Skyline, Downtown Seattle, originally uploaded by briburt.

Leaving Seattle soon, so my love songs to the city become bluer and sadder with each passing day…

Hydrant, originally uploaded by briburt.

This one surprised me by reaching Flickr Explore at #118 for 29 November 2008. Some of the folks on Flickr really took a shine to the color range and vibrance, and I guess it does have a very striking quality to it that catches the eye, especially when viewed in smaller sizes.

Taken on a photowalk around Seattle’s Capitol Hill, organized remotely from Italy by Flickr user (and former Seattle resident) Photocoyote.

Look closely and you’ll see “Photocoyote is Alive in the Superunknown” written on it.

There were about 10 or 12 of us on the walk. Amazing that Flickr enabled this to happen so easily! To see other photos taken on the walk, look for the tag superunknownwalk.

3 Fishing Trawlers, originally uploaded by briburt.

Fisherman’s Terminal, Seattle

And, yes, that gray sky is probably here to stay, more or less permanently, until next July. The splashes of color from these fishing boats, though, can help make up for all of the gray and rain of the coming months.

Canal with Drawbridge, originally uploaded by briburt.

This is the canal leading into Seattle’s Hiram M. Chittendon Locks, connecting Puget Sound (salt water) with Lake Union and Lake Washington (both fresh water) via a ship canal. I can bike here in about 10 minutes from my house, so I spent a lot of time down at the locks today, shooting photos and marveling at both the engineering involved and the constant movement and change in the place. Amazing stuff.

(And I don’t mean to belabor a point, put I do really love that Sigma 10-20.)

Seattle Waterfront Streetcar Tracks

Originally uploaded by briburt

I used to love to ride the trolley along the Seattle waterfront, but this is all that remains of those times — some abandoned tracks that run the length of Alaskan Way. King County Metro (the transportation organization) claims that service is only temporarily suspended, but I doubt the streetcar will ever run on tracks along here again any time soon, as there is no longer any place to store the cars at night at the end of the line (they tore down the maintenance sheds when they built the Olympic Sculpture Park).

(And I am really loving my Sigma 10-20, which makes shots like this even possible.)

East Waterway, Port of Seattle

Originally uploaded by briburt

A wider, panoramic shot of the East Waterway of the Port of Seattle. You can see a tugboat and two big container ships. The interesting about the container ships is that you can’t say whether or not they are loading or unloading because they load and unload simultaneously — a fact that I just learned last Spring when my son’s 1st-grade class did a boat tour of the Port.

The Freighter “Manoa,” Port of Seattle

Originally uploaded by briburt

Rode my bike down through downtown to West Seattle last weekend, and stopped at a little fishing pier by the port to take a few shots. This is one of them.

I also got to wondering about the people fishing there: a) do they ever catch anything? (A: not that I saw), and b) do they actually eat anything they catch from this spot right smack in the middle of a busy port? (A: I wouldn’t).

Anyway. This one is dedicated to my pal, Seacat, who told me I should stop at this spot and take some photos — which I did. Thanks for the tip!

Sunrise and Fog at the Space Needle, Seattle

Originally uploaded by briburt

More from my little morning jaunt out to Kerry Park a couple of weeks ago. The light coming through the fog was just amazing.

Almost looks like I was on another planet, but the light really did look like this.

Freighter Anchored in Elliot Bay, Seattle

Originally uploaded by briburt

I’ve been biking by these freighters a lot lately and wanted to catch the sort of stillness they emanate as they sit anchored in Elliott Bay.

Again, I processed this as HDR and then used a mild “Orton” effect in Photoshop to create that kind of glow on the freighter.

Foggy Sunrise, Seattle Skyline & Mt. Rainier

Originally uploaded by briburt

Got out of bed early a couple of weeks ago and went the few blocks from my house over to Kerry Park in Seattle to shoot the sunrise, and I almost missed this shot, as the fog was really moving in fast and soon obscured the mountain within about 5 minutes of me setting up my tripod and getting this shot.

Kerry Park is a favorite place for photographers that want to get a sunrise or sunset or night shot of Seattle, and there were 3 or 4 other folks there at the same time as I, but they were all complaining that it was too foggy and the light wasn’t any good. I thought otherwise, and shot a whole bunch of photos.

This one was made from 3 exposures in Photomatix Pro, and then tonemapped and further processed in Photoshop and Lightroom — all of these are truly awesome tools that make images like this possible.