Roozengaarde Fence – Mount Vernon

08. April 2012 · Write a comment · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , ,

As you know (if you read this site) yesterday I went to Mount Vernon to the annual Skagit County Tulip Festival.  If you read yesterday’s posting you will also know that unfortunately the tulips hadn’t bloomed yet so I had to shoot other subjects instead.

The first place we visited was Roozengaarde which have nice manicured gardens you can walk around.  Now in Roozengaarde they actually did have a lot of flowers, some of which were tulips and I took (as you’d expect) a lot of pictures – I’m sure you’ll see many of these soon.  The gardens are broken up in to different areas by fences and flower beds and on one of the fences there were a number of decorative metal sculptures.  They have clearly been there a while as some were pretty rusty but with the sun shining I thought they looked great, so out came the camera and tripod and I grabbed some shots.

Today’s image was of one of the fence decorations, this red metal flower was right at the end of the fence and looked great against a predominantly green background.  I tried waiting until nobody was behind before I took the shot but the best I could do was one guy behind a bush, behind the flower.  So I reduced the depth of field (amount of picture that was in focus) and got the image below.

It was a lovely day and Roozengaarde is well worth a visit.

Carter was especially happy today as the Easter Bunny visited with some chocolate goodness!

Daffodils – Redmond Ridge

04. April 2012 · Write a comment · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , ,

Well spring is definitely here, all around my neighborhood are daffodils.  I took this picture outside Abi’s school on the way home from work.  I was driving by the school and saw loads of flowers across the road and parked up and grabbed the camera.  I shot these daffodils by placing the camera almost on the ground and shooting up as I didn’t really want to capture the houses behind the flowers.

As I couldn’t see through the view finder (I wasn’t going to lie in the dirt) I had to take around 20 pictures before I got one I liked.  Bizarrely behind me just across the road was James.  He saw me pull up and jump out of the car.  He was with a friend and they were (I guess) laughing at me.  I didn’t even see him until after I got back in the the car and drove off!

I really liked this picture as the daffodil is kind of a special flower for me.  My mothers name was Daphne and always loved these flowers (probably because everyone called her Daff.  She passed away very young in the mid 80’s and never got to meet Lisa or my kids.  So when I see these flowers they bring back fond memories (I know my bother and sisters still feel the same).

Anyway you should all get used to flower pictures as this Saturday I’m off to a tulip festival in Skagit County, so from this weekend you will be seeing a lot of tulip shots on my blog.

Today Abi experienced a bad makeup day – largely due to the Halo guys…

First Flower of Spring – Home

18. March 2012 · Write a comment · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: , ,

Last night we all went out for dinner (we have an excellent Thai restaurant called Silver Spoon near by) and when we got home we noticed that outside the house one of the bushes had a single pink flower.

Now this is not something we normally get excited about but we figured that this was possibly a sign that Spring is almost here.

So I could share the joy, I thought I’d photograph our single flower for your pleasure.  It’s not particularly exciting, and as you can see it was raining earlier, but hopefully it means that color is returning to the Pacific North West (we are getting a little bored of green, brown and gray).

Incidentally I have a good feeling about this week.  I think I should get my new D4.  If it doesn’t arrive, expect pathetic complaining and tragic depression.

After a relaxing day off and a few green beers, our Halo heroes get back to their circus training.  Tonight it’s acrobatics.

Leaves – Redmond Watershed

12. February 2012 · Write a comment · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: ,

So I admit this is an odd posting.  I really understand if people don’t like this picture or even don’t get what I’m trying to do.  (In fact I expect that response from most).  But as I spent three hours today trying to create the image I thought I’d post it.  I should say here that I don’t think this is a great image, but for a first attempt I think it’s OK.

So what’s this picture about?  What am I trying to do?

This is an exercise in focus harvesting.  The premise is simple.  You take a number of shots of the same subject but focus each time of a different part of the image.  Then (in post processing) you create a new image that includes the “parts” you want in focus in the finished image. I guess it’s a bit like HDR, but with focusing. So why do this?  Why not just take a picture of the leaves I hear you ask!

Well the reason for doing this is to have better control over how the viewer “sees” the image.  By playing with different image aspects like focus, color, brightness and contrast etc., the picture can kind of force the user to start looking in one place and then travel around the image as the photographer intended.  For me the images can also take on an almost 3D look with some parts almost popping out of the photograph.

This is my attempt at that.  If you hold the mouse over the image below you will see the original picture I shot (or at least one of them), and I highlighted where you are supposed to be “drawn” first, then second and so on.  Have a look and let me know if it works and what you think.  This isn’t something for every picture but I wanted to give it a go.

Today our Halo warriors are carrying out Torture training.  Why? Coz they can, and it’s funny 🙂

Yellow Gerbera Daisy – Home

09. February 2012 · Write a comment · Categories: Image a Day · Tags: ,

I needed a color infusion today, I’ve been uploading too many drab, gray images!  Luckily the other day Lisa came home with some Yellow Gerbera Daisy’s (yes I know that’s probably a made up name but that is what it said on the sticker on the flowers).

Anyway, Lisa really liked the color of the flowers and there was one that she described as the “perfect flower”.  So when she got home she said “This is one of your images of the day”.  Being a good husband (and a little scared of Lisa) I immediately grabbed my camera and took the photograph below.

Today we find our Halo heroes talking to their dogs, who apparently haven’t been very good today!

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