I am going to Seattle on vacation next week and would like to shoot pics of working vessels. With a little research, it looks like Ballard Locks and Fisherman’s Terminal is a good start. I will have a car. Does anyone know of a good place anywhere in the PNW to get some good pics? I am not interested in blow boats or yachts, Thanks.
has tankers, oil barges, ferries and a small ship yard. Port Angeles has an anchorage for bunkering, log tows, ferries, a small ship yard and the pilot station is located off Ediz Hook in PA.
Sorry, first part of message got cut off- Anacortes is a neat little town on the edge of Guemes Channel/ Padilla Bay
Just off Elliot Bay on the south end is the Duwamish Waterway. Lots of tugs working in there. Moving barges and whatnot. Drive out to Harbor Is. or along E Marginal way.
Get the Marine Traffic app for your smart phone so you can see who is going where.
Lots of ferries that you could ride through Elliott Bay, both the car ferries and King County Water Taxis. If you do take the ferry to Bremerton you can walk to the USS Turner Joy (of Gulf of Tonkin Incident fame). If you drive you could also visit the Naval Undersea Museum but I don’t think that there’s anything easily photographed at PSNS these days.
Jack Block Park had a pier and viewing tower at the SE side of Elliott Bay where you get a decent view of comings and goings up the Duwamish River. You can also take photos from the walkway of the Spokane St. swing bridge below the high West Seattle Bridge. You can also get good shots of Island Tug and Barge’s pier from the bridge over the East Waterway.
If you want to get photos of the approaches to the locks you could shoot from the N 60th St. beach access or “A” Pier at the South end of Shilshole Bay Marina.
You could even get decent photos from the bar at Ray’s Boathouse orAnythony’s. but the sun will be back-lighting your subjects by happy hour. Ballard has a dozen micro-breweries, bothHale’s Alesand the Jolley Roger Tap Room will make you a decent lunch if you don’t need a view but Reuban’s Brews is my favorite brewery in the neighborhood. The neighborhood has gotten pretty gentrified but they still have photos of working boats on the walls and fishermen in the booths at the Salmon Bay Cafe if you need a hearty breakfast.
If anybody is going in or out of Lake Union you can take photos from any of the draw bridges East of the Locks. Nobody will mind you walking the piers at Fisherman’s Terminal. There’s a little pocket park hidden in the Ballard Fred Meyer parking lot too. Don’t skip going to South Lake Union Park where there is The Center for Wooden Boats, NW Seaport, The Museum of History and Industry, and usually the Virginia V docked too.