Paddle Boards – Lake Union

06. July 2012 · Write a comment · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , ,

Today was a beautiful day, 80+ degrees and blue sky.  So this afternoon I decided to drive over the Seattle and grab some pictures of people enjoying the sun.  In the end I found myself by Lake Union watching the boats on the lake.

Lake Union is also a landing strip for sea planes and I took a few shots of some planes taking off and landing.  But I wasn’t really in the best place and while some of the images were OK, I felt I could get a better shot on another day.  So the sea plane images went in the trash.

There were some beautiful sail boats on the lake too and they were moving at a heck of a pace across the water.  One I saw was almost on its side as it cut across the lake, it was really impressive.  But the boats were on the other side of the lake too far away even too far for my longest lens (Lisa I need a longer one) and the images I captured were also not great.

Then I saw these two ladies paddling past on their boards.  I grabbed a shot as they passed Gas Works Park in the background and I loved the image when I got home.  The water looked pretty smooth and they were traveling quite fast.  This sport amazes me, probably because I have terrible balance and would suck at it.  It looks so graceful (and I’m quite envious) so I decided to post this one tonight.

Lisa got the suitcases out today – we aren’t going to Maui until next Saturday!  But Carter and Master Chief got inspired and decided to do some Maui research.

Blackbird’s Bottom – Museum of Flight

05. July 2012 · Write a comment · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: ,

Back on February 17th I posted a picture of the SR-71 Blackbird spy plane that was taken at the Museum of Flight in Seattle.  Here is a link to the posting SR-71 Blackbird.  The image I shot was the typical kind of picture you’d expect.  Taken from the front, just above the plane so you saw it in all its glory.

However while there, I saw another opportunity for an interesting picture. This time from the other end and underneath.  I stood behind the plane, got the tripod and shot the image below, of the planes underbelly.  There was a lot of orange light highlighting the plane and I hoped it would create a nice image.

When I composed the image there were a lot of people walking about and I really didn’t want any of them in the image.  So I decided to take lots of pictures and then splice them together in Photoshop using parts of images with no people and in them and then produce a clean people free photograph.

The end result came out (I think) really well.  The plane looks super cool and there are no people in shot.  The lights under the plane came our really well too and lit up the plane to create a great image.

Today the guys got hold of some sprinkled cookies.

 

Independence Day – Home

04. July 2012 · Write a comment · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , ,

As today is Independence Day I had the day off work and spent the whole day pretty much with Abi.  I guess I should say here that I used the time to capture some great new images for the blog, but I didn’t get to do any of that.

Abi and I spent the early afternoon in the hot tub (it was in the mid 70’s outside) and then we went to the movies together to see Brave.  We had a really great time together.

By 4pm I was starting to worry as I didn’t have an image to post tonight, but Lisa pointed out that we were going to a July 4th barbeque and I would get a chance to capture something there.

So at 6 o’clock we walked up the road to Chuck and MaryLou’s house for a neighborhood get-together.  We had lots of food and drink and set off some (neighborhood safe) fireworks for the younger kids.

Two things struck me this evening; firstly there is definitely a sweet spot for children who like fireworks, probably below 11 years old.  Then they become horribly miserable until they can watch them legally with alcohol when they are older.  I say this as the 11’s and under were having a great time, and the adults, who were drinking and lighting fireworks (not a good idea at the same time by the way), were enjoying themselves.  But my son and his girlfriend (15 year olds) were totally uninterested and miserable.

I also observed that we say the strangest thing to our kids on holidays like this.  What other time in the year would you tell a 9 year old to go out into the middle of the street and wave around a phosphorus coated pyrotechnic that you just set alight and tell them to have fun!  Any other time I’d shout at them, asking “what are you doing playing with fire?  It’s incredibly dangerous and a stupid thing to do!”   We are very odd.

Anyway I did manage to get a nice picture.  Abi was playing on the grass with her friend Serra and Jillian, her old baby sitter.   They were doing handstands together and laughing on the grass.  I jumped at the chance to get a nice shot of the girls.

Carter and Master Chief were feeling very patriotic today and lit their sparklers to celebrate July 4th.

Meerkat – Woodland Park Zoo

03. July 2012 · Write a comment · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , ,

One of my favorite animals that we saw at the zoo, has to be the meerkat.  These incredibly cute (Abi’s words) big rats (my words) live in gangs or mobs of around 20 and are actually members of the mongoose family (informative eh?)  At the zoo they had an enclosure that was indoors that had an underground tunnel system for them to play in and an incredibly realistic mural, depicting their native South Africa.

They were clearly fooled by the surroundings as they seemed to be pretty happy, and based on the size of the one in the image below, relatively well fed!

It was quite funny standing there looking at them, as they were all lined up just staring back.  I’m not sure who was viewing who.  They were also standing pretty still, obviously they heard I was coming and they were all posing for portrait shots.  These little guys do look very cute, but Lisa and I decided that if you did try to cuddle one, he would probably relieve you of a finger.

Carter and Master Chief saw Abi and I relaxing in the hot tub the other day but it’s a little big for them so they made their own – in the bird bath.

Grizzly Bear – Woodland Park Zoo

02. July 2012 · Write a comment · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , ,

Recently I visited Northwest Trek which is a wildlife park for animals that are native to the Pacific Northwest.  While there I saw loads of herbivores but all the scary “interesting” animals were hiding.  I guess the point of Northwest Trek is to see animals in their real habitat, where they have loads of places to run, play and hide.  And they hide very well.  So all in all it was a bit disappointing.

So you can imagine my surprise and delight when we went to Woodland Park Zoo and saw some of the carnivores we missed at Northwest Trek.  Now a lot of people say that zoos are cruel, that the animal cages are too small, and it’s wrong to cage and display wild animals.  Well all that may be true, but you get much better pictures.

Joking aside I feel the same way, you get the impression that all the animals are either “very sad”, or quite mad.  There is a lot of pacing up and down and I did feel bad for them.  But the Grizzly enclosure was quite large, it had a cave and small stream for the bears.  I guess the question is how much work towards conservation and animal safety and rehabilitation does the zoo do.  If a number of the animals are rescued I guess it’s better than being injured or worse.

The bear in the picture below was walking back and forth (pacing) between it’s cave and the edge of the enclosure where I captured this shot.

The guys wanted to play Mancala tonight.  Master Chief was doing rather well, much to Carters disappointment.

« Older articles
Newer articles »