Seal Pup – Seattle

21. October 2012 · Write a comment · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , , ,

I’ve come the the conclusion that luck plays a big part in capturing a great picture, but then you do need to recognize the lucky opportunity and act on it to get the shot.  Yesterday was a perfect example.  There we were at sunrise on Alki beach taking pictures of the Seattle skyline and the islands out in Puget Sound with the Olympic Mountain Range backdrop.

We had quite a few photographers there and we were all standing on the sidewalk and park above the beach.  I thought it might be interesting to get closer to the beach so I could include the sand and breaking water in the foreground so I walked down to the waters edge.  Now here’s the embarrassing thing, I then went ahead and took a load of pictures and it wasn’t until I looked at the captured image on the back of the camera that I saw a small seal pup right in front of me.

Now we aren’t supposed to get to close to seal’s on the beach but the little guy was pretty close already and didn’t seem bothered by my presence.  I did have a quick look around for the mother, as they can be a little agressive if they think the pup is in danger, but she wasn’t around.

So I got down on the floor and took a LOAD of pictures.  I was so excited that I totally screwed up the first ones, but once I calmed down I got a lot of beautify images.  Now I was around 5 feet from this little guy, and in truth that was probably too close, but I was there already so took the opportunity.

After I got the shots I wanted I backed away slowly and told all the other photographers about the pup.  They then ran down to the beach and I had the park and sidewalk to myself with nobody in the way.

Now I’ll be honest, I LOVE animal pictures, but they usually require amazing patience with you sitting by a hole in the ground for hours.  And as I’m amazingly lazy it’s not really for me.  But give me an opportunity like this and I’m all over it.  I loved the pictures I got and chose this one with the little guy’s eyes open.  I think he liked the camera too, as he almost looks like he’s smiling.

Tonight the guys found a “pumpkin” tree and played in that.

Morning Cityscape – Seattle

20. October 2012 · Write a comment · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , , , ,

So I have quite a lot on at the moment, I’m taking a picture a day (that takes a load of time), we have just gone through a re-org at work and I have loads to do there, and for some ridiculously stupid reason I decided to do a photography course at Bellevue College.  I have no idea why I signed up for this and this morning I really regretted it!

Why this morning? Because I had to be in Alki, West Seattle at 7am on a Saturday!  Which meant I needed to get up at 6am, seriously sad news.  So why did I have to be there?  Well the course is called “Shoot to Show” and is all about shooting images that you can then frame and show and sell.  We had to pick a theme for our images, and decided on “Beginning or End of day”.  So this morning we all arrived in West Seattle to photograph a sun rise.

Anyway I got there around 6:40 and this was one of the first shots I took.  The sun hadn’t really come up yet, so the city was all lite up and looked really great across the water.  The lights from the city were reflected across the water and the sky was  almost black.  So I set up the tripod and too some pictures.

This picture was a 30 second exposure, so long that the sky looked light blue.  I took a few shots at the waters edge and the images looked great, but I really wanted some foreground interest.  So I stepped back from the water and set up behind a bench and took the image below.  I really liked the end result, the bench looked great and you can even see some grass under the bench.  And then in the distance you have the beautiful city of Seattle.  Pretty cool.

As Lisa and Abi have now decorated the house, Carter and Master Chief are now playing with all the Halloween “stuff”, tonight it’s Boo!

Wall – Redmond

19. October 2012 · Write a comment · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: ,

Tonights image is a little different.  Last week I lead a photowalk around Redmond town center and I found this painting on a building wall just off the high street.  Now I would guess that this graffiti was made with a stencil but I thought it looked really cool.  There were some cars parked right in front of the wall so I had to get pretty close to get a clean picture.

I thought the bricks looked great too and love the lines disappearing out of focus into the distance.  Ideally I would have got the shot from the other direction so the lines led you to the image, but there was a huge truck in the way and right behind me was a great big bush and it didn’t look as good in the image.  While the image appears black and white, it’s actually color, that’s just the color of the bricks and the paint.

I think the thing I learnt from the walk was that you really can find great things to photograph by just walking around and looking.  Going to Maui is nice for a beautiful sunset or landscape, but you really can get compelling images anywhere.

Tonight the guys wanted some chicken so they decided to carve one up themselves.

Chevrolet Truck – Redmond

18. October 2012 · Write a comment · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , ,

I went to the movies tonight after work (went to see Argo, it was really good I can definitely recommend it) and got home pretty late.  So I had to hit my backlog store for an image for the day.  (I still found time to shoot my Halo dudes but the serious picture is from earlier this year.)

I actually have a pretty large collection of backlog images and ended up selecting this view of a yellow Chevy Truck that I shot on August 12th.  This was shot at one of the Redmond Exotics car shows which don’t usually have trucks so it was a bit of a novelty.  The owner had opened up the truck hood and it looked all clean and shiny inside (nothing like my car) and there was so much chrome on the front it was well worth shooting from this perspective.

I find the best pictures for vehicles are taken low down on the ground.  It gives you a different perspective of the car or truck and usually looks cool.  This picture was no exception and think it came out well.

Carter found Lisa’s stash of English candy today and we caught him eating a “Pear Drop”.

Carillon Point – Kirkland

17. October 2012 · Write a comment · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , , ,

One of the “problems” of taking a picture a day is that if you work for a living (like I do) you tend to take pictures at the same time each day – after work.  And when summer is over and the sun goes down around 6pm, all your pictures become sunset or night time shots.  Now this is not really a major issue as this time of night is considered by most photographers as the “Golden Hour”.

The Golden Hour is said to be the best time of the day for pictures outside.  Really the golden hour is usually thought of  as the hour before sunset or the hour after sunrise.  (Although many believe it’s the hour that straddles both).  So what’s special about this time of day?  Well the sun is very low in the sky and casts long soft shadows on people and buildings.  Also the sky takes on a colored (sometimes red) hue which many people find attractive.  Sometimes if the weather’s not that nice the clouds become more dramatic.

Tonights picture is a great example of this.  I shot the image at Carillon Point in Kirkland as the sun was going down.  Earlier in the day the clouds were pretty flat and boring, but once the sun was low in the sky the clouds took on a much more interesting look.  Luckily when I set up the tripod for this image nobody was around (that usually never happens) so I didn’t have to take anyone out in Photoshop.

If I had taken this picture 30 minutes earlier or later I wouldn’t have got the same shot at all, so it shows that hour is kind-a special.  So as the nights are starting earlier these days, you should expect a lot more pictures like this.

Today the guys wanted to play on some halloween decorations.

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