A photo visit to Deaconess Medical Center

This week’s efforts included some post-sunset shots utilizing the Deaconess Medical Center parking garages. I contacted the staff and security officers at Deaconess, and they were a great help in getting to a couple of areas I had not been visited for a cameras eye view of downtown.

This was an experience I had not anticipated. The wind was blowing from the west, and on top of the garage on the west side of Deaconess I really had to keep an eye on the actual focus and blur that did occur when there were gusts of wind. Even with a fairly heavy tripod and not using the center post, still allowed for some movement in the time exposures, on a number of the shots. Bracketing individual scenes was a big help in post photo review, and when there was movement detected for a particular shot, it was almost always replaceable by a number of others taken at the same place and at varying times.

Out of 400 or so images taken during my two hour or so visit to Deaconess, I felt that there were five images that were usable, and a couple others that I am going to have to look closely at over the next week or two. Normally, for me, getting one usable image from 100 taken is about my average. In some cases that is not a fair analogy, since some images used are actually a combination of two or three bracketed images taken at the individual location. Photomatix Pro is a big help on some cases, and using layers in Elements 5 is another sure way of getting what you saw the night you were there.

The top level of the Deaconess parking garage is just west of this building location.

http://www.spokanenightscenes.com/deac.htm

Coming up I have two other locations scheduled, including the rooftop at the Doubletree hotel, and in the area of W 1000 First Street. I have some contacts in target locations in the W 1000 block of 1^st, and I will get together with them to shoot some after dark images of that area. The W 1000 block of 1^st is a personal goal of mine. I had administered/organized the construction of the Spokane Police Departments Crime Prevention Center at 1201 W First, and along with ten or twenty police senior volunteers, I worked in that neighborhood for a few years after we opened our doors in the late 80’s and early 90’s. Once upon a time those blocks were the hangout of a lot of two legged predators, and the area was not to be visited for any length of time at all. To see all of the great activities that are taking place down there now is most certainly to be documented.

JDM