Downtown Seattle - Pier 62/63

	Equipment: Canon 20D, Canon 100-400mm
	Image details: 190 mm, f/6.3, 1/125 sec ISO 400

Downtown Seattle has one of the best views of sunset over the Puget sound. Piers 62/63 are public piers that offer everybody easy access to the waterfront. There are plenty of opportunities to shoot sunset over the sound with the Olympic mountains in the background. For foreground you can use the boats/ferries that are plying back and forth. In the picture above I decided to use a parasailer as a foreground.

Directions to Pier 62/63

The best time to shoot from this location is around sunset. The best colors are 5-10 minutes after sunset. However one thing to keep in mind is that becomes harder to use moving objects like ferries as foreground after sunset. I use the Canon 20D and the images tend to look a little grainy 400 ISO and up. To get around this problem I shoot a little bit before sunset. You sacrifice a little bit of color for a sharp foreground.


Pier 62/63 are not the only public piers here with waterfront views. I would recommend you to try out the different piers to see if there is a particular composition that you really like. I also shoot sometimes from the pier right next to the ferry terminal. Refer to this other post for more details - http://seattlephotoadventures.blogspot.com/2007/12/washington-state-ferries-in-winter.html