Snoqualmie River – Fall City

05. November 2012 · Comments Off on Snoqualmie River – Fall City · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , ,

Today’s image was taken the other day on the way home from work.  I say the way home, I did go on a little detour (about 10 miles) to Fall City.  I say City, but it’s pretty small (I don’t think it’s really a city but that’s it’s name).  In the UK we have little villages, bigger towns, and then there are massive cities.  I think to be a city in the UK you are suposed to have a cathedral.  Fall City has a mexican restaurant and a bar – but no cathedral.

Anyway I was driving over a bridge at the end of the high street and I saw the sky above river.  It looked really good.  The river was running pretty fast the water was framed by fall colors.  So I turned around and parked up.  Grabbed the camera and waled into the center of the bridge and started taking pictures.  Traffic was going past pretty fast and I think I was annoying the drivers, but you gotta do what’s necessary sometimes to take a nice pic.

Totally unrelated to today’s picture, today is November 5th, which in the UK is Bonfire Night or Guy Fawkes night.  For my American friends, this is the annual celebration when children create a full sized effigy of a man called Guy Fawkes who lived in the early 1600’s and tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament.  They then walk around their town and ask complete strangers for money saying “penny for the guy” and then spend the money of fireworks and burn the effigy on a large bonfire.  How cute is that?  This is my favorite stupid annual event.  I really miss November 5th int he UK.

Master Chief made some new friends today.  He was sitting at home waiting for Halo 4 to arrive.

Snoqualmie River – Fall City

20. April 2012 · Comments Off on Snoqualmie River – Fall City · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , , ,

Tonight I thought I’d post this image of the Snoqualmie River in Fall City.  I was there as the sun was starting to go down and was fortunate to pick up some red sky.  While the river was high, it wasn’t that high which is surprising when you consider the rain we’ve had.  But then at this time of year rain’s to be expected.

This shot was taken early evening and there were loads of cars on the road to my left.  I’ve become completely immune to the stares I get when I get the camera out, but I still find it funny that people get so interested in someone with a camera.  I think passersby are terrified they’re missing something, hence the usual “what are you doing?” question.

It you look at the river bank you can see some tulips and daffodils.  I tried to photograph them too but almost slid down the bank into the river.  I take a ground mat with me in the car these days so I can lie on the floor and not get too dirty.  I placed it on the bank the got on the mat and started to slide!  Not a great idea.

I think the image came out really well, it’s a pretty city and the river bank park is very quaint.

Carter and Master Chief went exploring at work and found the Stationary Room.  Apparently when you’re very small bulldog clips and elastic bands can give you hours of fun!

High Street Fall City – Fall City

05. April 2012 · Comments Off on High Street Fall City – Fall City · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , ,

A couple of days ago I found myself in Fall City taking some shots of the high street and river.  The main street is really pretty with blossom trees along the river bank and in the distance you can see the Cascade Mountain Range.  Of course having blue sky really helps make the picture but it wasn’t always like that.  When I arrived it was raining, then the sky cleared so I got this shot.  I literally walked over the road to capture a shot of a totem pole and the skies opened up again!

I guess that’s what happens when you live in the Pacific North West in April.  Today I left work and it was beautiful outside with blue skies and sun.  When i got home (8 miles away) it was hailing really heavily – it’s nuts!

Tomorrow I’m off work and going out with the family to the Seattle Aquarium so I should get some nice shots there and Saturday I’m off to Skagit County for the Tulip festival.  Of course I found out today that they haven’t bloomed yet so expect some fantastic shots of green stalks on Saturday night.

In preparation for the Olympics Carter decided to practice his pole vaulting, unfortunately it didn’t go too well.

Snoqualmie River – Fall City

03. April 2012 · Comments Off on Snoqualmie River – Fall City · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , ,

Tonight on the way home I decided to check out Fall City on the Snoqualmie River.  Now, I come from the UK and there to be called a city you must have a cathedral.  So cities in England are big (and I mean really big).  The next size down from a city is a town and smaller still is a village.  Here in the US everything is a city so when you visit somewhere like Fall City for me (or any other Brit) is seems so small. (We would call this a village).

That said Fall City is very quaint.  You drive into the city and pass the library and a huge totem pole (yes a totem pole), then there is a line of shops and a bar, finally (after around 300 yards) you reach a bridge and your on your way out!  However, the road by the shops is right next to the Snoqualmie River and all along the river bank are blossom trees.  It’s all very pretty.

The grass by the river is called the River Side Park and in the park they have some stone sculptures that I captured in this photograph.  The Snoqualmie River is rich with salmon which is actually a pain!  Why is it a pain?  Well when we get snow we aren’t allowed to put any salt on the roads as it will kill the fish.  So to celebrate the salmon the sculpture is covered with fish.

This evening our Halo hero’s were testing their new communications device – apparently it’s even better than an iPhone!

Raging River Bridge – Fall City

25. March 2012 · Comments Off on Raging River Bridge – Fall City · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , , , ,

Today I decided to head out in the car and see what I could shoot.  I drove to Carnation, then on to Fall City, up to Preston and then down the i90 to Issaquah, then round Lake Sammamish to Redmond and finally on to home.

It was a lovely day for a drive and I had Howard Stern in the car and could probably have driven an extra 100 miles.  Anyway, when the scene caught my eye or the moment got me I’d pull over and take some pictures.

This is normally how it goes.  I rarely have a big plan or target destination, I just go out and see what I can find.  This means that sometimes I’m really lucky and get lots of images, and others it’s a disaster.

Today wasn’t too bad.  I was out for just over two hours and came home with four pictures I really like.  Obviously I took a lot more (70 today) but most don’t come out as I intended or I just don’t like them when I get home.

Today’s image was taken on the Fall City to Preston road.  Following along the road for most of the journey there is a river called the Raging River – cool name.  At one point the river goes under this green bridge and there is a spot by the road to pull over and easy access down to the riverbank.

So I parked up and went down to the river.  The water was moving pretty fast (well it would do I guess I mean it is called the “Raging River”), so there is a lot of motion blur in the shot in the water.  But that actually looks good I think, and gives the impression of water flowing.

To make these pictures look really good you need to slow your shutter down so the water takes on a misty sheen.  To do that you need something called a Neutral Density filter.  This is a dark piece of glass that you put in front on the lens.  It restricts light and lets you take a longer exposure (and consequently blurs the water further).  I don’t have the proper filter to do this yet, but it’s on my shopping list.  When I get one I’ll take more river pics and you’ll see the difference.

Either way this shot turned out pretty good so I thought this would be my first posting from today’s trip.

On the way home, in Issaquah, I passed a Krispy Kreme Donut shop (or Doughnut shop – if you want to spell it properly) and got a box of 12 for the family.  After dinner James went to get one and found the Halo guys tucking in!