Seattle Sounders FC - Opening Day

Sounders FC This past Saturday afternoon, I had a chance to photograph the Seattle Sounders FC home opener against Sporting Kansas City at CenturyLink Field. It rained, it poured, in the 94th minute we scored!

I put together a photo recap of the match using "Exposure" - a relatively new photo & storytelling blog service. It's super easy to use and the results look really good on any device. So, all my photos are at this link (also the screen shot at the top of the post is the intro photo):

https://danposs.exposure.so/seattle-sounders-fc 

A big thanks to my friends over at the Sounders FC for hooking me up with photo pass for the match!

Cheers!

KEXP & Starbucks & STG: Little Big Show #5

Sbux Little Big Show #5 Last Sunday evening I photographed for Starbucks their Little Big Show #5, featuring Father John Misty and The Walkmen at the sold-out Neptune Theater in Seattle. All of the proceeds from the show, more than $14,000+(!), went to the local organization Youth In Focus. YIF has more than 250 teens involved in its after school photography program and 4 lucky students had the chance to shoot the show with all-access passes, along with me & KEXP's photographer. It was a really fun experience mentoring these student photographers - they definitely had their own unique style and it was fun to watch them shoot, at least when I wasn't looking through my own viewfinder.

Speaking of my viewfinder, I had a chance to shoot this concert with the new Canon 6D - my first chance to check out this new Canon body. Coupled with the 70-200L f/2.8 IS II, 24-70 f/2.8 IS II, & 35mm f/1.4 L, the 6D produced some great images in the low-light conditions, even with my ISO cranked up to 8,000.

Here are a few of my favorite photos of Father John Misty & The Walkmen. More photos from the show will be up on Starbucks' website soon. In the meantime, you can check out my other Starbucks galleries from Little Big Show #1 with Pickwick and Fly Moon Royalty & Little Big Show #2 with Poor Moon and Real Estate.

Neptune

Starbucks & KEXP

FJM Guitars

The YIF photog crew during soundcheck

FJM Soundcheck

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The Walkmen, backstage

KEXP & YIF

YIF - Trina

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2012/2013

My last photo of 2012 taken on New Year's Eve of the Bellevue skyline and the pink glowing Cascades at sunset; Bellevue Winter Sunset Pano

And my first photo of 2013 taken this morning of Mt. Rainier at sunrise;

Mt Rainier Sunrise

A pretty good way to start the new year, I'd say!

Cheers!

UW vs Stanford

Earlier this season I had an incredible opportunity to photograph the week 5, UW vs Stanford football game. I couldn't have asked to photograph a more thrilling & historic UW win. As Steve Kelley wrote in the Seattle Times the next day, “The Huskies won uncharacteristically. They won ugly. And it looked beautiful.” Oh, so true. The details:

UW Huskies 17 vs Stanford Cardinal 13

Century Link Field, Seattle, WA

Thursday, September 27th, 2012

Most of the photos were taken with a Canon EOS-1D X and a 400mm f/2.8L IS II – a sport photographer’s dream setup.

Enjoy....

Go Dawgs!

Summer Forest Fires from 40,000ft

One of my favorite ways to kill time on a long flight is to take aerial photos. It's such a good chance to get a unique perspective of an unfamiliar land, that it's hard to not keep my camera under the seat in front of me...just in case. Usually though, not much interesting is happening down below and nothing comes about from those photos. However, the other day on a 6hr flight from Miami to Seattle, I flew over this incredible scene - two wild forest fires near Stanley, ID and their smoke clouds blowing east for hundreds of miles.

Thankfully, I had my Canon 60D & 10-22mm lens with me and didn't have to try to capture this with my iPhone. The above photo was taken at 10mm, 1/2000th sec, f/7.1 & ISO 250 - super wide so that I capture the entire scene & horizon to provide perspective, and fast enough to stop the action and avoid any motion blur.

Photo Tip: Don't use a polarizer on your lens when photographing through a plane's window - it will give you some distracting rainbow color effects.

And one up close photo taken with my 70-200L...

Cheers!

