AndysPictures.com: Travel Blog: 2011 NFL Week 10: Baltimore at Seattle

Travel Blog: 2011 NFL Week 10: Baltimore at Seattle

By Andy Lopusnak, AndysPictures.com

November 12-13, 2011

Getting the Seahawks game in the Pacific Northwest game presented numerous shooting options. First, I got the chance to photograph another U.S. state capital and add another stadium time lapse. Plus, Seattle is such a scenic city. However, it was once again gray, cold and rainy when I arrived Saturday morning.

So, I headed an hour south to Olympia and barely beat out the downpour to snap my 31^st different U.S. state capital. Like pretty much every other capital building, Olympia is a domed structure like the U.S. Capitol in Washington. This year, I’ve added Kansas, Michigan and Washington to the collection. After I do the Arkansas-LSU college football game the day after Thanksgiving, I'm going to to drive to Jackson, Mississippi to get #32. Click here to view all 31 capitals that I’ve photographed.

On the way back to Seattle, I stopped for literally two minutes to get a photo of the Tacoma Dome and a wide shot of Tacoma. I would’ve stayed longer but it was pouring and the sky was an ugly grayish white.

Back in Seattle, I had a little more time before I needed to be at the trucks to check in, so I drove to Lakeview Cemetery where Bruce Lee and his son Brandon are buried to grab a shot of the iconic gravesite.

After checking in at the stadium and scouting the location for Sunday’s time lapse, I headed to the Fremont district of Seattle. Under the Aurora Bridge lives the 18-foot Fremont Troll. This sculpture clutches an actual VW Beetle in his left hand and his left eye is made from made from a hubcap. I tried to create a time lapse of me climbing the troll, but people kept coming up and lights from cars made it not look very good. Next time, I’m in Seattle I’ll try this in the morning when there’s less people and cars.

It rained throughout the night, so I woke up early Sunday morning to get some pre-dawn shots and the rest of the trip it didn’t rain at all.

There’s three parks I got great scenic shots of the Seattle. The most famous is Kerry Park on Queen Anne Hill that has the Space Needle slap dab in the middle of the skyline. On a clear day, you can see Mount Rainer, but I still have yet to see the damn thing because it’s always cloudy. Don’t get me wrong, I love me some clouds but Seattle is sometimes too abundant with them.

Another park is Jose Rizal Dog Park on the south side of the city. It doesn’t have a vantage point for the Space Needle, but gives great views of the two sports stadiums and downtown with weaving curves of traffic from multiple interstates connecting right in from of it. I shot here Sunday morning before the game and in the evening after it.

The final park is Hamilton Viewpoint Park that gives you the scale of how vast the downtown of Seattle really is as the Space Needle is actually pretty far away from the big buildings. I went here on Monday morning before heading to the airport.

THE GAME: Seattle 22, Baltimore 17

Seattle used two Baltimore fumbles on kickoffs to beat the AFC-leading Ravens. Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch recorded his first back-to-back 100-yard rushing game after 109 on the ground with a touchdown. Looking at my all-time games list, the Ravens must hate having me cover one of their road games. They've lost ten straight since my first Ravens road game in 2020 (a 23-19 win at the expansion Houston Texans.

STADIUM TIME LAPSE

I set up my 40D for the time lapse in the south end zone to get some of the Seattle skyline in the background. At the tailend of the time lapse, the sky looked fantastic and I only wished that more of the game could’ve been played at this time. Getting CenturyLink Field means that in less than two years I’ve shot time lapses in exactly half of the NFL stadiums (16 of 32). In two weeks, I’ll be adding the Philadelphia Eagles to my collection.

AERIALS OF SAN FRANCISCO, STANFORD & SAN JOSE
Though the Alaska Air flight from Seattle to San Jose was horrible, I did get a window on the left side of the plane that allowed me to take some great aerial shots of the Golden Gate Bridge, downtown San Francisco, the Stanford campus and downtown San Jose.