Japanese Garden – Seattle

04. November 2012 · Comments Off on Japanese Garden – Seattle · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , , ,

I thought I’d post another shot from yesterday’s trip to the Seattle Japanese Gardens.  I have to say I’m actually pretty angry with myself as I’ve been doing this “picture a day” thing now for nearly a year and I’ve only just visited the place.  As you can see from the image below, it’s really pretty there, they have a small lake (it’s too big to call it a pond) with little streams or brooks flowing into it from the surrounding hills.

There are large rocks inside all the streams so you can jump from stone to stone to cross, this is if you can’t be bothered to walk to the nearest bridge.  Talking of bridges, there are loads of them and they are all also very cute.  You can imagine what they look like, small wooden curved bridges with handrails on each side.  The gardens are really well manicured and there are bushes and trees surrounding lake.  Some of the bushes are pruned like little banzai trees and look fantastic.

Also interspersed around the gardens are these Japanese stone lanterns – at least that’s what I think they are.  They too are really nice and add to the Japanese feel of the gardens.

At this time of year there are a load of fall colors.  Lots of reds and yellows and really deep greens.  While it wasn’t raining when I was there it was still pretty wet and that kind of made the grass and leaves look quite lush.

So, about the shot.  While I’ve been taking a lot of wide angle landscape pictures lately I’m still learning how to compose good images using ulta wide lenses (it’s not as easy as you’d think).  The most important thing to do (I think) is to get some good foreground interest in the image.  With the wide lenses you have to get very close to something so it takes a prominent position in the picture.  When I say close I mean with-in a foot.  This is what I tried to do in the image below.  The stone lantern looked really nice and I thought it would give the viewer something to start on before they view the rest of the garden.

While part of the lake is in this image it’s not really that important.  This one is really all about the stone lantern and the bushes and trees.  You can see that the sky was a little gray, but this did provide a nice soft light for pictures, it’s just a pity is wasn’t a little brighter.

This isn’t the last image I’ll post from here, and I’ll definitely be going back.  If you get the chance I really recommend checking it out.

The guys decided to make something tonight, so they got out the Lego. They made a nice little car, love the color!

Japanese Maple Leaf – Redmond

15. October 2012 · Comments Off on Japanese Maple Leaf – Redmond · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , , ,

I was walking through my office building at Microsoft today when I passed the reception and main entrance.  This guy came in (a developer I think) carrying a single red leaf that he’d picked up off the floor outside.  Anyway he looked at me a little embarrassed and said “perfect leaf – shows that summer is definitely over”.  Both he and I got into an elevator and went up to the third floor.  All the time he’s looking at the leaf, clearly fascinated by the color.

Now 18 year old Tony would have been laughing his head off, I can hear my younger self now in my head, I was so embarrassing.  I probably would have made some derogatory comment to the guy about how stupid he was or something.  But these day’s being much older (50 next year), I can appreciate the beauty in a simple leaf and I started thinking.  At home we have the very cute little Japanese Maple tree (Lisa loves this tree) and this week the leaves have turned from their normal deep purple to this amazing red color (clearly they are soon going to fall).  And all of a sudden all I can think of is how much I want to shoot a single leaf when I get home.

At 6pm I walked in the door and after a quick “Hello everyone” ran into the back yard to find that “perfect” leaf.  I’m not sure if the one I selected was perfect but it looked great and I picked it off the tree.  It was raining outside so it was pretty wet and covered in water droplets and that looked great too.

Anyway I brought the leaf in and set up a little set to shoot it.  I had a light stand supporting a 40″ reflector with a black cover – that was going to be my backdrop.  I got another stand to support the leaf, and placed the macro lens on the camera and got out the tripod.

I used a single speed light to light the leaf and took a number of pictures.  Now they all looked nice but they were missing something.  Then I realized what it was, the leaf was now dry.  So I grabbed a spray water bottle an started to cover the leaf with water until a number of drops moved together and started to drip from the leaf.  Then I got the shot below.

I did very little to this picture, maybe increased the contrast a little but that was it.  I think I ended up with a keeper!  I love the red color on black, and the water drop about to come off the bottom leaf just draws my eye.  Hope you like this one too.

