Paint – Home

19. November 2012 · Comments Off on Paint – Home · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , ,

So the goal today was to go out and get some really nice pictures, but there was a kink in the day’s plans.  The weather was terrible, I mean really awful.  We had a major storm overhead and the rain was coming down unbelievably hard.  Now I don’t mind getting wet, but I can’t take the camera gear out in those conditions.  So I needed another plan.

Instead I thought I’d do something “arty”.  So while Lisa and I were out I popped into Home Depot and brought a couple of white tiles.  Then this evening I laid one of the tiles flat and placed the other behind it standing up.  I suspended one speed light over head and also suspended a pipette above (both on light stands).  Then the camera went on a tripod and I got out the cable release out.  I got some red paint out and watered it down and loaded up the pipette – you still with me?

Then the fun started, if you can call it fun.  I squeezed the pipette and took a picture, trying to time the picture for when the paint drop hit the tile.  This is the first shot I got. No it wasn’t, I just lied.  This was maybe the 50th picture actually.  But once I got the timing right I got loads of these.

Once I got all the pictures in to the computer we started a family “discussion” ove which picture or drop crown, looked best.  We all (Lisa, James, Abi and myself) had our favorites but we operated a very democratic mechanism to pick the best.  Yes, we chose Lisa’s.

Anyway the end result came out really well.  Paint crown looked amazing and the I got the shot I was looking for.   Hope the rain stops for tomorrow.

After doing something “arty” Carter and Master Chief offered to clean up – which was nice of them.

More Gardens – Seattle

18. November 2012 · Comments Off on More Gardens – Seattle · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , , , ,

Tonight’s picture is another one from the Japanese Gardens in Seattle.  I caught the lake and the surrounding trees in this one and as this was taken just before all the leaves fell, there’s still some color in the image.

There were quite a few people on the other side of the lake and I had to take them all out in Photoshop.  But I liked the little bridge crossing the lake at the end of the picture.  If it looks like I’m standing in the middle of the water it’s because I kind of am.  At this end of the lake there were these huge stones in the water (and I mean huge), so I just walked out into the lake and took the picture.

For those of you who don’t live in the Pacific North West, you won’t know that it’s pretty green here all year round.  We are called the “Evergreen” state after all.  We have a load of evergreens here so it’s never really that brown, but the oranges and yellows definitely leave us.  We do suffer from pretty grey skies though.  In fact it’s raining outside now as I type this.

I’m actually off work all this week so I’m planning on going out each day to shoot some cool pictures.  I only have 40 odd days to go on this resolution and I’m going to see if I can get a large number of pictures to post while I’m off work (I do have around 150 pictures in my backlog but I don’t like those ones anymore).  So look for something new and different tomorrow night.

Tonight Carter and Master Chief sampled some nice Minty Balls, apparently they were very nice.

Town Center Tree – Redmond

17. November 2012 · Comments Off on Town Center Tree – Redmond · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , ,

I went into Redmond today to buy a new Windows Phone.  I was having difficulty deciding whether I should get the Nokia 920 or the HTC 8X.  Ironically I didn’t have to make the final decision as there was a line of people out side the shop and down the road.  They told me it would take around 2 hours to get to the front of the line so I decided not to wait.

Anyway, I had my camera with my and even though it was raining I thought I’d see if I could get a picture for tonight.  So I went for a walk around the town center.  Now from past experience I’ve learnt that you need to be a little careful in the town center when you have a camera, the security people there don’t like it.  So I had the camera in a bag and pulled it out every time I saw something to shoot. (Sneaky eh?)

I walked over to Starbucks to get a coffee and there was a huge line in there too, so no coffee for me.  But when I walked outside I saw the huge Christmas tree and “Santa’s Grotto” across the road.  Now in our house we don’t start to celebrate Christmas until December 1st because Lisa’s birthday is November 28th and we like to enjoy that first.  But people seem to be celebrating Christmas here earlier and earlier these days.  All the decorations are in the shops, some people have their house’s all lit up and Redmond town center has clearly decided it is the time to be merry.

So I thought I’d shoot the tree and see if I could get a nice image.  Luckily there weren’t many people walking around (there were all in the AT&T store and Starbucks) so the sidewalks were pretty empty.  Also not many cars drove past so I had lots of chances to get a shot.  So I grabbed a few pictures and the one below was my favorite.

I liked the clouds in this picture and reflection on the wet road.  The colors came out really well in this picture too and you can just make out Santa standing in his house.  All in all I’m happy with this one.

The guys fancied some fruit tonight so they got a couple of satsuma’s and dived in (Master Chief did any way).

Wooden Boats – Seattle

16. November 2012 · Comments Off on Wooden Boats – Seattle · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , , , ,

If you get the chance to visit the Pacifici Northwest you will find in the Seattle area a few large lakes.   Lake Washington is obvioulsy the one most people know about and for good reason.  Lake Washington is 22 miles long (at it’s extreme’s) it has a very large island in it’s middle (Mercer Island) and loads of people live on that, there are also a couple of major floating bridges that cross it, so it does tend to get all the attention.

While Lake Washington is big, there’s another lake between Lake Washington and Elliott Bay, Lake Union.  This lake is much smaller and is probably best know for it’s floating house boats, the subject of which appeared of course in Tom Hanks’ film “Sleepless in Seattle”.  Lake Union also has an official airport for sea planes, and if you go to it’s southern tip you can spend a lot of time watching planes take off and land – trust me it’s pretty cool.

If you do visit the southern point of Lake Union you will find South Lake Union Park (not very imaginatively named) and there you will find the Center for Wooden Boats. This is a small maritime museum that’s dedicated to the preservation and display of (wait for it) wooden boats.  This is actually a really cool place to visit, they have some great exhibits and loads of history and information about the boats on display.  You can also take a free public ride on a boat, learn to sail, rent a classic boat or take a boat building workshop!

While visiting myself I took loads of pictures, one of my favorites being this boat below.   Some of the boats there are in a poor state of repair but this one had been either really looked after or totally refurbished.  Now I’m no sailor but if I was I think I’d like a nice wooden sail boat with all the dark wood on the deck.  They look fantastic.

Carter had something in his teeth and Master Chief very kindly agreed to help him out.

Reflections – Bellevue

15. November 2012 · Comments Off on Reflections – Bellevue · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , , ,

Here’s another shot from the park, this time (again) from before the sun went down.  I’ve already posted one picture that showed the large expanse of water above the waterfall, but I also shot this other shot taken from a different position.

Off to the side of the park is this tall apartment building and it was casting this great reflection in the water.  I just had to shoot this one!  Also behind the building the sun was casting this nice red sky.

As it was early there were still quite a few people walking around so this picture took some time and patience.  Having said that I never would have got a shot with nobody in it (there were too many people) so I had to take a few folks out with Photoshop.  There are a few things in this picture that I’m not that happy with (trash cans, park signs and even ghosts of people moving) and in truth if I spent a lot of time, I might be about to remove them.  But the issues are so small you probably wouldn’t even notice them if I didn’t call them out.

Other than the people in Photoshop I didn’t do too much processing on the final image.  A little sharpening and then a slight blur to provide a nice soft focus.

The boys had a great night playing Bingo.  After several hours they succeeded in winning nothing.

« Older articles
Newer articles »