High Street Fall City – Fall City

05. April 2012 · Comments Off on High Street Fall City – Fall City · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , ,

A couple of days ago I found myself in Fall City taking some shots of the high street and river.  The main street is really pretty with blossom trees along the river bank and in the distance you can see the Cascade Mountain Range.  Of course having blue sky really helps make the picture but it wasn’t always like that.  When I arrived it was raining, then the sky cleared so I got this shot.  I literally walked over the road to capture a shot of a totem pole and the skies opened up again!

I guess that’s what happens when you live in the Pacific North West in April.  Today I left work and it was beautiful outside with blue skies and sun.  When i got home (8 miles away) it was hailing really heavily – it’s nuts!

Tomorrow I’m off work and going out with the family to the Seattle Aquarium so I should get some nice shots there and Saturday I’m off to Skagit County for the Tulip festival.  Of course I found out today that they haven’t bloomed yet so expect some fantastic shots of green stalks on Saturday night.

In preparation for the Olympics Carter decided to practice his pole vaulting, unfortunately it didn’t go too well.

Daffodils – Redmond Ridge

04. April 2012 · Comments Off on Daffodils – Redmond Ridge · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , ,

Well spring is definitely here, all around my neighborhood are daffodils.  I took this picture outside Abi’s school on the way home from work.  I was driving by the school and saw loads of flowers across the road and parked up and grabbed the camera.  I shot these daffodils by placing the camera almost on the ground and shooting up as I didn’t really want to capture the houses behind the flowers.

As I couldn’t see through the view finder (I wasn’t going to lie in the dirt) I had to take around 20 pictures before I got one I liked.  Bizarrely behind me just across the road was James.  He saw me pull up and jump out of the car.  He was with a friend and they were (I guess) laughing at me.  I didn’t even see him until after I got back in the the car and drove off!

I really liked this picture as the daffodil is kind of a special flower for me.  My mothers name was Daphne and always loved these flowers (probably because everyone called her Daff.  She passed away very young in the mid 80’s and never got to meet Lisa or my kids.  So when I see these flowers they bring back fond memories (I know my bother and sisters still feel the same).

Anyway you should all get used to flower pictures as this Saturday I’m off to a tulip festival in Skagit County, so from this weekend you will be seeing a lot of tulip shots on my blog.

Today Abi experienced a bad makeup day – largely due to the Halo guys…

Snoqualmie River – Fall City

03. April 2012 · Comments Off on Snoqualmie River – Fall City · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , ,

Tonight on the way home I decided to check out Fall City on the Snoqualmie River.  Now, I come from the UK and there to be called a city you must have a cathedral.  So cities in England are big (and I mean really big).  The next size down from a city is a town and smaller still is a village.  Here in the US everything is a city so when you visit somewhere like Fall City for me (or any other Brit) is seems so small. (We would call this a village).

That said Fall City is very quaint.  You drive into the city and pass the library and a huge totem pole (yes a totem pole), then there is a line of shops and a bar, finally (after around 300 yards) you reach a bridge and your on your way out!  However, the road by the shops is right next to the Snoqualmie River and all along the river bank are blossom trees.  It’s all very pretty.

The grass by the river is called the River Side Park and in the park they have some stone sculptures that I captured in this photograph.  The Snoqualmie River is rich with salmon which is actually a pain!  Why is it a pain?  Well when we get snow we aren’t allowed to put any salt on the roads as it will kill the fish.  So to celebrate the salmon the sculpture is covered with fish.

This evening our Halo hero’s were testing their new communications device – apparently it’s even better than an iPhone!

Goodyear F2G-1 Super Corsair – Museum of Flight

02. April 2012 · Comments Off on Goodyear F2G-1 Super Corsair – Museum of Flight · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , ,

It’s been a while since I posted a plane, so tonight I’m posting another shot from the Museum of Flight.  This is the Goodyear F2G-1 a really cool plane.  I remember going to the Museum a while ago with a friend and took a picture of this plane and it looked terrible.  At the time I hadn’t learnt how to photograph HDR so the image was blown out in some places and overly dark (under exposed in others).

When I went back in January and took this picture I’d perfected a lot of the process and was able to get a much nicer picture.

This plane is positioned in the corner of the main exhibit area and is surrounded by glass (as you can see) and this makes it quite hard to get a good shot.  But thanks to a tripod and some patience I think this came out really well.  The paint color is a deep green and the light through the window really brought that out.

Tonight our Halo hero’s decided to draw around each other – no, I have no idea why either!

Union Hill Ranch – Redmond

01. April 2012 · Comments Off on Union Hill Ranch – Redmond · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , , ,

Today’s posting is a little different as I had two pictures and couldn’t decide which “version” to post.  Let me explain what I mean.  Every day after work I drive home the same way and pass Union Hill Ranch which is around 3 miles from home.  The Ranch is surrounded by trees and has a large pond at it’s front by the road.  There is also a pond overflow that flows towards the road and looks like a mini waterfall.

Anyway I’ve often thought of pulling over and photographing this scene, as I like the trees and pond and the water run-away.

So the other day on the way home I stopped, grabbed the camera and took some shots.  When I got home and looked at the images they looked OK but not in my opinion great.  As a result I tried one of the pictures as a black and white and I felt it looked better.  After that I did what I do every night, I showed Lisa, James and Abi and asked them what they thought, only this time I showed them the color version and the black and white and asked them which one they liked best.

As you can imagine a discussion ensued that covered the pro’s and con’s of each image, the bottom line the family couldn’t decide which one was best and stated they liked them both.  I actually prefer the black and white but thought tonight I’d post both and let you decide.

I should point out (for those that don’t know) digital photographers typically shoot in color all the time and then post process the image if they want black and white, after in software.  While it’s true that most digital cameras have a black & white option or mode, I don’t like the way they process the image – they always look very flat to me, not having enough contrast.  So I always do this after the fact in Photoshop.

Anyway here are the two images, have a look and let me know which one you prefer, feel free to add a comment and vote or email me.

First the Black and White…


And then the color…


Tonight Carter and his mate decided they wanted to play a game of Chess.

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