Jaguar XK150 Roadster – Redmond

18. May 2012 · Comments Off on Jaguar XK150 Roadster – Redmond · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: ,

I’ve mentioned before that I prefer older refurbished cars to new fast ones – clearly this is because I’m getting older and going super fast doesn’t excite me anymore (thank goodness).  If I was being honest I don’t think super performance cars have ever been my thing, I’m too much of a poser I guess.

I have also stated I love some of the old American classics from the 50’s, with their huge bodies and massive fins they are just so unaerodynamic and far away from today’s designs I think they look amazing.  Plus coming from the UK I only ever saw those old cars on TV so I guess there’s something attractive about that.

But my favorite car from last week’s car meet was interestingly an English model.  The Jaguar XK150 Roadster.  This car was just, well, beautiful.  I could have looked at this all day and did for a good 40 minutes.  For me it kind of merged the style of the old big cars of the 50’s and 60’s with the sweeping aerodynamic lines of a modern model today.  Plus I actually remember seeing car’s like this in the UK when I was very young and fell for them then.  This model was the predecessor to the E-type Jaguar, a model that received huge critical acclaim in it’s day but one I never really liked.

I talked for a bit with the guy who owned this and he told me he brought the car back in 1997 and finished the refurbishment in 2003.  He also admitted that he paid others to do all the work and he has always been too scared to work out how much he’s spent.  Clearly it was a lot.  Anyway, hope you like the picture, trust me when I say it doesn’t do the car justice.

Looking around my office the Halo dudes found some Insights Lego blocks and started to play.

Starbuck’s Mugs – Seattle

17. May 2012 · Comments Off on Starbuck’s Mugs – Seattle · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: ,

It’s kind of funny that when I started this picture a day thing at the beginning of the year, I didn’t have any pictures to post, I had to photograph something each day to get a picture up.  That first week was really hard.  Over time I found that I could go out for the day (on a Saturday or Sunday) and take lots of shots, then I’d post one and have some back ups.  Now I have LOADS of pictures to choose from.  I still go out at the weekend, but the pressure is definitely off.

So it’s quite odd that I’m sitting here tonight and I can’t decide what to post.  I have all these pictures and I can’t pick one.  One of the problems is that when I take and save the pictures, I like them.  But after a few weeks I look at the pictures and think, “it’s just OK” and one of the things I didn’t want to do was post “just OK” images.  As a result I spend a lot of time asking Lisa and the kids for their opinion.

Anyway, I was looking though my collection and came across this picture of mugs from Starbucks in Seattle.  When I took this, I walked in the shop and took a couple of pictures and saw these mugs on the shelf.  I kind of like to do these depth of field images where the front and back is slightly out of focus and the middle is in focus and I thought the mugs might look cool.

Another reason I’m posting this image tonight is in homage to Lisa.  She is currently off dairy and for a person who LOVES her coffee (like 2 or 3 latte’s a day), she is suffering.  So Lisa, this ones for you.  You’ll get your coffee back soon.

Today Carter and Master Chief decided to enjoy a little robot torture.

Houseboats – Lake Union

16. May 2012 · Comments Off on Houseboats – Lake Union · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , ,

I’ve posted on the blog about Lake Union before and talked about the Houseboats on the lake, but I haven’t uploaded any pictures of them.  Until now.  I was in Gasworks Park taking some pictures of downtown Seattle when I saw these homes moored on the water front.  (I hope the owners don’t mind I took these).  Anyway I thought I’d take some pictures.

The water was quite rough so they were moving all over the place and there was great cloud cover in the sky (that I think added to the picture).  As you can see some of the homes are painted bright colors and some are definitely bigger than others – remember, you don’t pay house tax if you’re on the lake so these homes are highly desirable as they’re close to the city and low cost to own – although you can pay a lot of money to buy one.

The Bridge you can see behind the houseboats and below the clouds is the George Washington Memorial Bridge (or more commonly called the Aurora Bridge).  This is a huge cantilever bridge that links the Queen Anne and Fremont districts of Seattle together.  It’s actually a very cool bridge in it’s own right so well worth another visit for a future picture of the day.

The guys decided today to carry out some stealth training.  Some Canadian Geese landed outside my office and Halo and Master Chief decided to creep up on them.

Red Room – Seattle Public Library

15. May 2012 · Comments Off on Red Room – Seattle Public Library · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: ,

Seattle considers itself a bit of a “hip” arty city and you can see evidence of this everywhere you go.  Along the waterfront there are a number of sculptures in our “sculpture park”, we have a large amount of urban art like the troll under the bridge eating a VW Beetle – I’ll photograph that one one day.  We have weird paintings and murals around the city – we even have a gum wall (that’s a wall covered in chewing gum) and of course the “Hammering Man”, a 60 foot animated sculpture outside the Art Museum that is literally a metal dude with a hammer! (No I don’t get that one either).

So we are progressive, and cool and very arty, as you would expect from the city that gave us Jimmy Hendrix and Grunge music.

What’s unusual is that you tend to encounter the “art” in the most surprising places.  For example, the Seattle Public Library.  This is an amazing building that actually justifies a photograph in itself (an idea for another day).  The building is predominantly glass and is bigger at the top that it is at the bottom – really cool.

Inside the Library they have brightly colored escalators (check out my posting on January 28th) and then they have the “Red Room”.  This room is the subject of today’s posting and it’s quite appropriately named.  Basically the Red Room is a room that is completely red! (Told you it had the right name).  The floor, walls and ceiling are all red.  Why is that, you may ask.  What purpose does it serve?

Well, I have no bloody idea!  I even asked at the Library and they just said “because” and then nodded at me in a knowing way.  So they don’t know either.  The bottom line is Seattle is cool and arty, the Public Library is cool and arty, and the Red Room is cool and “RED”.

Does make an interesting picture though…

Carter and Master Chief had a tough day at work today and needed some love – a bit of a cuddle in fact.

62 Corvette – Redmond

14. May 2012 · Comments Off on 62 Corvette – Redmond · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: ,

Now I don’t know much about cars, but I know what I like.  Obviously coming from the UK I’m much more familiar with European cars as there really isn’t a market for US models as they are usually very big and drink a load of gas.  And petrol (that’s what they call gas over there) is around $10 a gallon.  So it’s very rare to come across a V8 – they’re far too expensive.  Also a majority of US roads are pretty straight and the suspensions are set up for going in a straight line at speed and then slowing to turn.  In Europe (and England especially) the roads are really windy (technical term), and well people drive a little faster there so the car suspension is much firmer and feels very different.

So why am I telling you all this?  Actually I’m not sure I wandered off a bit there but I did find something out over the weekend, apparently I really like old Corvette’s – who knew!  Now I’m definitely no Corvette expert but I’m gonna guess that this one was made in 1962.

There were all these cars in the town center and people were all excited over the Lamborghinis and Ferraris, and this Corvette was sitting in the corner all on it’s own.  Nobody was checking out the car.  At first I just went over to take a picture without loads of people in the way but it was beautiful.

Now I don’t normally do this but I took a couple of shots of this car and couldn’t decide which one to post, so in the end I thought I’d post them both.  Check it out, what a really beautiful machine.

Master Chief needed his hair brushed but wouldn’t sit still, so Carter came up with a clever way of holding him down.

« Older articles
Newer articles »