The Classic Seattle Night Shots

I know there is the theory saying you should try to find an individual angle in your photography, not going after the shots that million others have taken. Thank heavens it’s just that…a theory.

Of course I went after the two classic night shots of the Seattle skyline. The first from Kerry Park was taken with 1/6 sec @ f/4 and ISO 500. I took it handheld, camera tightly tucked against the body, arms resting on the railing of the viewpoint. As I have written in other posts, getting tack sharp images with 1/6 sec handheld is no big problem with the Olympus OM-D E-M1 combined with the 12-100 F/4, where image stabilization of the camera are added to the lens internal image stabilization. Amazing technology. It was that crowded at the viewpoint that it would have been difficult to set up a tripod anyway.

The second classic night shot of the Seattle skyline is from the 12th Avenue bridge across the I5. You have Century Link Field (home of the Seattle Seahawks) to the left, the Interstate 5 and Seattle downtown. Image specs here are 4 seconds, f/7.1 and ISO 200. As I wanted to capture the light trails of the passing cars I used a slow shutter speed of 4 seconds with the camera on a small tripod. I would have loved to use a longer shutter speed, but the problem was the bridge was vibrating with passing cars. Anything longer than 4 seconds always resulted in shaking from a passing car. Still, I’m quite happy with the result.

Any reason not to go for the postcard shots?

Wish you a splendid Sunday!

Marcus

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