adding to the mix...

Spent Saturday afternoon working on tearing down several pallets to use the wood on a wall in my eventual studio space & darkroom. All I can say is that tearing apart something that is built to stay together is not the easiest job. Didn't take long before I had to add some coffee and film to the mix...

conversations, photos and coffee...

Got to spend a little dad/daughter time this afternoon with Sadi. Nothing like having some quality time for conversations, photos and Starbucks coffee...

vacancy - seats available...

This was outside the Starbucks in the West Village.  We stopped by there after we had Grimaldi's pizza a couple of weeks ago.  After everyone else started walking back to the car, I stayed behind to take one last picture.  I was using my Leica M8 that night, but it was on a high ISO setting (640).  I converted it to black and white to create the mood and remove the color cast.  Seeing the picture makes me crave coffee...

tribute...

Can't wait 'til tomorrow morning...  Bought some new coffee at Starbucks this afternoon:  Starbucks Tribute Blend Coffee.  Not drinking it tonight, because I want to sleep.  Of course I had to get a picture!  Now I am just waiting on morning...  tick, tock, tick, tock

not just your ordinary coffee shop...

Here is my version of an interior photo of the original Starbucks across from Pikes Market.  Stayed the night in Seattle on my last trip out to Bellingham, WA.  As always, I had to visit the downtown area to eat and have coffee.  This picture was taken with my Leica M8.  The thing that I love about rangefinders is that you can take a handheld picture, with no flash, with a shutter speed down to 1/24th of a second and get a decent picture.  Converted it to black and white, with a slight yellow filter, in Silver Efex Pro.  With all that said, my best Starbucks picture is still the original one.  You can see the post here.

Mecca (for a coffee drinker anyway)...

So this is where it all began... Most of you probably know the story about Starbucks. When I started going to Seattle, I photographed the store many times. After all, I reaaaaalllllly like Starbucks coffee. And I really liked the different coffee cups that you could only get at the original Pikes Place store. Every time there was something about the picture where the mood didn't seem right (too many people, too dark, cars, too modern). Well, last summer we were down in the Pikes Place Market after dark and things were closing down. Most of the cars were gone and for some reason this one car was left in front of Starbucks. Talk about the perfect photo op! Unfortunately, the only camera that I had with me was a small point and shoot camera (one step above a cell phone camera). In case you don't know much about cameras, small point and shoot cameras don't do very well in dark conditions when you don't want to use the flash. The pictures tend to be blurry. Well all of that money that I spent on all of those expensive lenses and cameras didn't help a bit here. They were all at home and here I was with the perfect photo chance. A friend of mine once told me that the best camera in the world is the one that you have with you. This photo proves that. Probably the best photo that I will ever be able to take of this store... No matter how many times that I go to Seattle.