Dan

Seattle 4th of July

Fireworks are so fun to photograph... especially when you have front row VIP access (thanks Starbucks!) to the best show in the state. Photographing the fireworks from inside Gasworks park can be a challenge, given the large crowd and many obstacles. Luckily, I was able to find a spot that gave me a clear view of the Seattle skyline and the fireworks without any people, tents, trees, chairs, etc. in the way.

All of these photos were taken with a Canon 60D & 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5, on a Manfrotto tripod with a Giga T Pro intervalometer (wireless shutter release). Minimal to no post-processing was done to these photos. Enjoy!

I-90 Double Rainbow

(click on the image for a full screen view)

Boy, this was an awesome sight tonight. I don't think I've ever seen a double rainbow this bright before. From my house I watched some big clouds roll over Lake Washington that started to change colors as the sun set behind me. Then, it started to rain real hard and I knew this could be the perfect receipe for a rare rainbow sighting. I grabbed my camera bag, jumped in the car and bolted to the top of the hill. Within a minute a double rainbow appeared as bright as could be. I snapped away as the rain poured down on me - but I didn't care because no one else was at the lookout, and I knew I had a one of a kind photo in the tin!

And one more photo...

These rowers came to a quick hault to stare at the amazing sight.

A double rainbow! What does it mean?! Naturally, I couldn't help but think of Yosemite Bear as I was taking photos...

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQSNhk5ICTI]

Seattle's Northern Lights

I've wanted to photograph the Northern Lights since I first started taking pictures.  I never would have imagined that my first shots of this beautiful phenomenon would be from the outskirts of Seattle – under a full moon.

(click on image for larger view)

Knowing the lights were going to be out in full effect, thanks to a massive solar storm, I headed out to the northern tip of Golden Gardens around midnight with a good buddy of mine. I setup my tripods facing due North and started snapping away, not knowing what to expect.

At first, in the distance we could see a faint green glow in the thin clouds above Puget Sound, and eagerly waited for the lights to grow brighter. About an hour later, green and purple Northern Lights started glowing to the NE, just on the edge of where I had framed my shot. I quickly repositioned my camera and watched in amazement as the night sky came to life.

Within about 5 minutes the dramatic light show ended, and the green and purple lights started to fade away. It's hard to describe how exciting it was to photograph such a rare event, knowing that there is a very high probability that this could be a sight I'll never see again in Seattle.

We cracked a beer in celebration of what we just captured.

While the lights on this night weren't as impressive as they were in Alaska, it was still an incredible sight to see in Seattle. I’ll be planning a trip to Alaska in the relative near future to photograph the Northern Lights again - I'm hooked.

More images from the light show to come....

Cheers,

Dan

Beer Bottles & BBs

One corner of my basement is reserved for cases beer; lots of beer; lots of beer that has expired. I finally mustered the energy to clear out the bottom of the stack of beer, but instead of tossing it all into the recycling bin, I decided to put these bottles to good use. If I couldn't drink the beer, I was going to make art of it. Enter BB gun, camera on a tripod and remote shutter release.

*Please note that no good beer was harmed in the making of these photos and nor did I pay for any of this beer. Having once worked at a brewery for almost a decade it was easy to amass a stockpile of free brew. Most of the brew dates back to '09. Don't ask why I still had it...

Cheers!

(Click on any photo to see larger version)

Visiting a friend at Arlington National Cemetery

Three years ago this coming January, I visited Arlington National Cemetery for my second time. I had been there before, but as a kid, as a tourist, sight seeing around the nation's capital. Sadly, the purpose of this visit was very different than my first.

Four months earlier a good friend of mine was killed in Afghanistan while serving in the Marines and weeks later he was laid to rest at our nation's most sacred cemetery. The idea that one of my childhood friends was buried on these grounds was, frankly, almost as unbelievable as the fact that he was gone.

I remember thinking as a kid that walking around Arlington felt more like being in a museum and less like an actual cemetery. Crowds of tourists were wandering about, enjoying the warm D.C. summer afternoon. Our country wasn't at war. Young soldiers weren't being buried. I didn't know anyone that was laid to rest there, and I didn't think I ever would.  On this overcast morning in January 2009 though, the grounds were calm, quiet and bitterly cold. There were no tourists, just the cemetery crew prepping new gravesites.

