Postcards 101: Assignment Seattle
by chrisab

Comment by Sonifo:
Chris you did a fine job of capturing the cities beautiful architecture. Congrats!

Postcards 101: Assignment Seattle
by chrisab

Comment by autool:
I am sure that you have captured just what the architect had envisioned when he deigned the famous needle. Superb job !
Keep Shootin'
Autool

Postcards 101: Assignment Seattle
by chrisab

Comment by chrisab:
Myk, I'm not totally sure. If you look at some of my outtakes, you can see a more pinkish top in some of those I took earlier. My guess would be that it's a white balance thing; tungstun lighting on top giving it more of a yellow color? The only post processing I did was auto-balance and auto-colors. I'll have look at the original and see how pink it is.

And, hey, why haven't you entered a challenge in so long? We could have used another space needle shot last week!! :)

Postcards 101: Assignment Seattle
by chrisab

Comment by mykoleary:
How'd you manage to get the salmon color that the needle is now painted on top to show up as yellow?

Postcards 101: Assignment Seattle
by chrisab

Comment by Alecia:
Nice going Chris! Congrats and stuff.

Postcards 101: Assignment Seattle
by chrisab

Comment by mcmurma:
Great photo Chris. The clarity of this shot is just amazing. Congrats!

Postcards 101: Assignment Seattle
by chrisab

Comment by chrisab:
Thanks everyone for your votes and comments. I'm thrilled to have picked up a DPChallenge ribbon!

I figured this would be sort of a "cliche" challenge, so I set out to make the most technically sound "postcard from home" I could. I finally had time to go shoot on Friday night and it was a beautiful night. Cool fall breeze blowing in from the sound, huge orange harvest moon rising off to the left, great sunset. I spent about 90 minutes shooting around dusk.

I liked the shot I submitted because I used a pretty shallow depth of field, so the needle itself is tack-sharp but the lights in the buildings behind are just slightly fuzzy, which I think gives it kind of a watercolor-ish look. I think this is what gives it the "unreal" look people are referring too, and it's what I liked about this shot. Some people suggested it might have been better later (or ealier), but I thought the shots taken in this particular 5 minutes or so were the most "magical". You can see details on the needle such as the antenea on top, and the lights on the bottom of the needle pointing up make the light look almost natural, sort of like fill flash. But it's also just dark enough that the top glows nicely. Nobody really mentioned any of these details in the comments, but I *think* that's the kind of thing that appealed to people.

If you'd like to see some of my outtakes, you can find them at: //www.pbase.com/chrisab/corner

Thanks again!!

Postcards 101: Assignment Seattle
by chrisab

Comment by Frank Beckman:
Great Picture!!! Congradulations!

Postcards 101: Assignment Seattle
by chrisab

Comment by KarenB:
You go, Chris! Excellent job - congrats on a 2nd place ribbon!
:)

Postcards 101: Assignment Seattle
by chrisab

Comment by alanfreed:
Super job -- congrats!!