Today I decided to head out in the car and see what I could shoot.  I drove to Carnation, then on to Fall City, up to Preston and then down the i90 to Issaquah, then round Lake Sammamish to Redmond and finally on to home.

It was a lovely day for a drive and I had Howard Stern in the car and could probably have driven an extra 100 miles.  Anyway, when the scene caught my eye or the moment got me I’d pull over and take some pictures.

This is normally how it goes.  I rarely have a big plan or target destination, I just go out and see what I can find.  This means that sometimes I’m really lucky and get lots of images, and others it’s a disaster.

Today wasn’t too bad.  I was out for just over two hours and came home with four pictures I really like.  Obviously I took a lot more (70 today) but most don’t come out as I intended or I just don’t like them when I get home.

Today’s image was taken on the Fall City to Preston road.  Following along the road for most of the journey there is a river called the Raging River – cool name.  At one point the river goes under this green bridge and there is a spot by the road to pull over and easy access down to the riverbank.

So I parked up and went down to the river.  The water was moving pretty fast (well it would do I guess I mean it is called the “Raging River”), so there is a lot of motion blur in the shot in the water.  But that actually looks good I think, and gives the impression of water flowing.

To make these pictures look really good you need to slow your shutter down so the water takes on a misty sheen.  To do that you need something called a Neutral Density filter.  This is a dark piece of glass that you put in front on the lens.  It restricts light and lets you take a longer exposure (and consequently blurs the water further).  I don’t have the proper filter to do this yet, but it’s on my shopping list.  When I get one I’ll take more river pics and you’ll see the difference.

Either way this shot turned out pretty good so I thought this would be my first posting from today’s trip.

On the way home, in Issaquah, I passed a Krispy Kreme Donut shop (or Doughnut shop – if you want to spell it properly) and got a box of 12 for the family.  After dinner James went to get one and found the Halo guys tucking in!