Showers over Seattle: monochrome views on a rainy day in Luther Burbank Park.
My initial plan was to explore a nearby forest park but the weather (and my desire for a nostalgic trip to Einstein Bros bagels) had me looking for closer options. I settled on Luther Burbank Park, where I’d be able to go with my bagel still warm. I wandered the trails to the northern tip of the park with its gravelly beach and a clear view across Lake Washington to the high-rises of downtown Seattle.
I sat on a log and ate my bagel (which I really enjoyed!) and watched the rain showers pass over the city, thankfully not coming too close to where I was sitting, with only a few raindrops to dampen my breakfast.
The rain was drifting down in sheets and patterns, brighter skies following behind it – an irresistible combination for photography! I tried to get some foreground interest in the first, mostly because I couldn’t avoid the rocks, but I’m not sure it succeeded. Still, I like the rest of the image with that trailing rainfall column that almost looks like a microburst. My favourite of the bunch is the one of the airliner descending into SeaTac airport (I didn’t see that annoying black speck of a seagull at the time), though I also like the last pic of the shower over the northern end of Lake Washington.
It was tempting to make all of these pure black and white (which, it should be noted, is not the same thing as monochrome) but in the end I left them as is to preserve what little colour there was. While it was tempting to warm up the photos to a more neutral colour, I decided to keep the cool blue-grey cast as I think it makes for more atmospheric storm photos than pure black-and-white. I think it worked.
Andy Gibb 