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.

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).

(Another) Sunset – Redmond

01. November 2012 · Comments Off on (Another) Sunset – Redmond · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , ,

Now I know what you are thinking, “not another sunset – what’s going on?”  Well, firstly, yes I am shooting a lot of sunsets right now and really there are two very good reasons.

Firstly the day’s are getting shorter and I’ve just taken on a new role at work and the day’s at work are rather long, so it’s either shoot a sunrise at the beginning of the day or a sunset at the end.  Even though I have my camera with me all the time at work I’m just too busy to get it out during the day.

But there’s actually another reason too.  A few weeks I started a Bellevue College Course called “Shoot to Show”.  The purpose of the course is to learn how to put on a gallery show, and hopefully sell some prints.  Part of the course involves us picking a subject and going out and shooting some images.  Then we print and frame the pictures and show for a few days and see what happens.  Anyway, we are well underway in the course and our “theme” is “Beginning and End of Day”.  We are allowed to pretty much interpret this as we like but for me I guess it’s pictures like these sunsets.

So that’s what’s happening, I’m capturing a number of nice sunsets for the course.  Obviously I need to share these with the class, but if you remember the “rules” I came up with at the beginning of the year, I can’t post an image here if it’s been seen by anyone else.  So before I can show the class my work I have to post the image.  The result is you get to see a lot of sunsets.  Hope you don’t mind.

I guess I should tell you about this image.  Well summer is definitely over!  We have a lot of rain and some interesting clouds.  This may not be very nice for warm evening walks, but it sure makes nice pictures.  I was driving home and saw this sky near my home.  So (well you know now how this works) I pulled over and took the shot.  This one is definitely all about sky.  I exposed for the sky too hence the grass at the bottom of the screen is quite dark.  I did try to raise the exposure of this a little but both Lisa and I preferred it a little darker – as it focuses the eyes above.

This evening Master Chief had a terrible accident!  He fell in a cup of tea.  I found Carter trying to pull him out, at least I think that’s what he was trying to do!

Farm – Redmond

31. October 2012 · Comments Off on Farm – Redmond · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: ,

Sometimes you just see something that makes you think – that’s really beautiful!  Doesn’t happen very often, at least not to me, but then we live such busy lives, beauty might just pass us by!  Well tonight’s image was something that just caught my eye and made me stop.

I was driving from Fall City on the 202 Redmond road which basically just takes you past farms and marsh land, really not much to see.  Anyway I turn a corner and this farm is all I can see!  I’m not sure what it was that I liked, looking at the image now I love the sky and the different colors of the trees, that are almost layered.  Then there’s the farm houses and barn at the bottom with the grass in front.

Doesn’t really matter what it was, but I was compelled to pull over and grab some pictures.  Now I am lucky enough to have some pretty long lenes so I pulled over by the side of the road and got out the 300mm zoom.  It was actually getting dark – I know it doesn’t look like it but it was, so I put the camera on a tripod and got the shot.

There was one road that went from the main 202 Redmond road down to the farm and I was kind of waiting for someone to come out of the farm and drive up the road to ask me what I was doing.  I would guess I looked a little suspicious.  Anyway I got a couple of pictures and drove the rest of the way home.

This to me is one of those relaxing images, it’s kind of peaceful and maybe that’s why I like it.

Quite a successful candy haul tonight – so much that the guys created a candy hottub – how cool is that?

Pumpkin Carving – Home

28. October 2012 · Comments Off on Pumpkin Carving – Home · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: ,

Now I know I usually post landscapes but tonight I thought I’d do something different.  Abi and Valerie got the huge pumpkin in the kitchen tonight and decided to start carving.  Now Lisa has this book of carving stencils that you pin to the pumpkin and draw around.  Then you get out these funky little knives or mini saws and start to carve around the lines you drew.

All pretty simple really.  But of course Abi and Valerie never do anything simple, oh no.  They start by designing their own stencil.  Two eyes, one that looks like a big A (for Abi) and one that looks like a big V (for Valerie), some scary eyebrows and a fanged mouth.  Then they took turns curving out parts of the pumpkin.

All the time they’re joking and laughing and mucking about.  They were both so funny, I had to capture a picture.

Of course the moment they finished they ran off.  There was pumpkin guts everywhere it was a total mess.  So I cleaned everything up and took some pictures with “the guys”.

I should state that the original point of this site was to capture really nice image every day and post it to the site.  Now you might not think this is a really nice image, and question whether family pictures should be included too.

But I love this image, the girls look great and to me this fits all the requirements.

Now Abi and Valerie would like to take the praise for the pumpkin carving but of course we all know Carter and Master Chief really did it.

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