A winter day trip to Seattle, captured on film.
Pike Place in Ektar 100
Seattle Center in Kodak Portra 400
Beautiful spring day in the city.
The second roll of CineStill 800T (35mm)
Seattle in the Sun
The other side
I wanted to shoot neon signs on CineStill 800 but couldn’t really find much around Seattle. The desire faded over time, mostly because of the length of time I researched and then abandoned the project. While looking up interesting places around Seattle, noticed the south side of the city - potentially dangerous to wander late at night, present an array of very interesting old-city looks and “some” neon in it.
There was only one way to confirm or deny this…
I arranged for a scouting trip one of the December weekends and was thrilled to find amazing old buildings and history (I wasn’t aware until then UPS started here in Seattle). The area looked a lot less sketchy than it did ten years ago but, I was still hesitant to venture into the darkness, unarmed. But I knew I had to return at night - these scenes were too good to pass.
I teamed up with two friends (Kiran & Ashok) who were interested in shooting this part of town at night, and we drove over last Sunday evening. The weather was very cooperative: rain clouds were blown east and away from the city around 8 PM and we could even see a few stars along with the Big Dipper in the sky.
It was uncanny how calm, quiet the city was, considering it was a weekend night. Besides few “interesting” human beings (for lack of better definition) on the streets, the restaurants had diners but, from outside under a clear night sky there were not many sounds nor voices.
Once I acclimated to the surrounding I walked into a back alley to shoot the wet bricks catching the lights from the street on the other side.
There is nothing in this wide world that would ever make me comfortable photographing in the city at night. But I guess sometimes it is worth testing the limits, and these rare adventures always yield good photographs.
I’m happy.
UW Seattle Campus
Shot on Kodak Ektar 100 with Kowa Six
Winter day in the sun (Seattle)
An unusually bright sunny day in the first Saturday of December, 2022 - I could have driven to the mountains away from the city. But instead took a short trip to the city.