Sometimes I have no idea what these guys are doing, tonight it appears that Master Chief was trying to hatch a chicken egg by sitting on it in a birds nest he found!  Carter was shocked by this too!

Pumpkin Shopping – Redmond

13. October 2012 · Comments Off on Pumpkin Shopping – Redmond · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , , ,

Come on, you had to be expecting some pumpkin pictures, I mean it’s the middle of October!  Well not wishing to disappoint tonight I thought we’d start with some halloween themed pictures.

This morning I lead the photowalk in Redmond and despite early morning rain, some people still showed up.  It only rained lightly for 5 minutes at the beginning of the walk, after that it was lovely.  We didn’t have a full turn out though, as 29 said they would come and only 13 turned up, so I guess the threat of rain scared people off.  But that aside we did the walk, everyone got some great pictures and we ended up at the restaurant as planned.  The rain was coming down so hard at 6am, we were really lucky – truth is I nearly postponed the walk too – but I’m pleased we went ahead.

Anyway, on the way home, I passed this local farm that was selling pumpkins.  Now I wouldn’t have normally pulled over but the rows of pumpkins with the trees behind with yellow leaves looked great.  It was pretty overcast by 2pm and the farm had already turned on some overhead lights and I think they added to the image.

When I pulled up at the farm I immediate went to the sales office and asked if I could take some pictures, I also promised to buy a big pumpkin after.  They said no problem and off I went.  I got loads of shots, even lied down on the wet muddy floor to get one picture, and as a result had a few to different images to pick from tonight.  There were three Lisa and Abi really liked but we thought we’d start with this one.  (Others to follow in the week).

And wait till you see the size of the pumpkin I brought – it’s massive!  I can feel some carving coming on…

The boys were feeling creative tonight so they made a pumpkin with melty beads.

Microsoft in Fall – Redmond

12. October 2012 · Comments Off on Microsoft in Fall – Redmond · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , ,

I was at work today trying to decide what to post.  As usual I have hundreds of “backup pictures” and don’t really like any of them anymore.  Anyway I work in one building on the Microsoft Campus and had a meeting in another across the road.  As I crossed the road I noted all the leaves on the path and the beautiful colors in the trees.  So after my meeting I went back to my office and grabbed my camera.

Now a year ago I would have taken a picture at head height and the image would have been “very nice”.  But these days I’m always looking for a different perspective and I loved those leaves on the floor.  So I got done and lied on the ground.  I got this picture and immediately loved the image.  As I’m lying there of course some senior leaders walk out of the building and give me “that” look.  You know the one, the one that says, “You’re an idiot”.  But at the end of the day I love the picture so I don’t care.

The sky looked pretty white while I was outside but when I got home I managed to bring a little texture back into it which really helped the image.  The bright yellows and reds of the leaves in the trees look great, and I really love those fallen leaves too.

So I’m very happy with the end result.

Master Chief was all excited about the new iPhone 5 until Carter showed him his Windows Phone.

Water Catchment – Redmond Ridge

24. August 2012 · Comments Off on Water Catchment – Redmond Ridge · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , , , ,

I got home from work tonight and the sun was starting to go down so I thought I’d walk to the end of the road and see if I could get a picture of the water catchment area in our neighborhood.  I don’t go there very often (I should really as Roxie our dog loves running around the trails by the water) but I thought the low sun might make a nice image.

So I grabbed the camera (and Roxie) and Abi and I set off to see what we could shoot.  I should point out here that the other reason we don’t go there is because Lisa doesn’t like frogs.  Those of you who know here know that she can’t even say the word, she call’s them Ya-ya’s.  So we never visit the trails and water.  But as Lisa wasn’t coming with us off we went.

We actually picked a good time to go as the sun was shining on the trees and shrubs and it was really pretty.  The water reflected the tree line and the moon was even out behind one of the trees at the top.  I grabbed a couple of shots and we walked around the pond.  It’s a good job Lisa wasn’t there as there were Ya-ya’s everywhere.

The image I would have liked to capture really needed a wider angle lens, but mine’s in the shop so until that comes back I had to stand back a bit further to get a shot I liked.  The reflection of the trees in the water made this picture and the greens and yellows looked great.

For some reason tonight the guys decided to cook come spaghetti, getting it out of the pot though was a bit of a challenge.

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