Santa – Redmond

24. December 2012 · Comments Off on Santa – Redmond · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: ,

I guess I can’t let us get to Christmas Eve and not post a picture of Santa.  Now under normal situations I’d look to post a picture with Abi sitting on Santa’s lap or something, but she is far too sharp for that!  She hates Santa.  Don’t get me wrong, she love’s Christmas Day and loves her stocking full of gifts etc., but there is no way you will get her near Santa.

Her argument is (and I have to say this is a pretty good argument), that we spend all year telling her to keep away from strangers.  We tell her she shouldn’t accept gifts from them and definitely shouldn’t let them touch her.  Then, once a year, we take her to some old crusty dude and try to make her sit on his lap, give him a hug and ask for a gift.  If she’s lucky he will give her some candy and promise to break into her house and visit her when she’s asleep in bed at night (when the house is all locked up).  I guess when she puts it like this I wouldn’t go near him too.  So Abi actually crosses the road when we approach “Santa’s Grotto” – even that sounds bad thinking about it!

So I was passing Santa’s “house” (that sounds better) in Redmond and I asked him if I could take his picture.  He of course said yes (reluctantly) and stepped out of his child cuddling booth and posed for a picture.  As you can see here, he is very happy!  I showed Abi and was about to ask if she wanted to meet him but she just said “no way babe” and walked off!

Carter and Master Chief opened a box of Peppermint Bark this afternoon and got a hammer out and started breaking it up!

Tulips – Mount Vernon

23. December 2012 · Comments Off on Tulips – Mount Vernon · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , , ,

Today’s posting is an unusual one for me I guess, as I don’t typically post images that have been so heavily processed.  But I only have a few days to go to the end of the year and I thought why not. (Plus Lisa really liked this image).

This was taken in Mount Vernon at the Tulip festival up in Skagit Valley.  The tulips were really that red and the sky was pretty blue and I was lying on the floor (on a black bin bag) taking shots.  I was getting loads of funny looks from people there but that’s really not that uncommon.

This is going to be a big surprise but I processed this image in Lightroom and Photoshop, I increased the saturation and clarity (that makes the image shaper) and added a dark vignette. The end result looked pretty cool and is my picture for today.  Hope you like it too.

I swear I can’t bring anything nice into the house without these two little dudes getting their hands on it.  Today they “found” some dark chocolate Truffles!

Bridge – Monroe

22. December 2012 · Comments Off on Bridge – Monroe · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , , ,

There’s this road that takes you from Carnation to Monroe that winds you around a very rural area of farms and big fields.  The road actually follows the Snoqualmie river and at some point the Snoqualmie river goes off and is replaced by the Skykomish river (don’t just love the names or our rivers?).  Anyway the Skykomish then takes you all the way to Monroe.

When you approach Monroe you have to go over this large bridge (and across the Skykomish river).  The bridge in itself isn’t that impressive I guess but once you cross it you can turn off the road and go down to the river under the bridge.  This affords you a great picture of the river and bridge above you.

I actually got another image from this location at the beginning of the year.  If you look back to my first week you can see a fisherman in a small boat, that was taken here looking up river, so I guess it’s only fair that I should another shot in my last week from the same location.

I realized today just how many HoHo ornaments we have around the house!  Carter and Master Chief found another one to pose next to for today’s picture.

Japanese Path – Seattle

21. December 2012 · Comments Off on Japanese Path – Seattle · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , , ,

I spent the day out shopping today and have finally got all my prezzies ready for the big day – now I just need to wrap them, but that can wait a day or two.  When I got home I had a terrible headache and didn’t feel like heading out for a picture.  So tonight’s posting is from my backlog.

A month ago I visited the Japanese Gardens in Seattle, I actually went there the last day it was open in the season so it was pretty deserted.  Anyway I took quite a few pictures, most of which I have already posted, but here’s a new one.

I found these stone steps at the end of the path and loved the red maples and fall colors in the trees around the path.  Using a wide angle lens I shot the steps with the surrounding gardens and got a nice image.  I have no idea where these steps go but I think they make a nice image.  Tomorrow I’m off out again, this time with the camera.

Master Chief got hold of some Sleigh Bells tonight and was walking around ringing them – very annoying.  So Carter confiscated them.

Bell Square Mall – Bellevue

20. December 2012 · Comments Off on Bell Square Mall – Bellevue · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , ,

Here we are with 5 days to go to Christmas and tonight I decided to do a nutty thing, I drove to Bellevue after work to do a little Christmas shopping.  I needed to pop into Bell Square Mall to get something for Lisa (can’t say what, as she reads this) and it was totally manic.  The traffic was really bad and parking (as you would imagine) was also terrible, but I got in pretty quickly by taking some back streets.  It was totally chaos in the Mall – far too many people.  I managed to get one thing I wanted but the other was sold out so I’m going out again tomorrow (very sad about that).

It was actually a nice evening tonight, a little cold but we had a clear sky and it was dry, so I thought I should grab a picture for the day.  In Bellevue at 7pm every night they do this sort of street show called “Snow Flake Lane” where all these actors come out in costume – loads of them are dressed as toy drummer soliders – and they dance around and play instruments entertaining the shoppers.  I totally hate this, it’s a complete nightmare and not entertaining at all!  So I needed to grab a picture quickly and get out of Dodge.

There are loads of really pretty street lights around the city center, Bellevue do a good job of adding loads of Holiday lights, but at street level it’s pretty hard to compose an image that really shows the lights at their best.  So I decided to get some height and shoot down.  Tonight’s image captures the traffic and lights in the city.  I love the blue lights all over the buildings and the holiday lights on the street lamps look cool too.  But my favorite part is the blurred motion of the vehicles as they enter the city.

Tonight the guys played hide and seek.  Excellent hiding I thought.

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