On the Road with the Leica Q2: Seattle, the coolest place in The Pacific Northwest

Seattle is considered one of the coolest cities in the United States. It is where some of the world’s best-known companies were founded or built, including Amazon, Starbucks, and Microsoft. It is also home to the famous Pike Place Market, Chihuly glass sculpture museum, and Space Needle. On a three-day visit, armed with my Leica Q2, I was hoping to find out whether it lived up to its reputation.

Sibling cities

After visiting two delightful cities in British Columbia — Vancouver and Victoria — I crossed the US-Canadian border by ferry. The journey through the Puget Sound was an additional treat. My third and final destination on a three-city, two-ferry trip was Seattle, Washington. Even though spanning two different countries, the proximity and similar climates of these three cities effectively make them siblings.

With its slightly earlier founding (1851) and slightly larger population (~730,000) Seattle can claim to be the eldest of those siblings. Just as San Diego, where I live, is the southwestern-most big city in the US, Seattle is its northwestern-most counterpart. But whereas San Diego enjoys perpetual mild weather and plentiful sunshine, Seattle enjoys a wet, cool climate.

On my short visit, I confined myself to the main highlights within walking or aerial tram-ride distance of our hotel. The first stop on the agenda was Seattle’s cultural epicentre — Pike Place Market.

Flying fish

The covered market, located on Pike Place, is perched above Seattle’s port, in the centre of the city’s downtown district. It is a sprawling, indoor, multi-level affair, filled with stalls of all kinds and absolutely jam-packed with visitors. The market spills over into neighbouring streets, encompassing yet more stalls, restaurants, and bars. Going there is an immersive experience rather than a shopping trip.

Inside, a tidal wave of people sweeps you along past all the neon signage, food stalls, and flower displays. I was shooting mostly wide-open in relatively low light — a scenario where the Q2 excels.

The best-known spot at the market, right at its entrance, is the Pike Place Fish Market. Its fishmongers are famous for shouting out orders and flinging fish to one another. Here’s how it works.

A customer chooses their fish from the massive selection displayed on beds of crushed ice. A fishmonger then grabs and hurls it to a colleague at the central stall, who weighs and wraps it. They never miss.

As they launch the fish on its arcing trajectory, they shout some incomprehensible message. I presume this is a coded description of the price per pound. The throng of onlookers witnessing this feat then shout and applaud appreciatively. At some point, the customer hands over their cash and makes off with their catch.

Fish photography

Photographing this phenomenon is tricky. I hung around waiting for a purchase to occur, surreptitiously sidling up to where I thought the action would take place. Having set my ISO at 3200, to ensure a fast shutter speed, I watched and waited. When a fish was about to be flung, I adjusted my vantage point to avoid the crowd of nearby people. Trying to time it so that I would catch an image of an airborne fish, I took a guess and pressed the shutter release.

After a few attempts, I captured an image I was happy with. The aproned fish-handler is clearly throwing rather than catching the fish; she is looking where she is aiming. The fish, with its flexible backbone, adopts a curved shape in flight. If you like alliteration, I suppose you could call it a soaring, S-shaped, sigmoidal, sock-eye, salmon…

Glassy-eyed in Seattle

Our next destination was Chihuly Garden and Glass. You might have heard of the sculptor, Dale Chihuly. He is famous for large-format works in coloured, curved glass. These are often expansive assemblies of smaller, hand-blown glass objects. Chihuly Garden and Glass is a museum showcasing examples of his work.

I admit to being sceptical about the visit beforehand. I assumed it would be a rather commercialised venture, geared more to selling examples of his work. However, the museum turned out to be magnificent. The artfully illuminated sculptures were truly spectacular. It is best known for its swirling glass ensembles, but also includes all manner of curvaceous vases and bowls. The path through the displays led us beneath several remarkable examples of stained-glass ceilings.

Using AUTO ISO, the camera’s algorithm chose a relatively low ISO for the most brightly lit sculptures. However, in dimmer rooms, ISO climbed as high as 6400 to preserve a minimum shutter speed of 1/50s. For such images, I used the AI-assisted denoise feature in Lightroom to remove graininess.

If you visit Seattle, I would highly recommend a visit to this museum. The interaction of transparent glass shapes and tastefully arranged light sources make for a unique and memorable experience.

MoPOP

Around the corner from the Chihuly exhibit is the Seattle Museum of Pop Culture, referred to locally as MoPOP. Although I did not visit the museum, I found its metallic facade and chaotic roofline fascinating. As mentioned in previous articles, I enjoy abstract photography, and am always on the lookout for promising substrate. So, I could not resist creating an abstract representation of MoPOP.

Its remarkable roof, comprising sheets of bare metal welded into irregular twists and curves, could provide endless opportunities for abstraction. But, I think it is best enjoyed in its gloriously bizarre entirety.

SAM, the Seattle Art Museum

I love visiting art museums, usually taking countless photos of exhibits that never see the light of day. I decided to break with that habit and include some shots from the Seattle Art Museum, which is superb. From the enormous installation in the foyer, inspired by the trunk and limbs of a Redwood tree, to the exhibition of paintings by African American artists, the museum was overflowing with incredible works of art.

One of my favourites was a piece called Mann und Maus, by Katharine Fritsch. A human figure, in white, tucked up in an all-white bed, is pinned by an enormous mouse, rendered in black. Work out the psychology of that one!

Another was a painting, Anthony of Padua, by the African American painter, Kehinde Wiley. This is the artist who painted President Obama for The Smithsonian Portrait Gallery. You can see Wiley’s distinctive style in both works. He asks African Americans he meets on the street if they would like to pose for a painting in which he reimagines a famous work by one of the great masters. In this case, the painting is a reimagination of a stained-glass window by Ingres.

The museum also contained art inspired by the culture of indigenous peoples who have long occupied the Pacific Northwest. This painting, by Robert Davidson, is called Canoe Breaker: Southeast Wind’s Brother. I love the bold, tricolour design.

This final piece, by African Artist, Amoako Boafo, was part of an exhibition called Soul of Black Folks.

Seattle Central Library

On my travels, I have found that a town or city library is often a point of civic pride, conveying something important about its community and history. It so happened that our hotel was across the street from Seattle’s Central Library — a remarkable example of modern architecture. Its sharp-edged, glass-covered, monolithic structure enclosed seven enormous floors connected by escalators and elevators.

As a fan of modern architecture, I had a field day photographing both interior and exterior of this wonderful building.

I was even able to take an unusual, geometric selfie using its glass exterior. Among my selfie collection, it easily represents the greatest distance between photographer and reflective surface I have ever achieved.

Time to head home

Once again, my Leica Q2 was capable of handling every photographic opportunity that came our way. Be it landscape or architecture, portrait or action, dim light or blazing sunlight, it was up to the job.

After an extremely enjoyable few days in this gem of a city, we boarded our flight for San Diego. It was the end of a trip not just to Seattle, but to this fascinating region of Canada and the US. The short, direct flight home book-ended our stress-free excursion to a foreign country, avoiding long-haul flights and jet lag.

My next foreign trip with the Q2 will be quite a different story.

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