Long Beach Peninsula/Cape Disappointment, Washington

Cape Disappointment Lighthouse at twilight

Beards Hollow Beach

North Head Light

Dead Man's Cove

Willapa National Wildlife Refuge, Long Beach Peninsula

Beards Hollow Beach

North Head Light

Dead Man's Cove

Beards Hollow Beach

The shoreline at Surfside, Long Beach Peninsula

North Head Light

More still life

Photographica III--Still Life with Camera

Photographica II--Still Life with Camera

Still Life with Blowtorch

Here's my most recent still life image. These kinds of still life images can make for some unusual and attractive wall decor. I like to print them as gallery-wrapped canvases about 24 inches wide x 32 inches long. For a brief tutorial on how I go about making these images, click here.

Still Life with Blowtorch
Panasonic G6 w/Lumix 45-150mm lens @45mm
Click on the image for a larger view.

Puget Sound, the Kitsap peninsula, and the Olympic Mountains

Here's a shot taken from Marina Beach Park in Edmonds, just north of Seattle.

Puget Sound , the Kitsap Peninsula, and the Olympic Mountains as seen from Edmonds, Washington
Panasonic G6 w/Lumix 45-150mm lens @143mm

Another view of Seattle from Alki

Seattle, perhaps more than many other cities, has many wonderful viewpoints from which to photograph. Still, the number of compelling vantage points is finite, and yet, the view from any one of these is never the same, and one can return to them time and again, and with a little luck, come home with a view that is far different than the last shot one took there. This is of course true of any city, so don't think that just because you got a great shot from some particular location, that all the possibilities have been exhausted. This twilight shot of downtown Seattle, as seen from the Alki neighborhood of West Seattle, is quite different from other shots I've obtained there, but has it's own unique charm.

If you'd like to shoot with me at Alki, or any other of Seattle's myriad viewpoints, come to my workshop, and you'll see firsthand how I capture and process images like this. It's fun and you'll learn a lot in a short time. More info here.

Seattle as Seen from Alki
Panasonic G6, w/Lumix 45-150mm lens @ 69mm

Eagle sculpture by Alexander Calder

This painted steel sculpture is located in the Olympic Sculpture Park, Seattle. Seen in the distance are the Olympic
Mountains and Puget Sound.

Eagle sculpture by Alexander Calder, Olympic Sculpture Park, Seattle, with Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains in the background

Mountain peaks float above Seattle neighborhood

As the sun sets, turning the sky orange and yellow, the Olympic Mountains appear to float as islands in a sea of clouds, behind the Seattle neighborhood of Magnolia.

Whether you're a visitor or a resident, I invite you to come shoot with me in Seattle. We'll spend three fun hours scouting the location, discuss composition and exposure while setting up the shot(s), make the image captures, and process one of your images immediately afterwards. Click here for more information.

Seattle series: West Point Lighthouse

This modest lighthouse in Seattle's Discovery Park may be photographed from a number of different angles. See my website for more views.

West Point Lighthouse, Seattle

Whether you're a visitor or a resident, I invite you to come shoot with me in Seattle. We'll spend three fun hours scouting the location, discuss composition and exposure while setting up the shot(s), make the image captures, and process one of your images immediately afterwards. Click here for more information.

Seattle series: Seattle as seen from Alki

In this shot of Seattle as seen from Alki, the long exposure has smoothed out the water and blurred the clouds. There isn't much foreground to work with in this location, but the rocks do add some interest to the photo. Notice how the sky is also more interesting with some cloud detail instead of a dark, blank background.

Downtown Seattle as seen from Alki Beach (West Seattle)

Want to spend a few hours in Seattle shooting with me? Click here for info on my workshops.

photo21 Seattle Photography Workshop

After a number of inquiries from visitors and residents alike, I have developed a 3-hour, one-on-one Seattle photo workshop, a sort of shot-in-the-arm for honing your imaging skills and shooting some of Seattle's best scenes at the same time, and since you will be the only attendee, we can tailor the workshop to your specific needs.

If you would like to improve your photography skills and learn how to capture and process compelling images, allow me, Michael Brent Levy, to personally guide you through a 3-hour, on-location photo shoot and post-processing workshop. You and I will choose a location in the greater Seattle area, and spend our time together roughly as follows:

1st hour: Scouting the location, we will look for the best vantage points from which to photograph the scene, pre-visualize possible compositions, and choose the most suitable lens, focal length, aperture, and exposure pararmeters for the job, given the intended result and existing lighting conditions.

2nd hour: Before shooting, you will frame the scene through your camera’s viewfinder or monitor, and I may suggest possible adjusments to your composition. We will then proceed to photograph the scene, trying to catch the optimum light (this is most important near sunset), do a quick check of the images on the camera’s monitor screen, and make adjustments to composition/exposure if necessary. If appropriate, we will move to another promising vantage point and shoot the scene again,

3rd hour: We will process one of your images in Lightroom and/or Photoshop on my high-resolution laptop, and you will learn how appropriate adjustments to the tonality, color balance, and saturation can maximize the impact of the image. We may clone out distracting image elements, and may make adjustments localized to specific parts of the photograph. Lastly, we will see if judicious cropping improves the overall composition, and why. If time allows, I will demonstrate some simple but powerful capture and processing techniques that may surprise you.

Cost is $149 for this three-hour Seattle photography workshop. To schedule a workshop for a time convenient for you, e-mail me at mikelevyonline@gmail.com, or call or text me at 206/489-8414.

Some possible shooting locations may be seen in the Seattle section of my website at www.photo21.org.

