Splendid Seattle

Over Memorial Day weekend, Kathy and I were able to get away by ourselves to the Seattle area. It was a splendid time of togetherness and decompression. Although, there were times that I'm sure Kathy felt like a "Photography Widow," when I saw this or that image which begged to be captured.

For example, during our several walks on the waterfront, we saw huge ships in Puget Sound. For the life of me, I can't figure out how their sailors get any work done, with the Olympic Mountains so picturesquely close and beautiful.

Our hotel was near the well-known Space Needle. I tried to ignore the ordinary photo ops for the Space Needle, but did capture a few unusual views. These start with a four-shot composite showing Kathy at the bottom, then trees and cirrus clouds at the top of the photo. On one of our walks, the Space Needle loomed behind buildings reminiscent of the Martian invaders in the recent remake of "War of the Worlds" (complete with a bird showing that the force field was gone.) In another shot, the Space Needle's disk shape joined four other disks in a symphony celebrating roundness. Lastly, the Sculpture Park provided a stylistic creature for a John Christopher-inspired Tripod to preside over. (You must read "The Tripods" book series for that to make any sense.)

The next few shots are from the top deck of our double-decker bus -- starting with a self-portrait reflected in an office building's window.

It had been a long time since Kathy and I had actually ascended to the top of the Space Needle, so the next series of photos are from there. The first vista to greet us upon arrival at the observation level were clouds illuminated from underneath by a gorgeous sunset. Then, as night fell on the city, I found that the same ships shown in the first series of photos made a nice foreground for the Olympic mountains illuminated by the dying sunlight. Speaking of ships, a ferry crossing seemed more majestic when seen as a many-windowed boat gliding over dark water.

The next day, we had lunch at La Conner, Washington. There I found an interesting contrast between a neatly-painted church in the background of a dilapidated boat scene. Also, I couldn't resist photographing a king-of-the-post seagull.

Back in Seattle, we took another waterfront walk -- this time encountering some flowers and a bee. When you see this bee approaching a flower with its nectar tube extended for business, notice that there are two other insects waiting to greet it.

After the bee shot, there are a few photos of a cute couple -- well, at least the young lady is cute!

The final two shots were from our last day in Seattle -- the weather was very drab and gray, but some flowers on a bush decided it would be appropriate to splash color on the scene.

So for what it's worth, click here for a full-window slideshow. This is a preview: