United Front by auntietk
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Description
Remember I was blathering on the other day about distance, and how a city (like Seattle) looks different depending on how far away you are? Here's more on the subject ... I'm not done yet! :D
If you feel like taking a little photographic journey, let me show you a couple images in my gallery to illustrate the point:
To see the full-on pano of Seattle, click HERE. Zoom in so you can actually SEE the image. The tallest building on the skyline is black, and just below it there's a ferry. The ferry is one of the things I want you to notice, because it will come up later and there might be a pop quiz. Now. See the big blue container ship in the middle of the pano? Just off its bow (that's the right-hand end of the ship in this image) but on the shore, there's steam coming out of a smokestack.
Now look back up at today's photograph. See the steam and the smokestack? That should orient you quite easily. The images look a bit different (aside from the issue of distance and scale) because the container ship continued on to the right, and the ferry continued on to the left.
Look at the right-hand end of the ferry in today's image. See the antenna tower? It's sort of a tall white triangle shape. Now look closely at today's image. Just to the left of the ferry's tower I've made a red rectangle. If you zoom, you should be able to find it without too much trouble.
Okay. That red rectangle is highlighting the end of Union Street, where there's a courtyard that fronts on the Four Seasons Hotel. That's where I was standing when I took the photograph of the Alaskan Way Viaduct, which you can see HERE.
All this blah-blah will answer Corey's question about how I happened to get that shot to begin with. He wanted to know if I stopped the car and got out, or took the shot from a moving vehicle. The answer is, "neither." Seattle is built on a VERY steep hill! I was just a couple of blocks off the waterfront, but three stories up on top of a building. The street would have been too steep to go from one block to the next, so they just put a building there with a set of stairs. A really LONG set of stairs!
In case you're wondering, the ferry in the image is one of the big ones. It's called a Jumbo Mark II, and we have three of them. I can't read the name on the side of the vessel, but it would be either the Puyallup, the Tacoma or the Wenatchee, and it would be headed for Bainbridge Island. If you need to know more about Washington State ferries, you can click HERE. There's enough information there to keep the most ardent gear-head happy for a very long time!
Okay, now where was I? Oh yes. From this vantage point (today's image) Seattle looks much different than it does from across the bay (the long pano) or from inside the city (the Urban Layer Cake shot).
My whole point here is that distance matters! That's true no matter what you're shooting. Think about flowers. If you get a shot of a whole flower from three feet away, it's a totally different image than if you got three quarters of the flower right up close, and that's different still from an in-your-face macro where all you can see are the naughty bits of the flower.
Next time you've got that camera in your hand, think about distance and art, and what it is you want people to see.
Quiz:
1. Where is the Seattle Four Seasons Hotel?
2. Who owns the container ship that's seen in the pano?
3. Are there any gulls in Seattle?
Extra credit question: What are the three Jumbo Mark II ferries named after?
Comments (24)
Richardphotos
distances can be very confusing.I recall that the mountain at Flagstaff can be seen from more than 60 miles, but from a stranger to the parts,it seems like it is very near.superb cityscape
Cosine
I know all the answers, but then I guess I should. I would even venture that there are two possible answers for the names of the ferries, but I won't give them away. Very nice job of explaining everything and keeping it all related. I'm so glad you explained the red rectangle, as I'd noticed that there was that one spot of color in an otherwise B&W image.
bmac62
Hey, this is fun... Excellent way to think or rethink through the whole business of composition, distance from camera to subject, etc. With the lenses many of us have at our disposal these days we can make dramatically different images from a few shots. Like your example moving from pano to close up. As for the pop quiz...I better disqualify myself before someone hollers foul:)
whaleman
Question 4 of your quiz should be "What was the temperature in Seattle that day!" People could deduce that from the rate of dissipation of the steam from that funnel, lol!
Chipka
WOW! What an image! First off, just image-wise, I love it. The composition really matters here and it works so perfectly! I love the rectilinear shapes, the dark/light byplay, that little spot of red. Now, I have to say that in reading your text, I kept thinking back to a conversation I had with a friend in Russia. He's in Moscow now, but when he and I first started corresponding, he lived in Irkutsk. The thing is, Irkutsk is way the heck in the southern bit of nearly-middle Siberia, sort of...kind of...and well...to make a long story long, we were talking about the stuff you tend to talk about: you know, perceptions of distance, subjective judgments of "near" and "far" and all of that good stuff. He asked me if Russians and Americans (and Canadians for that matter) might perceive space in similar ways. Actually, I asked him, and his response was rather convoluted, but ended in the general vicinity of "yeah, they might" all because the size of our countries determines where we perceive our borders...even if we live relatively close to a border, we have this perception (even if it's completely abstract and outside of our literal day-to-day experience) of space going on, and on, and on some more. But if we were from a smaller country, like say, Oh, the Czech Republic...our perceptions of space would be radically different, especially since we could take a train from one side of the country to the other, and be done with the trip in less than a day. In the USA or Russia, you can take a train from point A to point B and STILL find yourself with a whole lot of country left over. THAT, we agreed, really determines how we view "near" and "far" and to a degree "up" or "down" simply because our reality IS our perception of reality. Kilometers are bigger in big countries, but smaller in cities with public transportation systems. Those exact same kilometers are actually quite small in smaller countries, and in cities in small countries (with good public transportation systems) they're even smaller--to the point where nearly everything IS a walkable distance from everywhere else, simply because somewhere like Slovakia is "right over there." Anyway, all of this is to say that that stuff came bubbling back into my mind, and I found myself giggling and laughing, and completely forgetting to pay attention to the upcoming quiz questions. But I DO remember you and I talking about taking stairs through buildings to get from ONE part of a street to another part of the same street, or another street all together. I think it was in the vicinity of cars 12 stories up--cars that needed to ride in elevators in order to park. And now that I'm all ranted out, I'm going to say how marvelous this photo is and how stimulating it is to think about all of the things like geographical attributes determining the "shape" of reality, and how it does actually change in ways that a quantum physicist might be able to verbalize clearly, while the rest of us might need visual input and flow-charts just to keep everything in order. Yeah, I like that kind of stuff. This rocks. I like it!