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For those rainy days in Seattle when shooting is made more difficult, I am offering a two-hour, one-on-one post-processing workshop, using Lightroom and/or Photoshop, suitable for beginning or mid-level users. Using my high-resolution, calibrated and profiled laptop, we will cover the tools and techniques specific to your editing needs, process one or more of your own photos, and demonstrate some interesting and very useful techniques on some of my sample images.

Cost is $98 for the two-hour session. We will meet at the Seattle Public Library, the Suzzallo Library at the University of Washington (in itself an interesting place to photograph), or at another agreed-upon meeting place. Contact me for more information or to set up a workshop session.

Still Life

Please click on the images for a larger view.

Still Life with Oil Cans

Still life--When Kodak was King

Still Life with Mandolin

Still Life with Mango

Still Life with Junk no.2

Still Life with Junk no.3

Still Life with Pipe Wrench

Still Life with Junk

My jack plane

Still life--Autumn Harvest

Same place, different time

If you've followed this blog, you've seen this lighthouse before. I keep going back, and although the subject matter is the same, a fresh scene always presents itself, and is usually one worth photographing. Now, it's not entirely good luck, as I only head out to the lighthouse when the possibility of an interesting sunset presents itself. But to quote a line (with a bit of artistic license) from the movie Forest Gump, "Sunsets are like a box of chocolates--you never know what you're gonna get."  Click on the image for a larger view.

West Point Lighthouse, Discovery Park, Seattle
Canon 450D w/Tamron 11-16mm lens @11mm

Orion goes hunting over Clear Lake, California

Orion the hunter hangs in the sky with his dog (Canis Major) over northern California's Clear Lake. Orion's higher shoulder is marked by the red supergiant star Betelguese. If this star were at the center of our solar system, it's surface would extend as far out as the planet Jupiter.

The brightest star in this photograph, Sirius, (to the lower left of Orion), is also the brightest star in the entire sky (as seen from Earth). It is nicknamed the "dog star," and is sometimes imagined as the dog's nose.

Orion on the hunt over Clear Lake, California
Canon 450D w/Tamron 11-16mm lens @f/2.8, 15 seconds, ISO 1600

Timing is everything

I disembarked from the Whidbey Island ferry with my point-and-shoot camera yesterday afternoon, just in time to run over to the nearby lighthouse and catch the last rays of sunlight  before the sun disappeared behind the Olympic Mountains on the other side of Puget Sound. A compelling photograph often relies (among other things) on being in the right place at the right time with the right light. More often than not, conditions conspire against us, but in this case everything came together nicely: the right time of day, the sun briefly poking through a cloud bank to illuminate the lighthouse, lovely cloud patterns in the sky above, and waiting to snap the photo at the moment when the departing ferry was between the lighthouse and the edge of the frame. Click on the photo for a larger view.

Mukilteo Light, Mukilteo, Washington
Samsung EX1, f/3.1 @24mm, ISO 80

Return of the crescent moon

The moon has returned to the early evening sky, and this landscape (if you want to call it a landscape) is a bit unusual in that it does not record any specifically identifiable place. Its location and mood is left to the imagination of the viewer. Click on the image for a larger view.

Birds under a waxing crescent moon

Another "secret" Seattle shooting location, Bhy Kracke

Well, it was a secret to me anyway, and I would guess that there are quite a few other locals who aren't aware of it either. This is the view from Bhy Kracke (that's right--Bhy Kracke) Park in the Seattle neighborhood of Queen Anne. Thanks to Alex Vitruk for pointing it out to me. Click on the image for a larger view.

Seattle skyline and Space Needle as seen from Bhy Kracke Park
3-frame panorama, Canon 450D w/Tamron 17-50mm lens @50mm, f/8

Lunar eclipse over Seattle

If you were up well before sunrise on Saturday, you may have noticed that someone had taken a bite out of the full moon. This total lunar eclipse was caused by the moon moving into (and later out of) the earth's shadow. When the moon was fully immersed in the darkest part of the shadow, the earth's atmosphere acted as sort of dirty lens, which directed a bit of reddish sunlight onto the moon's face. Below is a time-lapse composite photo showing the first half of the eclipse, with the moon heading towards the western horizon and progressively moving into the earth's shadow.

For a better view, click anywhere on the image.

Total lunar eclipse over Seattle

Backyard wildlife

Barred owls are not uncommon in my Seattle neighborhood, but they are often hidden among the trees, although their vocalizations are clear and unmistakable. This one was particularly cooperative however, by perching on a branch the location of which offered no obstructions to my line of sight. I had to travel no farther than the back deck of my house to get this photo.

Barred owl
Canon 450D w/Spiratone 400mm lens

Crescent moon over Birch Bay

Birch Bay, in the far northwest corner of Washington state, is actually farther north than some parts of Canada. In the distance, you can see some of the Canadian Gulf Islands. This image is a composite of two exposures of the same scene:  a short one for the moon and sky, and a much longer one for the water, with the water's movement blurring the surface to a silk-like texture. Click on the image to see a larger version.

Crescent moon over Birch Bay and Gulf Islands
Canon 450D w/Tamron 17-50mm lens @41mm

Early morning, late snow on Mt. Rainier

Unusually cool weather in the Pacific Northwest has delayed the snowmelt on the flanks of Mt. Rainier (a.k.a. Mt. Tahoma).  I left home in Seattle at 3am, only to find both upper and lower Tipsoo Lakes still covered in snow. Still, the sunrise was lovely.

Sunrise on Mt. Rainier, looking out over lower Tipsoo Lake
Canon 450D w/Tamron 17-50mm lens @33mm