(Another) Sunset – Redmond

01. November 2012 · Comments Off on (Another) Sunset – Redmond · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , ,

Now I know what you are thinking, “not another sunset – what’s going on?”  Well, firstly, yes I am shooting a lot of sunsets right now and really there are two very good reasons.

Firstly the day’s are getting shorter and I’ve just taken on a new role at work and the day’s at work are rather long, so it’s either shoot a sunrise at the beginning of the day or a sunset at the end.  Even though I have my camera with me all the time at work I’m just too busy to get it out during the day.

But there’s actually another reason too.  A few weeks I started a Bellevue College Course called “Shoot to Show”.  The purpose of the course is to learn how to put on a gallery show, and hopefully sell some prints.  Part of the course involves us picking a subject and going out and shooting some images.  Then we print and frame the pictures and show for a few days and see what happens.  Anyway, we are well underway in the course and our “theme” is “Beginning and End of Day”.  We are allowed to pretty much interpret this as we like but for me I guess it’s pictures like these sunsets.

So that’s what’s happening, I’m capturing a number of nice sunsets for the course.  Obviously I need to share these with the class, but if you remember the “rules” I came up with at the beginning of the year, I can’t post an image here if it’s been seen by anyone else.  So before I can show the class my work I have to post the image.  The result is you get to see a lot of sunsets.  Hope you don’t mind.

I guess I should tell you about this image.  Well summer is definitely over!  We have a lot of rain and some interesting clouds.  This may not be very nice for warm evening walks, but it sure makes nice pictures.  I was driving home and saw this sky near my home.  So (well you know now how this works) I pulled over and took the shot.  This one is definitely all about sky.  I exposed for the sky too hence the grass at the bottom of the screen is quite dark.  I did try to raise the exposure of this a little but both Lisa and I preferred it a little darker – as it focuses the eyes above.

This evening Master Chief had a terrible accident!  He fell in a cup of tea.  I found Carter trying to pull him out, at least I think that’s what he was trying to do!

Farm – Redmond

31. October 2012 · Comments Off on Farm – Redmond · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: ,

Sometimes you just see something that makes you think – that’s really beautiful!  Doesn’t happen very often, at least not to me, but then we live such busy lives, beauty might just pass us by!  Well tonight’s image was something that just caught my eye and made me stop.

I was driving from Fall City on the 202 Redmond road which basically just takes you past farms and marsh land, really not much to see.  Anyway I turn a corner and this farm is all I can see!  I’m not sure what it was that I liked, looking at the image now I love the sky and the different colors of the trees, that are almost layered.  Then there’s the farm houses and barn at the bottom with the grass in front.

Doesn’t really matter what it was, but I was compelled to pull over and grab some pictures.  Now I am lucky enough to have some pretty long lenes so I pulled over by the side of the road and got out the 300mm zoom.  It was actually getting dark – I know it doesn’t look like it but it was, so I put the camera on a tripod and got the shot.

There was one road that went from the main 202 Redmond road down to the farm and I was kind of waiting for someone to come out of the farm and drive up the road to ask me what I was doing.  I would guess I looked a little suspicious.  Anyway I got a couple of pictures and drove the rest of the way home.

This to me is one of those relaxing images, it’s kind of peaceful and maybe that’s why I like it.

Quite a successful candy haul tonight – so much that the guys created a candy hottub – how cool is that?

Sunset – Redmond Ridge

30. October 2012 · Comments Off on Sunset – Redmond Ridge · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , ,

So yesterday I was driving home from work thinking “what should I post tonight?”  To be fair, that’s pretty much all I ever think about on the way home but such is life for a “post a picture a day” idiot.  I have to say I actually have quite a few nice images to share with you so it really was a question of which one.  But then I saw the sunset over my neighborhood and saw the chance to get something new.

Now what I’ve learnt to do when I see something nice is stop immediately and grab the camera.  The day’s of “Oh I’ll get that next time” or “I’ll get it on the way back” are well and truly over – it NEVER works.  So just by Abi’s school I pulled over and got the camera.  The sky looked great but I noted that just down the road you could see a really nice yellow and orange sky against the roof tops, so I went for a walk.

Anyway I found myself by a small park area with some play equipment and what I think was a lamp.  Against the sky everything was in silhouette and I thought it made a really nice image so I started taking some pictures.  I kept moving around and trying different compositions and ended up selecting the image I’m posting tonight as my favorite.

I thought the sky looked great and love the fact I can just see some leaves on the floor and make out the shapes in the foreground.  It just goes to show you can capture a fun picture anywhere.

The guys where getting ready for Halloween tonight, they were really excited about getting some candy tomorrow, I guess we will have to see how they do!

Snoqualmie Falls – Snoqualmie

29. October 2012 · Comments Off on Snoqualmie Falls – Snoqualmie · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , ,

This weekend (just gone) I got the chance to stay at the Salish Lodge in Snoqualmie.  One of the interesting things about the Lodge, is that it’s right next to Snoqualmie Falls.  In fact my bedroom had a balcony that overlooked the falls and the view was just amazing.  I was actually there for a work event and I took my camera with every intention of popping out and capturing some great pictures, but I didn’t get the chance to shoot until it was time to leave.

It was late afternoon when I checked out of the hotel and it wasn’t raining (it was yesterday) so I thought I’d grab some shots before I headed home.

I walked out of the hotel (in the image below you can see the hotel at the top of the waterfall on the left) and down to the viewing area to get a shot.  The challenge was taking a picture before the camera lens became completely soaked!  The volume of water going over the falls was just incredible and as the water hit the river at the base, huge sprays of were thrown up to the observation area and then came down on any idiots watching like rain.  Obviously I was the only person there.

So set up the camera while I was facing the other way, and then turned around quickly and captured the shot.  The image I captured is below, and you can see some of the water drops on the lens in the top right corner.

I really wanted the water going over the falls to have that “ribbon” look you see in so many waterfall picture. So I attached a neutral density filter to the camera that dropped the amount of light entering the lens by 8 stops.  This allowed me to have a nice long exposure, so the camera went on the tripod and I took the shot.

Considering the amount of water being thrown up I’m really pleased with the end result.

Time to vote for the President of the United States!  How exciting…

Pumpkin Carving – Home

28. October 2012 · Comments Off on Pumpkin Carving – Home · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: ,

Now I know I usually post landscapes but tonight I thought I’d do something different.  Abi and Valerie got the huge pumpkin in the kitchen tonight and decided to start carving.  Now Lisa has this book of carving stencils that you pin to the pumpkin and draw around.  Then you get out these funky little knives or mini saws and start to carve around the lines you drew.

All pretty simple really.  But of course Abi and Valerie never do anything simple, oh no.  They start by designing their own stencil.  Two eyes, one that looks like a big A (for Abi) and one that looks like a big V (for Valerie), some scary eyebrows and a fanged mouth.  Then they took turns curving out parts of the pumpkin.

All the time they’re joking and laughing and mucking about.  They were both so funny, I had to capture a picture.

Of course the moment they finished they ran off.  There was pumpkin guts everywhere it was a total mess.  So I cleaned everything up and took some pictures with “the guys”.

I should state that the original point of this site was to capture really nice image every day and post it to the site.  Now you might not think this is a really nice image, and question whether family pictures should be included too.

But I love this image, the girls look great and to me this fits all the requirements.

Now Abi and Valerie would like to take the praise for the pumpkin carving but of course we all know Carter and Master Chief really did it.

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