October Morning Exploration
I have a friend who is in town for the week and when she is here we make it a practice to get out for long walks. Today we decided to go to Seattle's Washington Park Arboretum located near the shores of Lake Washington. The University of Washington Botanic Gardens and the City of Seattle jointly operate the park. It is a special place, and I was really interested in capturing the fall colors.
We started out early just as the sun was rising, so there weren't many people on the paths. It was so beautiful to walk through the tall trees. I had to increase my ISO to 10,000 at first to get a good image, but fortunately my Canon 6D handles low light well.
As we followed the path we came across a totem pole that was very colorful - very northwest!
At every turn it seemed that we ran into wonderful fall colors.
We made our way to the Japanese maple garden and I was pleased to see that we had it all to ourselves.
The Arboretum continues under one of our floating bridges to Foster and Marsh Islands. For the past couple of years that section had been closed off due to construction, so we were very pleased that we could walk under the bridge this morning to explore the islands.
As we made our way to Foster Island the sun was starting rise creating interesting patterns.
Once we made our way to the shore, we were treated to beautiful views of the lake and the University of Washington.
As well as a peek of the east side of Queen Anne and Lake Union through the University bridge.
When we continued on the waterfront trail we came across a series of walkways that connect Foster Island with Marsh Island.
It is amazing that we have this wonderful park in the middle of a busy city. You can see the 520 bridge, one of two that connects the east side to Seattle, just to the left in the above photo. But once we walked to Marsh Island we were again in a beautiful forest.
As we made our way back through the islands we came across a rental bicycle. When you are done you can leave it whereever you like. Although this seemed like an unusual place to leave a bike, at least it has a good view of the lake.
As the sun got higher in the sky, the lake started to steam.
We started our walk at sunrise and were done by 9am just as many people started to arrive. We were very glad that we got out early, enjoyed the sunrise, and explored the islands. By the time we arrived at the visitor's center we had each walked five miles. We were pleased.
I hope you can get out with your camera and enjoy the fall colors this month. I love to hear from you, so comment below, post on Camera Walking's Facebook page, or send me an email.
