I really like this image but I’m not really sure why!  There are so many things wrong with the photograph like the lack of anything really interesting and the horizon in the middle of the image.

However when I showed this shot to Lisa it was one of her favorites too.  I guess there is something in minimalism!

This one was taken on the road between Kirkland and Redmond in David E Brink Park.

It was the post sticking out of the water that caught my eye, that and the floating platform out in the lake.  The whole area was completely deserted and the sky looked great, at least that’s why I took the shot.

I know, this has happened to us all.  You happen to hold a few balloons and all of a sudden you take off.  Hugely embarrassing!

OK I admit it this is an odd posting.  The reality is that we (the family) liked both pictures and couldn’t agree on which “Duck” picture to post.

I was driving from Kirkland to Redmond and saw a small park by the water.  I pulled over, parked up, grabbed my camera gear and went to check out the area.  In truth there wasn’t much to see, but there were a load of ducks in the water.

Now I know what your thinking… Ducks!!! I’ve finally gone nuts.  Well yeah maybe I have, but what caught my attention was when the ducks started to stick their heads under water and their “tails” in the air, I guess they were looking for fish.  But there were around 5 ducks and it was almost synchronized!  It looked really funny.  So I started taking pictures and as per usual, all 5 didn’t go again at the same time.

So, I ended up with two pictures.  One of duck heads, and one of duck tails.  When I got home there was a big discussion over which picture to post.  Abi and I liked the tail one, but Lisa preferred the head.  To save any arguments I’ve included them both here, so you can decide yourself and pick a favorite.

Tonights Halo picture shows our two heroes playing “Tavel Shut the Box”.  I have no idea why!

For those that don’t know, Seattle is on one side of Lake Washington and Kirkland is on the other.  Kirkland has a small harbor and even smaller beach where kids and dogs paddle in summer.  As we have had some really lovely weather lately the sun brought out the crowds to check out the water front.

There’s a park area to lie out in the sun, a large gazebo to find some shade and benches along the water front to watch the boats and children play.

I set up the tripod under the gazebo and using a long lens captured the shot below.  The lens created great compression, making the Seattle skyline across the lake appear much closer and captured the people on the bench enjoying the water.

This image below was actually my second attempt.  In the first one there was an elderly couple sitting on the bench holding hands, and while in silhouette they looked great, I made a composition blunder and had the water horizon crossing their necks (that made it look like their heads were cut off).  After realizing my mistake I set up again but the older couple had left and were replaced with a younger couple and a dude with one leg (he actually had two legs but it looks like one is missing).

Oh well, next time I’ll get it right first time. 🙂

When I got home the Halo guys were watching Glee with Abi, immediately after the show they ran for their pink iPod and Hello Kitty headphones so they could hear more songs and sing along.

Went out again today to see what I could capture and had some success.  The weather again was really nice so I did some research at home on the internet and selected Kirkland and Bellevue as my destinations.

Kirkland was really busy, lots of people walking by Lake Washington enjoying the nice day.  Anyway one of the shots I really wanted was to capture some moored boats in the harbor.  So I walked around the boats looking for something cool.

The public part of the harbor was pretty empty so I walked to the private harbor.  Now this area is only accessible through a locked gate but I found a small jetty next to the harbor where a number of 20 foot sail boats were moored.

I liked the scene and the way all the boats were in a line so I captured some images one of which was the picture below.

The actual photograph was a nightmare to process however as when I got home I found that the boats were all moving about in the water and there were multiple masts and cables in the image.  After around an hour I got the image to what you see below.

Today’s fun shot shows the Halo guys playing with some Russian Stacking Dolls.

This evening I went back to Kirkland as the sun was setting and took the following shot of Lake Washington. Way over in the distance (on the horizon) you can just make out Seattle). It was a little windy so the water was moving about quite a lot and took on a misty sheen in the image. I got some nice red sunset images that I might upload later in the year.

I was using a pretty wide angle lens for this (10mm) and I actually got my foot in the shot at the bottom in the middle.  Thankfully content aware fill in Photoshop saved the day.

I was trying to figure out what I should do with the Halo dudes and asked myself this question: “If I was their size, what would I want to do?” This picture was the result.