HDR Friday : The Place

March 09, 2012 in HDR, Scenic, Travel

Happy Friday folks! I'm currently out of office and crusin' somewhere in the Caribbeans taking photos and enjoying some quality time with the family. But that wouldn't stop me from scheduling the weekly HDR Friday 3000 miles away! If you have been following me (either flickr, or on this blog), you'll notice I always have plenty of photos from Seattle. The reason is basically due to the fact that it has became a tradition to visit the Pacific Northwest at least once a year for past 4 years, and every single time I end up here at the Pike Place Market, regardless if it's planned or unplanned. It's like some sort of magnetic field that gravitates me towards it..

Stay tune for some travel photography next week :)

HDR Friday: Double Helix

September 16, 2011 in HDR, Scenic, Travel

I tend to be drawn to bridges when I'm out traveling and shooting HDRs. From one of the most photographed bridge in the world, the Golden State Bridge to Brisbane's Story Bridge in the OZ, I've photographed them as I find them. For the photo below, I honestly have no knowledge of its existence until a wrong detour in Seattle had caused me to pull over and while I was trying to figure out a direction back to the main road I saw this amazing looking structure. Sometime it's not the destination but rather the journey that matters, and that definitely applied in this case.

Location: Helix Pedestrian Bridge - Seattle, Washington

P.S. - Happy Friday folks!!!

HDR Friday: Twilight

July 22, 2011 in HDR, Scenic

Happy Friday everyone! To celebrate the start of the weekend here's a gorgeous sunset of Puget Sound, taken right by the restaurant that serves my favorite salmon dish, Ray's Boathouse

HDR Friday: Miniature Emerald

July 15, 2011 in HDR, Scenic, Travel

After several days without my laptop, I am now back and running with updates and processing. Starting today, I'm going to setup something to keep this blog going and provide everyone with lots of photos that hopefully you'll love! So every Friday will now be considered as "HDR Fridays", I'll be posting a HDR photo (or multiple photos) every Friday to kick off the weekend! Also, for all the mobile photo lovers (i.e. iphoneography), please come back and visit every Monday (Mobile Monday) where I'll post a photo from my mobile camera using either hipstamatic app, camera+, or instagram etc.

For the inaugural post of HDR Friday.... let me present to you, the Seattle skyline without the Space Needle, since this was shot inside the Space Needle, Sky City Restaurant.

rl-5721_tonemapped-Edit-1105301-50 sec at f - 2.8

P.S. - Speaking of mobile photography, have any of you seen this lil' gadget for your iphone: http://photojojo.com/store/awesomeness/iphone-slr-mount/ . I might just put this on my Christmas wish-list this year ;)

Photo of the day: Speechless

July 07, 2011 in Travel

Sometime there are things that makes you go "hmmm"... and this photo express just that. My favorite part about this photo are the facial expressions of the people watchers inside this downtown Seattle Starbucks.

To The Emerald City (Part 3) : Chocolate Indulgence Tour (Savor Seattle)

June 24, 2011 in Food, Travel

In case you missed part 2 of blog (Savor Settle's Pike Place Market Tour), you can always check them out HERE! But if your a "Choco-holic", then sit back and enjoy this post! (Of course if you happen to be in Seattle or going there to visit, make sure you sign up for this tour) Our first stop was Oliver's Lounge & Bar in Mayflower Park Hotel, where the bartender got us a kick start to the morning with this hand-crafted chocolate and coffee cocktail:

Another Tom Douglas' establishment.. Dahlia Bakery for some delicious treats!

More... chocolate treats @ Chocolate Box

Have you confess your love yet???

Gourmet popcorn with.... you guessed it chocolate! @ KukuRuZa

Our final stop.. trying out President Obama's favorite, the salted caramel chocolate and other delicious treats at Fran's Chocolate.

To The Emerald City (Part 2) : Pike Place Market Tour

June 09, 2011 in Food, Personal, Travel

So I failed to post the part 2 of the Seattle blog last week, it's been non-stop busyness for me since our weekend getaway. But in case you missed part 1 of blog, you can always check them out HERE. Last September, during our trip up to the Pacific Northwest we tried out the Gourmet Seattle Tour by Savor Seattle Food Tours. Initially skeptical of food tours, the tour proved us wrong and blew us away by the awesome tour guide, the amount food we indulged and awesome overall experience. So this time around, we signed up for TWO different tours and for this part 2 photo-blog, I'll focus on our Pike Place Market Tour:

At 9:45, our meeting spot.. the Starbucks that's often confused by many tourist as the "first" Starbucks.

Gotta love our tour guide Nick, for entertaining and educating us about Pike Place Market.. and the pink umbrella never fails!

First stop, some warm fresh delicious cinnamon sugar donuts from Daily Dozen Doughnut Company

We had some amazing refreshments at Market Spice.

The infamous Pike Place Fish Market!

We sampled one of the best smoked salmons here!

One of the main tourist attraction here.. the fish throwing!

Chukar Cherries..... chocolate treats inspired by, you guessed it Cherries!

Some award winning chowders... personal fave would be the seafood bisque

One of the fiancee's favorite food... cheeeeeseeee @ Beecher's Cheese.. oh yea, these mac & cheese are Oprah's favorites.. not that it should make any difference, good food is good food in general =)

Now off to the fiancee's other favorite place in Seattle... the authentic Russian piroshky pastries @ Piroshky, Piroshky...

Our last stop, one of many amazing establishments of Tom Douglas.. Etta's

One of the best crab cakes I've ever had!

Overall, it was another amazing tour.. less food to sample in comparison to the Gourmet Seattle Tour but our tummies were definitely satisfied.

Stay tune for the part 3 of the trip.... it'll make Willy Wonka jealous ;)

To The Emerald City (part 1)

June 01, 2011 in HDR, Personal, Scenic, Travel

We enjoyed a few relaxing days of good food, beautiful views, laughters and some clean air! It was our sibling's first trip ever up here in the Pacific Northwest so Mari and I got to be their unofficial tour guides. Although this would be my 5th straight year visiting Seattle, I still don't really know what else to experience beside the typical tourist spots like Pike Place Market and Space Needle. So aside from visiting the tourist spots, we explored the city with our tummies! We enjoyed two amazing tours from Savor Seattle Tours and of course did our own Yelpin' & exploration. Unfortunately, part 1 of the post will only show the scenic photos so stay tune for part 2 of the post by the end of the week!