Carillon Point – Kirkland

25. December 2012 · Comments Off on Carillon Point – Kirkland · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , , ,

Well folks, here we are on Christmas day and I’m very close to the end of the year and the end of this new years resolution.  I really can’t believe I’ve successfully posted every day, and after December 31st, I’ll never do this again.  That said I will still post next year, just not as often.  I’m going to write quite a long posting on January 1st about this experience and explain why you should NEVER try and do it!  Still I still have a week to go so had better post a picture for today.

Tonight’s image takes us back to Carillon Point in Kirkland.  This little harbor has a great marina and very posh hotel and shops and is a gerat place to take some shots.  This image was taken just after the sun went down and the sky looked great.  I got really close to the harbor’s edge with a nice wide lens and made sure I had a really small aperture.  This gave me a really deep depth of field (so lots of the image was in focus) and I was able to ge the light in focus as well as the boats far away.

I loved the orange color cast thrown on the wood by the small light and the deep blue sky, I think it made a really nice image.  Light reflections in water also always look great so the small lights going round the harbor added to the image too.

Tonight the guys sat down and enjoyed a mince pie.  This is a very British thing (I think), not sure they are popular over here in the US. Basically they are dried fruit filled pies. Taste great!

I90 Lake Washington Bridge – Seattle

20. August 2012 · Comments Off on I90 Lake Washington Bridge – Seattle · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , , ,

Abi and I were driving along Lake Washington Boulevard right by the lake looking for something to shoot.  We were in a pretty expensive area on the western shore driving through Coleman Park when I found the perfect subject.  We drove under the I90 Lake Washington Bridge and I thought it would make a great picture.

So we parked up right outside a waterfront house that was two houses away from these bridges.  I mention this as the house was for sale and while it was really beautiful, it was pretty much under these bridges.  And the cost… 2.2 million dollars.  So you have to ask yourself, how much does one cost that’s not next to huge bridges like these?

Anyway, Abi and I grabbed the tripod and ran past the houses and down a small embankment to the waters edge.  Set up the tripod and captured the image below.  Looking through the view finder I knew this was going to be a nice image, but even I was blown away when I got home and processed the shot.

Some of my images are nice I think, but this one made me gasp!  Lisa and the kids felt the same so I’m betting everyone else hates it – haha you never can win.  As the sun was going down, you can see the red glow of the sunset on the other side of the lake, the underside of the bridges were really dark.  So this is actually a seven image HDR picture.

The land you can see at the end of the bridge is actually Mercer Island in the middle of Lake Washington.  Over to the left on the other side of the lake you can make out some sky scrapers.  This is the city of Bellevue.  The colors in this image came out really well, with the sun hitting Mercer and the blue sky, and the light on the water, this could be one of my favorite pictures of the year.

Master Chief wanted to have a go at escapeology, but found he sucked at that and Carter had to help him get out.

Harbor Water Lillies – Carillon Point

25. June 2012 · Comments Off on Harbor Water Lillies – Carillon Point · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , , , ,

So I’ve been going through a photography crisis over the last couple of days.  There is this video podcast I watch called “The Grid”, and the show is presented by a couple of guys I really respect.  I’ve been a bit behind with the shows (mainly due to work) and had the chance this weekend to catch up.  Well on a few shows the two presenters (Scott Kelby and Matt Kozlowski) carried out some blind reviews, where people send in their images and basically Scott and Matt tell them what they really think.

Unfortunately sometimes what they think isn’t nice to hear.  That said if an image sucked (and a lot of them did) they give the message in a respectful way, clearly stating what’s wrong and what you need to do.  Well as I’ve been watching the shows I’ve been going through my own pictures and have seen a lot of the “mistakes” they raised on the show.  One of the things they said on The Grid was that people tend to tell you nice things on Facebook and Flickr, friends don’t say things like “I don’t like that image”, they just don’t “like” it.

As a result looking through my “images to post” directory I found I didn’t like any of the shots anymore as I keep seeing errors and mistakes.

Tonight’s image is another shot from Carillon Point, this time from right down on the waterfront just by the harbor.  Just in front of the boats is this small separated area for small row boats and kayaks.  The water is covered in water lillies and lit from small lights that edge the water.

When I took the shot I loved the lillies and the reflections on the water.  Looking at the image at home I noted that the water in the bottom left corner was a bit “scummy” – and that’s being nice.  This was an attention to detail issue that was raised on the podcast.  So I spent an hour cleaning the water in Photoshop.  (Now I’ve said that you will all be looking in the corner at the water).

The end result is a better picture, but after this weekend I still feel I have a lot to learn.

Tonight the Halo dudes decided to cut up some fresh berries.  Fortunately they didn’t make too much mess.

Harbor Stairs – Carillon Point

17. June 2012 · Comments Off on Harbor Stairs – Carillon Point · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , , ,

Here’s another image from Friday night at Carillon Point.  In the picture you can see the waterfront at the bottom of the stairs, you can also see the pier that goes out into the lake and around the harbor (on the left).  All along the water front and the pier are big round lights that make it look really nice once the sun has set.

The sun had gone down so I captured this shot with a long exposure so it almost looks almost like daylight.  The clouds in the sky are clearly visible in the picture, but when I was there you couldn’t really make them out.

At the top of the stairs are the restaurants and the Woodmark Hotel.  This is a really nice hotel that overlooks Lake Washington.  If you could make out the skyline on the other side of the lake (on the horizon) you’d see Seattle.

Fortunately there weren’t too many people working around, they were all in the restaurants enjoying their dinner.  But I wouldn’t be surprised if they all walk off their meal after they leave walking along the waterfront.  As it was quiet, I had plenty of time to compose the image and take a few shots.  I think the exposure time was around 4 seconds, so ironically even if someone did walk past they would only appear as ghosts.  That said there was very little work to do in Photoshop.  Hope you like the shot.

Cater and Master Chief started a game of “Find-it” just after breakfast and they were still playing 4 hours later!