Well, I was actually there for six days, to be exact. Stayed at the Woodmark Hotel & Spa in Kirkland, which is just across Lake Washington from Seattle. I had been to Seattle once before, but only for like a day, so this was basically my first trip there.

I used Google Maps to do some location scouting beforehand and created a customized map with pins of all the places I wanted to check out. Combined with an iPhone, it makes for a pretty handy tool for photographers in an unfamiliar city.

I also had a friend that lives in Seattle to show me around. Stevan is an old sushi chef that used to work for me back in my restaurant biz days. He moved out to Seattle four years ago and recently took up a job at Shiro’s Sushi. Shiro Kashiba is a former apprentice of the famous sushi master Jiro Ono from the Japanese documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi. Jiro also had another protégé, Daisuke Nakazawa, who is known in the film as the one who made over 200 trays of tamago before finally getting it right. Well, Daisuke has also recently taken a job at Shiro’s, and we were able to sit in front of him and sample his version of what he’s learned from the master.

My buddy Stevan!

Daisuke Nakazawa from Jiro Dreams of Sushi

In the following days, I visited Seattle’s main attractions, like the Space Needle, Pike Place Market, and Kerry Park, as well as some other spots off the beaten path. Stevan was kind enough to drive me all over town to get some amazing views of Seattle. He even took me to Bruce and Brandon Lee’s grave site at Lake View Cemetery, which was pretty cool to see.

We were definitely lucky with the weather while we were there. Six days there and I may have been caught in a total of an hour or two of rain the entire time. I even bought a Kata rain sleeve thinking I wouldn’t survive the week without one. Never used it once.

Definitely loved Seattle. Awesome city, beautiful scenery, great food. I hope to go back again and maybe do some fishing next time!

Here are some of the photos I ended up with. Probably have a few more that I’ll edit, and I shot a ton of time-lapse clips as well. I’ll try and put something together over the next few weeks. Enjoy!