Seattle - a photog-friendly environment?

[Austin Greene]

Hey folks,

A recent tentative job offer (elsewhere) has really got me thinking of what I'm going to do with myself a short 6 months from now when I graduate from UCD. I plan on heading onto my graduate studies in a year or two, but until I settle in for a life of academia, I'd like to get in some serious shooting time. Who knows, maybe plans will change.

At this point, I'm pretty well settled that upon graduation I will be packing my bags and moving to the Seattle, WA area. It just has the right mix of people and outdoors, and I love the Pacific NW. This would only change if the job offer elsewhere came back at me with some massive salary.

I'm wondering if any of you pro's (or otherwise) are from that area? Any area-specific tips on networking? What is it like in terms of how photog-friendly people are? I'm doing some research now on what professional shoot in that area, what the majority of the market seems to be made up of at the moment, etc.

Second, for anyone in general, any tips specifically for someone who would be starting "cold" in a new area? I'd have zero contacts, zero local references, but I would like to make photography my main source of income (I.E a definitive "professional") for my time up there, however long that might be. I suppose I'm trying to gauge if I should be approaching companies, or planning on just striking out on my own and really hitting the streets heavily to build up a base.

Thanks for your thoughts!
Austin

EDIT: I feel like I should note that ultimately I'd like to end up doing portraiture work. Currently I haven't had the time between four different jobs to do as much as I'd like, but I'm hoping that once I graduate I can really just sink my teeth into it.