Shortly after I arrived at his head stone, a full military funeral procession began for another young soldier at the end of his row. I watched in silence from a distance with watery eyes.

As I stood there and watched I thought of Nic but also of my grandfather, who had served in WWII. As fate would have it, on my drive to Arlington that morning I received a call from my dad letting me know that his father had just passed away the night before. It was an overwhelming and surreal day indeed; a day I wouldn't soon forget.

I've been wanting to post these photos for quite some time, but was waiting for the right moment. With Veteran's Day this weekend and Nic's birthday today, I, like many other friend's of Nic, couldn't help but have him on my mind. This moment feels right.

Dan

Please visit the N.A.M.E.S. Foundation website and consider making a donation. The N.A.M.E.S. Foundation is a registered 501(c)(3) charitable organization dedicated to honoring the life and memory of Nicholas Aaron Madrazo.
(click on image to see larger version)

re:view - Seafair Action, Pt. 1

Seattle Seafair 2011

It was a long, long weekend of shooting all the Seafair action on Lake Washington. From Thursday's practice run to Sunday's finale I captured just shy of 7,000 images of the Blue Angels, Hydros, Boeing Air Show, the yatchs and party boats, mostly using a behemoth Canon 400mm f/2.8L IS, sometimes with a Canon Extender EF x1.4 III.  Combined with my x1.6 cropped Canon DSLR sensor, it put my focal length at about 896mm f/4. Pretty much a telescope. If you've never shot at this focal length, I highly recommend it - it's quite fun but difficult, especially when you are hand-holding the 12lbs lens and tracking an F-18 Blue Angel traveling at just under the speed of sound.

Inspired by the warm vintage style coloring in the photo above, which my girlfriend took of me while shooting the action, I've put together a small collection of some of my favorite photos with a similar warm color style.

Scroll down and enjoy! (click on the image to see it in high-res)

If you like what you see, and would like a print for your home or office, email me at dan@danposs.com and I'd be happy to help you get it on your wall. Cheers!

Engagement Session: Jason & Kieran

I recently spent a sunny Sunday afternoon photographing Jason & Kieran at their rustic Summer 2012 wedding venue, Fall City Farms. The venue is located just outside of Seattle off of I-90 in the Snoqualmie Valley, but yet feels like it's a world away. I've seen some wedding venues that call themselves a 'farm', but this place is the real deal. There were chickens, there were cows, and yes, even a donkey named Ethel. All of which, I'm told, will be attending the wedding next summer.

Having the chance to shoot the engagement photos at the wedding venue was a nice treat as I was able to scout the grounds and try out different camera and lens settings. We also picked a time close to their scheduled ceremony time so that we could see what the lighting might look like, where the shadows will fall, etc. Having an idea where the good spots to photograph them ahead a time is going to make my job that much easier on the big day - plus I can plan accordingly for the gear that I'll need for the shots we've got planned. I also learned that I shouldn't get my lens too close to Ethel the donkey...

I've known Jason since the 5th grade - we go way, way back. I remember the first time I met him was during an intense recess football game on the dirt upper playground at Maywood Hills Elementary. From what I recall, he was in charge of the game - declaring rules, calling out penalties, and taking snaps at QB. Since then, not much has changed. As the head coach of the Interlake High School football team, he's still in charge. Although, there's one big difference now...he's got a beautiful 'cheerleader' in the stands rooting him on at every game.

Kieran is an absolute gem of a lady, and it doesn't hurt that she loves football too. I haven't known Kieran quite as long as Jason, but from the time I've spent hanging out with them both over the past couple years, I can tell they're a perfect match for each other. I'm incredibly excited and honored to be photographing her wedding - she's going to be a gorgeous bride. No doubt about it.

Be sure to check back next summer for the wedding photos!

Cheers!

Dan

(Above is a fun little Cinemagraph I made. Can't wait to make more at the wedding!)