"Seattle is all about a bunch of grungy hippies and musicians sipping coffee in the rain, right?"

Pretty much... This city greeted us with grunge, gangs and homeless. Not to mention the ever-present grey sky. I'll be honest and say that even staying here two nights seemed like too much at first. The forecast was 100% certainty of rain. So all in all we weren't overly excited at the prospect of filling in a day in Seattle before continuing down the West Coast to Portland. On a whim we wandered through the depths of the Pike Street Market and came across a photographer's gallery that really caught the eye and evoked our imaginations.

His work was built solely around the idea of photographing reflections in the puddles around Seattle. Why take the same photo that everyone else has taken? Where is the interest in that. He agreed that Seattle was renowned for its rainfall for good reason, but challenged the idea that rain and grey skies and a lack of sunshine had to mean dreary depression. Why not embrace it and enjoy it? See it as an opportunity! This idea really resonated with us and instead of sitting undercover or inside all day we went out and tried to explore Seattle through puddles, reflections and photography.

The result was a day spent wandering around, peering at puddles of water and crouching over a pool to get the right angle for the shot we wanted. Every droplet of rain became a potential artistic ripple, and it ended up that we wanted more rain because there wasn't enough reflective surface for the shots we wanted. We got more than a few distrustful or openly confused looks (this in a city where there's homeless people everywhere - we became the ones out of place!). Instead of cursing the precipitation, it ended up being a day well spent getting to know a real and unique perspective on Seattle.

The accompanying photos play with your mind. For full effect, look at the photo in normal orientation, then turn it upside down (hopefully youre on a mobile device!) and be amazed as your perspective on the image changes.

Once you've been confused / impressed / left wondering looking at our photos, go check out the original photographer's work that inspired our day's creativity. It can be found at www.facebook.com/reflectingonseattle