Seattle Holiday Lights

Since about 2011 or 2012, I’ve hosted photowalks during December to capture the holiday lights on display throughout downtown Seattle.

This year I partnered up with FUJIFILM and Glazer’s Camera to host the group. We spent our time focused on Pike Place Market.

Pike Place has been around for over 100 years now, and in general is one of my fave spots to explore in Seattle. In the evening, if comes to life in a different way.

So it rains…

In Seattle it rains, on occasion. I know some people thing it’s a daily occurance but it isn’t. In winter we do have more than our fair share of overcast days, but these are often just dry and dark days.

One of the joys, of a little rain, is an opportunity to create an image like this. The wet street highlights the cobblestone texture as well as creates a special glowy reflection.

Add a little motion.

Having taken thousands of images at Pike Place Market over the years, one of my goals is to always find a new way of capturing this space. I have my fave, go-to spots for images, but each time, my intention is “how can I make this different”.

As an artist I’ve always loved abstraction and movement. So through the technique of ICM (Intentional Camera Movement), can do all of these things. Create an image that is just a little different.

This image was captured, handheld on my FUJIFILM X-T4, for about 1.3” second exposure.

Twist + Rotate

Another way to explore this technique is to spin the lens or camera, or zoom in or out. Here I did a quick twist of the camera body while the shutter was open. If you know the spot it’s recognisable, if you don’t, then it’s even a bit more abstract.

I captured a variety of images using this technique, but this is a fave as it does abstract the scene just a little bit more.

Also 1.3 seconds on the FUJIFILM X-T4.

For each of these images I am using one of my fave lenses from FUJIFILM for night, street photography. The 18mm f/2 WR. This is a wonderful, compact and inexpensive lens to have in your kit if you want a wider angle lens and a relatively fast aperture.

Rainbows & Reflections

Another twist I love to add is bringing my fave toolset from Lensbaby, the OMNI filter system. Their Rainbow Film is a long time go-to for adding just a bit of fun to an image.