jayfar
Fascinating but I couldn't even begin to know the answers!
awjay
lovely tone...
wysiwig
Oh man, homework, quizes, next thing you know she'll be expecting us to do math! {;-) Excellent explanation with great examples. This is a fantastic urban image although I expect it would give Andrea claustrophobia.
GARAGELAND
Looks like a setting in a black ´n´ white movie.
durleybeachbum
Hehe! Thankyou for making me laugh outloud, Tara! Your narrative/instructions made me giggle for ages, in fact my face is still creased in a huge smile. (it will remain like that all day if I don't go and put some cream on it) I love the pic, although Mark is right about being there. I can feel a slight mounting panic if I allow myself to imagine I'm actually IN there. Phew...Breathe........
rockstrider
Very nicely composed Tara!
lyron
Cool shot!!
Faemike55
Excellent shot and great narrative
MrsRatbag
Wow...I didn't know you were a schoolteacher! This is a simply wonderful image, for all the reasons above and also because of your trademark touch with postwork. Beautifully done!
helanker
OH Dear, I wont even try to answer those questions. I could guess on the gulls.. and say yes. But it is a mighty fine shot. It almost like a fractal with all the square and rectangled windows all over. Even on the ferry :-)
cfulton
I like the glow on this one! Trees on the rooftops, great for a coffee break. Great city macro (micro?) from a distance - shadows give some depth, Clive
moochagoo
Lot of souvenirs with that boat in front of Seattle
smittan
Nice Shot !!
Katraz
Nice to see a B&W shot, Its amazing how different a picture looks when shot by say a 50mm lens and a 300mm lens even when the main object is still the same size.
tofi
Oh my Gosh! I haven't got a clue … though only more questions :) A wonderful depiction! I like the B&W idea here… it certainly works and makes for a more elaborate and classy image! Fantastic scene and info!
RodS Online Now!
faroutsider
anahata.c
yes, there are many ways to capture & view something as vast as a skyline, and you've done it in several ways for us here. But you've done it with other subjects too. I'm learning about many views of the same thing, the more I photograph; so it's a joy to see you do it for so long & with such thoughtfulness. I'm a big fan of that. You have a face-forward flush view of a portion of the skyline; I don't know if the texture is the strong zoom or postwork or whatever, but it's really good for the skyline & makes it look as if we're really getting a private view, almost like we're too close for the skyline's purposes (but fine for ours). And the softening of the facades, as well as those articulate bluish grays (rather than full colors), bring out the shape & line-interactions of the skyline. You've done very fine work w/ this; and because of it, the windows on the ship are in harmony with the windows of the bldgs. Well, here, I promised some feininger, so here are 3 of NYC---the jpgs are muddy as all get-out, but use your imagination (please! in person these are stunning prints). (Click on them, one should get bigger: Here, here, and here.) Point being to show some other shots of skylines compressed by the pov, and the resultant collisions of line/forms & masses, as well as the grain (it's nice when old masters have it, it makes us feel better about it!), and the interplay of a huge ship with high rises. Anyway, more highly intelligent seeing from you, tara. A real pleasure. In answer to your questions: 1. The Seattle Four Seasons Hotel is in Nineveh, a city in ancient Assyria. When Jonah saw it, he said, "Owwwwww! That's a whale of a hotel!!!" Then he said, "Get it? Get it? Whale??? Whale??? JONAH & THE WHALE??? MAN are you guys slow..." They were so upset they moved it to Seattle. 2. With all due respect, how the am I supposed to know who owns the container ship that's seen in the pano!? What am I, clairvoyant? (It's owned by the owner: I'll take Craig's answer. Actually it's owned by Phillipe du Rouchard luc du Barry. I have no idea who that is, but it's a great name, and I figure he owns something big, so it might as well be this. His friends call him "phil". 3. Yes there are gulls in seattle. THERE ARE GULLS ON MARS. GULLS ARE EVERYWHERE. THEY WERE THE FIRST BIRDS IN THE UNIVERSE! Next question. 4. I'll take Craig again on this, except that he happens to be wrong: The Jumbo Mark II Ferries are named after a man named "Xiao Xien Lao," who said, "I'd use my name, but who the can pronounce my name in Seattle!" Therefore they were named Jumbo Mark II. The Jumbo Mark I's were a total failure, they embarrassed the II's, they changed their names & moved to Anchorage. See my book. (Forget it, I don't have a book.) Why did I just answer your questions? I live in the midwest, why did I answer questions about Seattle? Here's a question for you: What did the hard drive say when it was invaded by a virus? "Byte me!" (I made that up! It's been a long year, I'll catch ya later...hey chip wrote a tome, why can't I?)
Merrylee
Great in B/W....make a puzzle out of it...wouldn't that be fun...cool shot