Seattle Bed and Breakfasts are Perfect for Your Stay

We had an orientation tour for the owners of local Bed and Breakfasts in the Seattle area. A great group of people to introduce our tours to, but even more we learned that they were a lot more prevalent close to the city than we had realized with some outstanding amenities, great views and reasonable prices.

Eagles View Bed and Breakfast

The Guest House Bed and Breakfast

Guest House Bed and Breakfast Room

Mildreds Bed and Breakfast

Shafer Baillie Mansion

Inn of Twin Gables

9 Cranes Inn

Three Tree Point

Sleeping Bulldog Bed and Breakfast

Seattle Hill House

Seattle Hill House B and B

Bacon Mansion

Greenlake Guesthouse

Greenlake Guest House

You can see more properties in the area at the Seattle Bed and Breakfast Association website.

New Tour Added to Snoqualmie Falls

We are adding a new tour for the 2012 season. Our signature Snoqualmie Falls tour has been well received and last year was our most popular tour. This year we are adding a second tour to the falls, which we call a “Quick Tour”. This is designed for those that have a limited time in Seattle or who need to get to the cruise ship terminal before their ship leaves. With our luggage area on our tour bus, we can pick you up at your hotel in the morning and have you to your cruise ship by 2:30 PM.

Here is a description of our tour and we are excited to be adding another great Seattle tour this year.

“Our tour pickup begins at the Pike Place Market at 10 AM. Before we get on the bus, we’ll show you a few points of interest in the Pike Place market including the infamous Gum Wall as seen in National Geographic Magazine and rated the second germiest place on earth next to the Blarney Stone. We’ll teach you a few photo tips to help you get the best photos in preparation for our trip.

Pioneer Square is our first bus stop as you explorer the second oldest neighborhood in Seattle with hidden treasures including 19th century brick buildings, outdoor native art and a hidden Zen-like area with a 22 foot waterfall.

Our journey then begins to Snoqualmie falls where there are many sights to see along the way. We make our way past the downtown area where you can get views of the skyline including stadiums, maritime traffic and views of the Olympic Mountains. We then cross the second longest floating bridge on Earth at 6,620 ft. on our way to the Cascade Mountain foothills.

Your first experience in the Cascade foothills will include a train museum and the town of Snoqualmie, founded in the 1850′s and the real “Twin Peaks” of the Pacific Northwest. At the historic Snoqualmie train depot you will get close to many full-size antique railcars and locomotives and have adequate time to explore all the museum has to offer.

Snoqulamie Falls is next with its picturesque viewpoint and world famous Salish Lodge. Here you enjoy the mountain air and beauty of the Cascade Range foothills with native trees and easy to navigate pathways at the two-acre park. You’ll also find a gift shop and observation deck for an unobstructed view of the famous 270 foot waterfall. This is a perfect place to bring a picnic lunch with covered areas available should it rain.

We then make our way back to Seattle where you end the tour at the Pike Place Market at 2 PM.

This tour is designed for those who don’t have a full day available to take our combined Snoqualmie Falls and City Tour.”

10 Great Gift Ideas for Photographers

From our sister site, Photodaydream.com

Photographers can be hard to buy for during the holidays. We love to geek out on cool lenses, filters and Photoshop toys but these gifts are things we would probably never think of buying. You don’t have to be a photography aficionado to wow your photographer gift recipient with these ten great gift ideas.

Camera Lens Mug

I have two of these and love how people freak out when I take this into Starbucks to get a refill. For $30 Photo JoJo provides a great quality mug and thermos that would be number one on my list for gift giving.

Black Rapid Camera Strap

I love the Black rapid Camera strap it allows your camera to hang at your hip and stay out of the way. Especially when walking on trails or when shooting concerts, this is one product I wouldn’t be without in my photo arsenal. Available on Amazon for less than $60.

F-Stop Watch

Another great product from Photo JoJo for less than $40 is this F-Stop watch.

Adobe Photoshop Elements 10

Adobe has a scaled down version of Photoshop with Photoshop Elements 10 that makes a great starting point for budding photographers. Not as feature rich as the full blown version of Photoshop, but it will do almost as much with the tools for a price of less than $50 on Amazon.

Holga Lens for Nikon and Canon

Holga’s are little plastic film cameras that create dreamy images with their cheap lenses. Now available for SLR cameras, you can buy just the lens for both Canon and Nikon cameras on Ebay. At less than $20 these are a great gift that every photographer is going to love.

Pet’s Eye View Camera

This is a fun camera to play with. You can set this to an auto interval setting of 1, 5 or 15 minutes with a storage capacity of 40 images and capture your pets view of the world. Available on Amazon for less than $40.

Faces of a Vanishing World

This is one of the best photography documentries I have seen. Joey Lawrence who has become one of the most accomplished photographers of our time set out into the Omo Valley of Ethiopia to take portraits. The documentary follows Joey from his preparation for the trip in New York, to the journey of making his way to the Omo Valley. A year later he brings prints of the images back to the tribes people who have probably never seen themselves in a photograph.

You can purchase this via Joey’s website for only $25.

PDN Magazine

The premier photography magazine for professional photographer is PDN Magazine. Giving a gift subscription would make a welcome gift to those who are serious about making money in photography.

Photo Jojo Book

Buy the Photojojo! The Book at the Photojojo Store!

A $1,000 Gift card to B and H Photo

Ok, we can dream here, but B and H Photo Video is the center of the universe for photographers and a gift card from them makes the perfect gift. Purchase your gift cards online at Bhphotovideo.com

Number 3 on Tripadvisor.com

Thanks to all of our customer who continue to share their experiences with Tripadvisor.com. We have reached a #3 ranking of 59 tours in Seattle.

Fall Leaves Are in Full Color in Leavenworth

Shutter Tours owner Terry took the day to drive over to Leavenworth to capture some images of the fall leaves turning colors. The drive over Stevens Pass was especially nice as the colors are at their peak on the perfect sunny day.

Below is an image that was taken at 1/6 of a second to get the silky smooth look to the water.

See more photos on his website of the fall colors.

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