There's many birds to complement the many shops at Country Village. These doves were tucked way in the back by the Iron Horse Railway train. This was the first time I'd heard a dove call, that I recall, and now I understand why they represent "peace." That is exactly the feeling you get when you hear their call.
0 Comments
I went for a drive with my family around Snohomish to enjoy the summer evening and maybe to take a dip in the river. We didn't end up taking the dip because our daughter fell asleep, but we did see these cute little donkeys (donkeys??). When we walked over to look at them they all, of course, came to see what kind of food we might have to offer.
From 600 to 24 to 10! I filtered down by considering photographic competence, uniqueness to the day, and, of course, all your feedback. These 10 made the final cut: Now, we wait to see which gets selected for the exhibition.
I need your help.
In the Long Shot 2012 contest, we had 24 hours - from 6pm Friday, 6/1 to 6pm Saturday, 6/2 - in which to take pictures. I went out for a few hours total on Saturday in two different trips and took what felt like a lot of pictures. About 600. It was one of those days where I wasn't feeling it and was over-clicking to compensate. Nothing really jumped out to me and captured my attention and because of that, I'm having a hard time choosing which pictures I should submit for review. The contest allows for up to 10 photo submissions from which the panel will choose at least one to be printed and framed for a reverse auction to be held on exhibition day. What is your favorite or do you have several? What pictures do you think are wall worthy? Let me know by leaving a comment! Click the picture to view the gallery. Pass me the horn, I want to give a toot for Washington. You don't need to travel far here to view some world-class scenery. For a guy with such an affinity for taking pictures - such as me - it sure is a great place to call home. I'm a lucky guy.
Even though I've lived in Washington my entire life and have spent a lot of time exploring it, I still find out about things and places I never knew about. Picnic Point was almost just such a place. I'd seen it before, but had never been there. Let me explain. Many years ago I rode the Sounder commuter train from Everett to Seattle. A ride I recommend, by the way, especially at sunrise. It is prime! Anyway, the route follows the east shore of the sound and you pass some beaches along the way. Mukilteo and Golden Gardens are a couple of them. I'd already known about Mukilteo. The others I didn't know about. I later searched out Golden Gardens. I didn't search out Picnic Point and until just recently, when some friends invited us to a BBQ at Picnic Point, I had only a name-less and place-less memory of it as just one of the beaches I enjoyed viewing from comfort of the train. Now, I'll have to go explore the others. I'm sure they're also worth the trip. Picnic Point is, as the name suggests, a great place to have a picnic. Or a BBQ. From the parking lot, you cross the railroad tracks, fenced on both sides, via a footbridge and come out on the grass. The grassy area is a nice and is supplied with picnic tables, grills, and a view of the Olympic Mountains across the sound. Trains occasionally pass by and you get to see, hear, and feel them as they roar along. Walking out onto the rocky beach gives you a view up and down the Sound. Although I didn't go in the water, it appeared to be a pretty shallow and safe slope. However, don't take my word for it. All in all, it was a great place to finally go. Snow geese have been congregating in the fields of the Snohomish valley. Have you seen them? They look like a patch of snow against the contrasting green and brown of the fields. When they take off to fly, they look like an erupting wave and sound like a soft, drawn-out thunder. They were in the fields the other evening so I decided that I would stop on the way to the park and take a few shots. While my wife and daughter waited patiently, I tried to sneak as close as possible without disturbing them. Although they noticed me, they didn't scatter and I was able to get close enough to capture some decent detail. I was really hoping that some would take flight as it is quite the spectacle. None did, of course, UNTIL we got in the car to leave.
Spike is a term used in software development for a quick research project. I recently commissioned myself on a photography spike - using lighting.
I've never used lighting much, or even been that favorable to it. Mostly, probably, because I have generally been a nature and candid moment photographer and lighting isn't always necessary or practical in these scenarios. Also, it's always kind of seemed like cheating - like artificially altering the scene no longer makes the picture a legitimate capture of a real moment - so I just relied on what the scene provided. I realize, of course, that photography isn't just about snapping a picture. In many ways, photography is about creating a picture and lighting can be an immense help. I've admitted it, I've purchased a little lighting kit to begin experimenting and playing around with, and I'm excited to begin learning some new areas of photography. The picture of my daughter here, who curiously watched the whole endeavor, is one shot from a small roll of the first experimental photos I snapped in our home studio. It was a nice winter morning the other day - one of those clear, crisp, bright days - so I took my camera around with me and took shots whatever I came across that looked interesting. Shooting just to shoot. You'll see some of the other photos from this morning in the roll.
I swung by a farm where there's a couple horses to see if I could entice one to come near by and let me take a couple shots of it. It wasn't hard, carrots did the trick. This one here was walking back-and-forth along the fence, but I wanted it's head to be closest to me and in the forefront of the picture - since that generally gives animals a friendly look - so I held the carrots on my side of the fence and made it lean over to get them. It was a willing model as long as I kept the carrots coming. I did a little Photoshop post-processing to this image in order to give it a little more character and a bit of a farm, countryside feel. I took my daughter Juliet out for a stroll around Snohomish last October while I was shooting some pictures for National Geographic's Photo Contest 2011 (there are some amazing pics in their gallery, by the way) in hopes to find an interesting shot. I was shooting some standard pictures of the Snohomish River from the Ave D bridge as dusk settled when a little spider in the railing caught my eye. I happened to be studying it at just such an angle that the setting sun was floating in my view right behind and I got to wondering what would happen if I got in real close on the spider and silhouetted it in the setting sun. I didn't have a tripod so shooting this picture with my zoom fully engaged, a baby wrapped up on my belly, and cars whizzing by on a bouncing bridge was a bit of a challenge and didn't leave me with real high expectations of a clear shot. However, I was pleasantly surprised with the outcome when I got back to my studio and saw that I had captured the silhouetted scene you see here. The other one is a shot where the spider isn't highlighted by the sun.
My wife, daughter, and I went on a day trip to Edmonds, WA to celebrate the Presidents Day holiday. I was able to capture a few neat pictures of a seagull, the beach, and street views of the architecture while we enjoyed the waterfront and strolled around downtown.
|