Seattle Through Your Lens

Dispite what David says on Page 11 - “I was running out of light”— he doesn’t ever seem to run out of light or of wonderful Seattle sites to photograph.

As a fellow photographer, he has made my job harder, as hundreds of tourist photographers wii desend on our city - use his GPS locations - and out shoot us locals. I only hope that they can have David’s witty writing humor in their photos.

Wonderful photographs of all of Seattle’s icons, make this ibook a keeper - in fact keep it right in your camera bag with your extra lenses and you’ll be shooting winners like all the shots in here.

This book is not only for photographers but for people who love Seattle or want to learn more about this wonderful city. As a photographer, you will learn tips on how to get the shot you always wanted but didn’t know how to select the right combinations of settings. If you are new to Seattle or a long time resident like me, you will learn new facts and see new place with a different perspective. My favorite photograph is on page 85. I often drive on the bridge mentioned but didn’t know the name or history. Now I do! At first I was intimidated by the ibook format. I often prefer ‘coffee table’ style photography books. However, once I become accustomed to how to change the 'i' pages, I appreciated this format. I really enjoyed the touch screen interface to Google maps. Pretty cool! I appreciate the generosity of the author for sharing these great locations. What city is next Mr. Barnes?

Henri Cartier Bresson, perhaps the most admired photojournalist in the history of the medium described photography as a way of “…putting one’s head, one’s eye and one’s heart on the same axis…It is a way of shouting, of freeing oneself, not of proving or asserting one’s originality. It is a way of life.”

I am not sure if photographer David Barnes is familiar with that quote but I am sure, as I look at his new book of images Seattle Through Your Lens that he knows exactly what Cartier Bresson was talking about.

Seattle Through Your Lens is an unusual hybrid; part visual ode to Barnes’ adopted home-town, part travel guide to some of the most beautiful views in the city and part lesson book on photographic technique.

Using 173 beautiful, indeed often stunning images accompanied by brief, straightforward text, Barnes guides us around the city he loves, telling us where, why and how he made these handsome pictures. What he doesn’t tell us directly but is conveyed so clearly by the work is that Barnes is the kind of artist who has no regrets about being late for an elegant summer dinner party because he is out on a hilltop somewhere, deep in his bliss, camera at the ready, waiting for the evening light to get just right.

Download this eBook to your iPad, tuck it in your camera bag and take the Seattle tour with David Barnes. You won’t regret the trip.