Fairy Dusted
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One of many fantastic things about visiting my childhood hometown is family. Both my brothers still call the Emerald City home, which gave me an opportunity to extend my stay for an additional 8 days after my friends left town.
During this part of my trip I began to make connections between many magical moments.
First: My forever friends sprinkled some fairy dust on me when they got me out of the house, up to Seattle and into a receptive state of gratitude and joy.
Second: Trader Joe’s banana chocolate chip muffins! My brother lives mere steps from the best muffins on the planet and it was my eagerness to grab a batch that fired up the fairy dust and lit the spark of inspiration that would fuel the rest of my stay.
Spring in Seattle is an experience I’ve not been “present” for during previous visits but this time I couldn’t help but be enchanted. The flowers, the lush landscapes, the drizzling rain, the smells of damp earth, fresh cut grass, cherry laurel and pine trees forced me to pull out my camera and do my best to capture whatever I could.
This brings me to a Third magical moment, Transportation.
Not long after my banana muffin mission, my dear brother granted me access to the “clunker” he uses for work. Ordinarily this would be quite a score but I was feeling ambivalent because the car had a manual transmission, which I hadn’t driven since the 90’s and what if it’s not “just like riding a bike?”
However, once an offer had been made I was unable to stop the fairy dust. I could feel my plans taking form and I knew they would require that I climb behind the wheel with all my fears in tow and remember what to do.
I’m not ashamed to admit pulling over after the first 3 minutes and going for a walk to seriously consider giving up. “The hills are so steep!” and “What if I get in an accident?” echoing loudly. Suddenly, I found myself in front of a stunning view of the Downtown Seattle skyline and I knew I had to get back in that unfamiliar car and navigate those unfamiliar streets because there were many more magical moments to capture.
In truth, I wanted to spend my day outdoors exploring the South Seattle College Arboretum and if I gave up I’d have to either change my plans or pay for the bus/Uber. If I persisted, I could visit other parks and viewpoints, snapping pictures at my leisure for the next few days. It felt like THE perfect plan, so I got back in the car. I pulled over a few more times but I eventually made it to the SSC Arboretum and the adjacent Seattle Chinese Garden where I enjoyed capturing hundreds more magical moments on my memory card.
I’ve spent a lot of time playing around with presets and sliders in Adobe Lightroom in a an attempt to transform my mediocre and often blurry photos into a mashup of realistic and mythical, since that’s the best way to describe my Seattle adventure.
I may have overdone it, I do that sometimes. I snapped and sifted through approximately 1500 images to accompany two travel stories about Seattle. But what you may not know is the blog is a first stop for some of these images.
To glimpse how I transform my mediocre photos into mythical landscapes, check out my gallery and blog at SchooneyGraphics.com