard vs. Ketchup, Peanut Butter vs. Jelly, and Spoon vs. Fork. Feras and I had quite a bit of fun with all of them!
All images used an off-camera flash for lighting support.

San Diego

I recently took a trip to San Diego, and though it isn't technically part of the Northwest, I am still going to upload a few images! I went to visit my best friend, Adam, for a short vacation and to lounge around on the beaches for a couple of days. The weather and the company was great, not to mention the California burritos which I can never seem to eat enough of. That, and the In-n-Out Burger!
Photo 1 - f/8.0 1/800 ISO 100 @ 70mm
Photo 2 - f/6.0 1/1600 ISO 100 @ 300mm
Photo 3 - f/8.0 1/160 ISO 100 @ 15mm w/polariser

Mt. Adams Attempt

Ryan and I made an attempt on Mt. Adams throughout the day on July 24. We drove out of Seattle the day before, sat in way too much traffic, and finally made it to the trailhead parking lot around 11:30pm. After 3 hours of sleep, we began to get ready and finally set out at just before 3:30 at around 5600'. The trail was easy-going for the first mile, and we both felt pretty good. The moon was a beautiful bright amber and hovered just above the horizon. By 4:30 we had reached snow at just above 6500', and decided to put on the crampons at just above 7000'. The sun came up and cast Adams' shadow across the skyline, which was impressive, and stayed out for the entire day. It felt like the temperatures never dropped below 80 degrees! Just above 10,000' I started to feel the onset of altitude-related issues, and once we topped out on Piker's Peak at 11,600' at around 9:45, I decided to turn myself around due to nausea, dizziness, and general altitude problems. Just wasn't my day, and I'm more comfortable knowing it wasn't a physical issue but something that no matter how hard you try sometimes it just happens. I'll be back, but probably not until next year!

Chinatown Seafair Parade

With a last-minute decision, Feras and I decided to visit the Chinatown Seafair Parade on July 25 after we had heard that there would be a small contingent of costumed characters (more to come in a later post) participating in said parade. We anticipated a somewhat 'small' grouping of people and were quite surprised to see all of the different types of groups that would soon be in the parade. Pirates, clowns, musical groups, costumed characters, floats, everything. Since we arrived well before the start of the parade, we were able to mingle with the crowds and get some more candid shots. The following images are from one of the groups carrying one of the Chinese dragons through the streets. I set the white balance off of a teal color near the scene, as I wanted the shots to have a red hue to them. All of the images below were also taken with the Sigma 10-20 lens @ 100 ISO.

Mt. Townsend

8 of us decided to ascend Mt. Townsend in the Olympic mountain range over the Fourth of July weekend for a couple nights of camping. Our initial idea was to hike in to Silver Lake, camp, then head up to the ridge and camp another night. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't so great on Saturday so we decided to go all the way up to the ridge after hearing reports of sun up there. The trail itself is of a medium grade, not too steep but not too shallow either, with small patches of snow that we had to pass through around 5500'. After a few hours we made it to the ridge and set up camp, where we had a few snowball fights and did some exploring. At around 8pm the clouds finally sank, revealing a fantastic sunset over the Western Olympics. We woke the next morning to gusting winds and low clouds once again, so we packed up and headed back out to Seattle for the fireworks. Mt. Townsend is always a great hike with some stunning scenery!

Astoria, OR

Our main destination for Memorial weekend was Astoria, home such things as the Goonies, and a strong surf and fishing heritage. We were able to experience some of this heritage as we had the opportunity to stay at the Alderbrook Station, and salmon old fisherman's destination and part of Astoria's history (built in 1903). The place is awesome, all of it. Our new friend Darren Doss is the owner/renovator of the property and has done an excellent job! The net shed remains as it has since he acquired the property, and served as our workshop as we aided him in some renovation work to the boathouse. Few things could beat watching the sun set over the Columbia river while lounging in a wood-fueled hot tub. The town itself is very neat, with remnants of the city's fishing history scattered throughout the town and the coastline. We visited part of it's surfing heritage, but will not say exactly where to keep the surfer's secret. Photographic opportunities abound, and I'd love to go back!
Photo 1 - 1/80s f/13 ISO 160 Nikon 18-50 @ 40mm, polarizer
Photo 2 - 30s f/14 ISO 100 Sigma 10-20 @ 19mm, polarizer + ND.9
Photo 3 - 30s f/14 ISO 100 Sigma 10-20 @ 19mm, polarizer + ND.9
Photo 4 - 1/100s f/5 ISO 250 Sigma 10-20 @ 14mm