On the Streets: Thursday on the Hill

Photographers, writers, bloggers, freelancers – you’re all familiar with the incessant call to post. My friend Tony and I spent the weekend shooting photos and videos at the Seattle Acoustic Festival 2017 for Rain City Collective. It was a great experience, but shooting the photos is only the beginning of the work. I promised myself that after I was done I would walk away from the computer, grab my camera, and see what I could see on a Thursday night in Capitol Hill.
I left my place and headed for Cafe Pettirosso. I love that place. I’ve been lucky and have managed to get to Paris a couple of times. Cafe Pettirosso reminds me of a corner cafe you’d find there. I almost got some vegan mac and cheese but settled on a beer and a window front stool.

Walked around a bit after that. It’s PAX time here in Seattle, so the city will be flooded with gamers, artists, and cosplayers. On Thursday night, there were lots of large groups walking around Capitol Hill. Took me a few minutes to figure out what was going on, but I think they were participating in a PAX Eve Harry Potter pub crawl.

On a whim I stopped into Bimbo’s cafe. There was a gentleman sitting next to me who had an old school compact film camera. Ever get a sudden wave of powerful intuition? I thought to myself, I bet that is David C., the photographer behind the awesome photos at @invisiblehour. I scanned through his feed to see if I could find a picture that would confirm it. I would have just asked him, but he was in a conversation with two people. He ended up removing the guesswork.

Him: What kind of camera was that? (I’d just put it away.)

Me: Fujifilm XT2.

Him: Contax. (I think it was a T2, not sure.) It does pretty well. Got some moisture in the flash. Took it in to see if I could get it wiped off and dried, but the guy they had who worked on old Contaxes retired years ago. Are you on Instagram?

Me: (Fiddling around for one of my flimsy cards.) Yep, @sbhopper.

Him: Oh, I already follow you. I’m @invisiblehour.

Me: I knew it.

We talked about cameras for a bit. He got up occasionally and shot at least 5 photos of people in the bar and on the street. I admire his easy-going rapport with people. Granted, I think he knows everyone on Capitol Hill, but still, when he points a camera at people, their response seems to be, “oh cool, a picture!” His photos of people on and around Capitol Hill are great. I’d like to get there with my photography. A lot of times, though, I feel like when I take my camera out, people are thinking, “why does that guy have a camera?”

David grabbed a shot of me talking to his friend Ramona (sp?). Like some other photographers I know, I hate being in photos. But there’s that rapport of his again. I just rolled with it. Still, I got some revenge. I followed him out and was trying to get a shot of him walking along Pike. His Spidey Sense went off, though, and he turned around, busting me. He was fast, too, I’m glad his instincts didn’t kick in, prompting some sort of Street Fighter judo move.

I hadn’t eaten much all day, so I made my way over to Betsutenjin Ramen, a new place on 10th Avenue, just north of Union. Man that place is good. It was packed, but they were very friendly and put me at a table with a few other folks. I was able to move to the bar when it suddenly cleared out.

From there I made the walk home. Grabbed a few photos along the way.