Seattle Boat Club – Seattle

28. August 2012 · Comments Off on Seattle Boat Club – Seattle · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , , , ,

I got in from work tonight, had some dinner and hit the road with the camera.  I wanted something new to post and thought a nice sunsety picture would look good.  A place I’ve been meaning to go now for a while is Seattle’s Boat Club.  As you drive over the 520 bridge into Seattle you cross Lake Washington, and the a smaller lake called Portage Bay before you get to Lake Union and Seattle.  Located in Portage Bay is Seattle Boat Club.

It looks pretty cool as you drive past on the free way, so tonight I thought I’d try and grab a picture there.  I found the boat club pretty quickly off Lake Washington Boulevard and found somewhere to park up.  The houses around this bay are really impressive, they overlook the water and are huge (we are talking multi-millions I would think).

Anyway I parked up, grabbed the tripod and camera and went for a walk.  There were 4 pier’s surrounded by boats and some of the boats were massive.  In the end I set up the camera between piers 2 and 3 and captured today’s picture.  The sun had just set over Seattle and the sky looked really cool.

The water reflected the sky and clouds and made I think a really nice picture.  I’d quite like to go back there when it get’s dark as the whole place is lit up and I’m sure will look amazing.  But that’s a shot for another day.

Tonight the guys decided to have some muffin.  Chocolate banana, yummy.

Lock Railway Bridge – Ballard

27. August 2012 · Comments Off on Lock Railway Bridge – Ballard · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , , , ,

In yesterday’s posting I told you about visiting Ballard Locks in Seattle – I was lucky enough to get a few good shots and today’s posting is another one from the visit.   Yesterday’s tug boat entered the lock from Lake Union and to get out of the Lake and into the lock it had to get past the Ballard railway bridge.  I was there at exactly the right time to shoot the boat as the bridge raised and the tug boat sailed underneath.

The boat was moving pretty fast so I couldn’t HDR the image, I had to shoot just one shot and process that when I got home.  We had quite a bit of cloud cover (it rained a little on the way home) but it came out as very grey in the finished picture.  So I single file tone mapped the image to bring a bit of texture and color back.

The end result looked pretty good, with the yellow tug boat under a blue grey sky.

Ten minutes before I took this shot a train went across the bridge, it actually wasn’t that impressive so I didn’t take a picture, but it did show that the bridge was still fully functional.  I actually liked this image best but I let Lisa pick the image for yesterday’s posting.  This really was one of those moments when you knew you had a great shot the moment the shutter closed.

Carter wanted to play basketball this evening but the ball was flat, so he helped pump it up.

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.

Marina – Carillon Point

15. August 2012 · Comments Off on Marina – Carillon Point · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , , ,

I would bet I could post a year’s worth of picture a day with just “night shots”.   They are starting to be my favorite images, because they are super easy to do (you just set up a tripod and shoot), and the results are always good.

They do say that the perfect time to shoot landscapes is the magic or “Golden” hour that is an hour around sunrise and sunset.  It’s true that you get great pictures at this time but in summer it requires you being up and about at 5:30 in the morning or out waiting for the sun to go down at 9pm!  And when you work for a living that quite frankly is a pain.

That said when the daylight saving goes and we get darker nights I will probably go back to nice sunsets, but I’m digging night shots in the interim.

Today’s image was taken at the Marina in Carillon Point in Kirkland.  This part of Washington is pretty affluent and there are a lot of boats.  So to cater for the demand we have a lot of nice marina’s and this is one of them.

I do think it’s funny though that they put a lock on the gate on the pier, but I guess some of the boats are pretty expensive so it’s a deterrent against board kids, vandals and wan-a-be photographers looking for the perfect picture.

I liked this image when I got home immediately.  The green lilies on the water, the red light in the entrance and the blue sky make a great picture (I think).  Add to that the fact that any lights at night look cool and you get something interesting to look at.

If I’d had a flashlight with me I would have light painted the Marina sign so that stood out more, but such is life I guess.

Today Master Chief and Carter decided to enjoy a game of Jacks!

Watershed – Redmond

04. August 2012 · Comments Off on Watershed – Redmond · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , , ,

Today was probably the hottest day of the year.  We hit 91 degrees in our garden and it was so hot that Lisa couldn’t sit outside and sunbathe.   The skies were a beautiful blue color and I wanted to capture a picture that showed you all what a lovely day it was in Redmond.  I can honestly say, that when the weather is nice the Pacific North West is one of the most beautiful places on earth.

So I grabbed my camera and tripod and jumped into the car and headed off to find some inspiration.  As it was really, really hot, I didn’t want to do any hiking, I needed to find somewhere I could park the car, leave the safety of the air conditioning and run (or walk briskly) to a photography viewpoint, take a picture and get back in the cool car quickly.  At least that was my plan.

On the way out of Redmond Ridge where I live I stopped by the side of the road to shoot some berries against a blue sky, they came out well but didn’t convey the magnificence of the day.  So on I went.  Eventually I found myself in the Redmond Watershed which covers acres of land that’s preserved for wildlife.  I parked up and got my gear and started to walk.

After 5 minutes (which incidentally was far to long as I was starting to sweat), I found this small lake.  The trees on the other side of the lake were really grand and topped by the blue sky and there was this great reflection in the lake.  The lake itself was a bit messy with logs and “stuff” floating on the surface, but there was nothing I could do about that so I set up the tripod and took some pictures.

I think the image came out really well and Abi sat with me this evening while I processed the image and posted it to the site.  She also contributed to this posting making suggestions on what I should write (she wanted to say I was sweating like a pig but she wasn’t there so how would she know?)

Today we had a barbeque and Lisa made some corn.  Carter and Master Chief wanted some too and pinched it when we weren’t looking.

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