One of my bucket list items ever since my first trip there in 2011 and I couldn’t have asked for a better night if I’d prayed for one. On our first night in Seattle, after we’d arrived and got settled in our hotel, we took in some of the sights (of course). There were a few bucket list items that I’d wanted to photograph and visit – the market, the original Starbucks, and finally, the Space Needle. The market was all but closed on the the Sunday we’d arrived but luckily, Starbucks was open and I’m glad that we went Sunday night as the lines were insane the next morning. The Space Needle was the end of our first day on Sunday for good reason – I wanted to photograph a sunset from the top. And it was beyond my wildest dreams.
There was a brief rain storm that early evening. Nothing torrential but the clouds created the most beautiful sunset I’ve ever seen. The pictures I took simply couldn’t do it justice. The Space Needle, itself, was cool to visit but walking around the top was not what I’d expected. First, it was really crowded. Looking back on it now, I probably should have foreseen this happening, since we were visiting an iconic tourist attraction in the dead of summer. But it was insanely crowded. So much so, that it was difficult to set up the camera. Thankfully, my daughter was there to keep an eye on my son, who was only seven at the time. Second, my tripod wasn’t tall enough to set on floor and see over the railing. This created a problem because I needed a steady camera as we were losing light. And third, I didn’t take into account the fact that the Space Needle’s saucer extended out and was visible in the shots when I used my ultra-wide angle lens. This had to be cropped out. It wasn’t major but it was an unforeseen speed bump.
Thankfully, issue number one was solved as soon as it started to rain. Again, not heavy, but enough to drive people inside and open up some space to at least somewhat set up my tripod. Thank God I got a weather-sealed camera!
