Seattle Public Library

I habitually ignore one of the most photogenic buildings in the country.  So this week I made it a point to spend an hour exploring with my (now) trusty Panasonic GF1/20mm in hand.  Here are some of the results.

 

 

Roller Derby!

Here in Seattle in the spring minor sports become major sports in the absence of professional whiny pampered athletes.  So here I find myself at Key Arena watching Roller Derby, too far away with too small a lens for sharp fast images.  But wait... this is a gritty fast action sport!  Drag the shutter and kick up the grain.  Let's see some action! (Panasonic DMC-GF1, 14-42 Lens)

1920s Flapper Style - Aged Vintage Style

I set up a studio shoot using props to create a mood reminiscent of the 1920s.  At a nearby senior citizen's thrift shop I found a yellow lace headband with big pink flowers and, strangely, tufts of curly hair stuck to each side.  I don't know what era it really was from but it definitely looked decadent enough to be the roaring 20s.  Most of the rest of items were scarves and costume store beads.  To age the photos I overlayed images I had taken of rusted metalwork.  I've worked with the model, Raia, on a number of shoots in the past.  She was glamorous as ever!

HDR Experiments in Georgetown Industrial Area

It's a travesty that Panasonic replaced the Panasonic Lumix GF1 with a much less capable model in the GF2, with a reduced feature set and far less intuitive controls. 

These photos of the Georgetown area of Seattle were taken with my GF1 on auto-bracketing with 7 photos with a range of 2/3 stop between each one.  Given the conditions a greater range would have yielded better results, but I was mostly hand holding the camera and was relying on a quick succession of frames.  Here are the results, merged in Photoshop HDR Pro.

Ghosts intentionally not removed (for artistic effect):

Panorama (not HDR):