The Andy Aupperlee Explosion 5000

Nikon D300. Nikon 18-200mm VR lens @ 120mm.
Program Exposure. 1/13 sec @ f/5.3. ISO 200.

On a Saturday night in early May Jon, Ryan and I walked down 45th Street to Musashi’s for sushi. This place is ALWAYS packed; I brought along the D300 to keep me occupied while we waited for a table. If you have not been to Musashi’s, you’re missing out on inexpensive and excellent Japanese food. Musashi’s is just another part of the equation that makes Wallingford the best Seattle neighborhood. That might be slightly biased since I do live in the aforementioned ‘hood. I live near 45th street on Bagley and enjoy being able to walk to anything (grocery store, bars, breakfast places, movie theater, pizza, bank, StarbucksTullysEspressoStandTeaRoom, hardware, left-wing propaganda bumper sticker store—you know, all the Seattle-ite essentials).

The truck above seems to be permanently parked on Woodlawn Ave right off 45th. I had a margarita at the Chile Pepper last Friday and noted that this old beater is still there—completely unmoved. Perhaps the owner recently rented An Inconvenient Truth and after becoming burdend with guilt decided to bury the keys. Who knows.

Nikon D300. Nikon 18-200mm VR lens @ 18mm.
Manual Exposure. 1/60 sec @ f/3.5. ISO 200.

This is just one of many Volkswagen Beatles crawling around Wallingford. There are also plenty of classic VW buses (including a yellow one with a black Charlie Brown stripe painted on it). This Vee Dub is parked across the street from the truck and could quite possibly be bolted to the street. If you’re visiting Seattle and for some reason have a desire to see these old clunkers in person, don’t worry, both of them will probably be resting peacefully on the pavement pictured here.

Nikon D300. Nikon 18-200mm VR lens @ 24mm.
Program Exposure. 1/60 sec @ f/3.8. ISO 200.

This is the front facade of a store that sells books for kids. I naturally had to check it out (it’s also right next to Musashi’s). I decided I would buy a copy of Where The Wild Things Are if they had it. Unfortunately, four or five yuppie parents beat me to the punch and bought out the store’s entire inventory earlier in the afternoon. Damn.

PhotoShop note: This weekend I learned how to use the “Unsharp Mask” feature. I have only used it a few times, but it is clearly essential for digital photography—the difference it delivers is astounding. The three pictures above are the first posted to this blog that have been sharpened; going forward I plan to sharpen every image I shoot to some degree. Send me a message or a comment if you are interested in the settings I use.