Do you have a little secret spot that you like to go back to over and over again to shoot your Lego mini figures? You know, that one place you enjoy shooting no matter what the weather is like. We’re not all as lucky as Me2 and are able to travel with our little muses on a regular basis. Personally, I’m more home bound than I’d like to admit.  But that doesn’t stop me from taking my little subjects out on frequent excursions to my special place, Magnuson Park. No matter how many times I return, the park reveals new secrets to me.

I have learned that the most important aspect of photography, be it macro, landscape, portrait or still life, is that you’re required to be present in your surroundings. To be a photographer, you’re required to be observant.

I’ve been shooting at Magnuson Park for approximately three years now. It’s only a 15 minute drive from my house so I can easily drop in when the weather is good or my need to photograph gets too great. It was at this park that I first experienced what photographing LEGO could be. It’s here that I have taken just about every toy photographer that I know because it’s that cool. You could say that this park is more my muse than Lego is.

SandPoint_WA_53_w

Then…

To give you a little history, Magnuson Park is an old United States Naval Air Station. In fact the first aerial circumnavigation of the globe ended at the airstrip on this old base. Most of my early memories around the base are from visiting there with my Grandmother. She was a frequent visitor to the base to play bridge with other Navy wives or to pick up  tax free booze and cigarettes for my Grandfather. I would often wait in the car when she went in to the commissary do her shopping. Coincidentally this is the same parking lot I now park in before wandering the restored wetlands to photograph Lego.

Magnuson-After

…now.

Like I mentioned earlier I’ve been photographing in the wetlands area and at the lake shoreline for about three years now and every time I go back I notice how much the park is changing. The brush has grown up, entire huge logs are there one day and gone the next, the slime mold is getting more amazing, lily pads are appearing in the larger ponds, the beaver family is cutting down trees faster than they can grow, paths are being washed away by over flowing ponds… I could go on, but how do you describe three years of change that has happened moment by moment and captured on a micro scale?

I thought I would share with you a selection of the images I have take there so you can see how one location can reveal so many different moods.

This park has become my happy place; it’s the place I go when I am itching to get a photo, take a walk in nature, hear the birds sing or the dragon flies hum. I never fail to leave rejuvenated and inspired.

If you come to Seattle for the upcoming toy photography meet-up, know that this will be on our short list of places to visit.

~ xxSJC

If you’re an outdoor photographer, do you have a favorite place to photograph? You know the one I mean, the one place you’re continually drawn back too. If you do, what makes it special?