A taste of Seattle
Aug. 4th, 2011 05:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
batskeetsOver the weekend, I was in Seattle to lend a hand with some wedding photography, and I thought it'd be fun to take a bit of extra time to hang out and see a fwe sights. I didn't have a ton of time, but I did get to visit Gasworks Park on Monday morning, and we also hit up Volunteer Park--the conservatory was closed, unfortunately--which was right by the cemetery where Bruce Lee is buried. After spending more than 7 years of my life dedicated to practicing Wushu, Bruce Lee is especially legendary for me, so I had to take a moment and pay homage to him.
We walked through the cemetery until we found the location of his headstone, and while I waited for a few other folks in front of us to take their turn, I thought about how I wanted to document the occasion. As a dedicated martial artist, a moment like this was a pretty huge deal, and since I already had my camera out for shooting at the parks we'd been to, taking a photo seemed to make perfect sense, but something about it was unsettling for me.
Then, I saw the guy ahead of me ask his friend to take a photo of him while he posed next to the grave site, and I realized: I don't want to be that guy. I'd done photoshoots near cemeteries once or twice before, at the request of portrait clients, and the sense of age and history has always been interesting to me. But, the idea of posing with or even just taking a photo of a specific grave didn't feel like the right way to pay my respects to anyone, much less somebody who'd had such a massive impact on the martial arts community.
When my turn came around, I went up to the headstone, and silently took everything in. We marveled at how young Bruce and Brandon Lee had both been when they died, but after a couple minutes of mostly-wordless observance, we simply moved on and left in search of other sights. So, yeah. It was a momentous occasion for me, and the picture in my mind is enough to be worth remembering. Sometimes, you have to choose your moment, and I chose to hold that one with brain matter instead of pixels.
Instead, here are a couple of photos from other spots. It wasn't the absolute best time of day for landscape-y photos, but Gasworks Park is definitely a photographer's wet dream:
And, seriously? This HAS to be a TIE Fighter. Am I right? ;)
We walked through the cemetery until we found the location of his headstone, and while I waited for a few other folks in front of us to take their turn, I thought about how I wanted to document the occasion. As a dedicated martial artist, a moment like this was a pretty huge deal, and since I already had my camera out for shooting at the parks we'd been to, taking a photo seemed to make perfect sense, but something about it was unsettling for me.
Then, I saw the guy ahead of me ask his friend to take a photo of him while he posed next to the grave site, and I realized: I don't want to be that guy. I'd done photoshoots near cemeteries once or twice before, at the request of portrait clients, and the sense of age and history has always been interesting to me. But, the idea of posing with or even just taking a photo of a specific grave didn't feel like the right way to pay my respects to anyone, much less somebody who'd had such a massive impact on the martial arts community.
When my turn came around, I went up to the headstone, and silently took everything in. We marveled at how young Bruce and Brandon Lee had both been when they died, but after a couple minutes of mostly-wordless observance, we simply moved on and left in search of other sights. So, yeah. It was a momentous occasion for me, and the picture in my mind is enough to be worth remembering. Sometimes, you have to choose your moment, and I chose to hold that one with brain matter instead of pixels.
Instead, here are a couple of photos from other spots. It wasn't the absolute best time of day for landscape-y photos, but Gasworks Park is definitely a photographer's wet dream:
And, seriously? This HAS to be a TIE Fighter. Am I right? ;)
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no subject
Date: 2011-08-05 12:43 am (UTC)2. Bruce and Brandon are together again? I was in Seattle when I was still working in TV, a million years ago, and one of them had been moved for some reason. We were in the cemetery to get some video for something, but the guy who was doing sound had actually done a book of gravesite photos from around the world and was directing people to a couple of different celebs in the cemetery. It was kind of surreal.
Not wanting to be "that guy" was what made me leave TV.
no subject
Date: 2011-08-05 02:41 am (UTC)Also that is totally a tie fighter. :D
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Date: 2011-08-05 03:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-05 04:22 am (UTC)THANK YOU for this. I already know that you were horrified by it too, but hearing this specifically said in the aftermath of the whole "person took pictures at Dad's ash-scattering and posted them to Facebook" is really comforting to me.
no subject
Date: 2011-08-05 10:26 am (UTC)Yes, TIE Fighter.
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Date: 2011-08-05 11:11 am (UTC)