Wall – Redmond

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

Tonights image is a little different.  Last week I lead a photowalk around Redmond town center and I found this painting on a building wall just off the high street.  Now I would guess that this graffiti was made with a stencil but I thought it looked really cool.  There were some cars parked right in front of the wall so I had to get pretty close to get a clean picture.

I thought the bricks looked great too and love the lines disappearing out of focus into the distance.  Ideally I would have got the shot from the other direction so the lines led you to the image, but there was a huge truck in the way and right behind me was a great big bush and it didn’t look as good in the image.  While the image appears black and white, it’s actually color, that’s just the color of the bricks and the paint.

I think the thing I learnt from the walk was that you really can find great things to photograph by just walking around and looking.  Going to Maui is nice for a beautiful sunset or landscape, but you really can get compelling images anywhere.

Tonight the guys wanted some chicken so they decided to carve one up themselves.

Chevrolet Truck – Redmond

18. October 2012 · Comments Off on Chevrolet Truck – Redmond · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , ,

I went to the movies tonight after work (went to see Argo, it was really good I can definitely recommend it) and got home pretty late.  So I had to hit my backlog store for an image for the day.  (I still found time to shoot my Halo dudes but the serious picture is from earlier this year.)

I actually have a pretty large collection of backlog images and ended up selecting this view of a yellow Chevy Truck that I shot on August 12th.  This was shot at one of the Redmond Exotics car shows which don’t usually have trucks so it was a bit of a novelty.  The owner had opened up the truck hood and it looked all clean and shiny inside (nothing like my car) and there was so much chrome on the front it was well worth shooting from this perspective.

I find the best pictures for vehicles are taken low down on the ground.  It gives you a different perspective of the car or truck and usually looks cool.  This picture was no exception and think it came out well.

Carter found Lisa’s stash of English candy today and we caught him eating a “Pear Drop”.

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!

Pumpkins – Redmond

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

Tonight’s picture was taken at the same location as yesterday’s image, the Pumpkin farm on Avondale in Redmond.  This is a pretty small place that seems to have a few fields by the side of the road.  They tend to sell their own produce although I suspect the bring the pumpkins in (but I could be wrong).  They also do a roaring trade in Christmas Trees in December and I know they don’t grow those.

Anyway the sales store is right by the side of the road on the way home and you can see all the pumpkins lined up on tables.  As I said yesterday I couldn’t resist stopping and asking to shoot some images.  This one (tonights) is my favorite, I love these food type shots where you focus on the front item and everything behind falls out of focus.  As you can see from my Halo picture tonight I brought a massive pumplin to bring home and will carve is later in the week.

All the pumpkins in the farm were really large, most had their storks and there weren’t too many miss-shaped ones (those are the ones Lisa usually buys and they are a total pain to carve).  Anyway I loved this idea of this shot, this is what I actually stopped for, hence it’s my favorite.

Carter got himself a little pumpkin and was really pleased, that is until he saw Master Chief’s pumpkin!

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.

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