The Jose Rizal Park offers quite a stunning view of Downtown Seattle. It is located on the west slope of Beacon Hill.

I had seen one particular view of the Seattle skyline in some website long time back and I inquired amongst several Flickr friends about this vantage point. I finally succeeded in finding the place. Though not a really safe area (I was warned!), the view was indeed beautiful. The view includes the Columbia Tower (the largest building in Washington), wonderfully curved roads ideal for long exposure light streaks, the Elliot Bay, the Safeco Field and the Quest Field.

In order to shoot here, a tripod is a definite must. The first time I went, I forgot my tripod at another location and I had to improvise by placing my camera on a rock! Extremely disappointing as I was stuck with just one view, as you can see below. They are long exposures of 80 sec and 200 sec respectively, shot with the help of my trusted B&W #110 10 stop ND filter.

I got my opportunity at redemption when I tagged along with Michael for some night photography. This time around, I did remember to take my tripod, but only during the setup I realized that my tripod was just too short to shoot above the grills on the sides of the bridge! Again, I had to improvise, but damn… that sucked!

The following day, I ordered a new 74″ Manfrotto ball-head tripod.

Here’s Michael!


And here’s his camera!

They say three’s a charm. I am yet to go the third time, but I hope to finally capture a gorgeous sunset with great clouds and a bald eagle flying on top of the skyline! 😉

The toughest part about shooting from here was timing the shots. I was actually shooting atop the Jose Rizal Bridge and this bridge shakes each time a bus passes by. I had to watch for buses and other heavy vehicles and time my shots.

In case anyone needs it, the address is: 1008 12th Ave S, Seattle, WA 98144.