Daily Image - Jun 2011 Archive

01 Jun 11. Here is another from the series shot at Fisherman's Terminal. The image is a portion of the boat (Scorpio) on the left in the image that was a pale blue (badly in need of paint) that I sent a couple days back. Well, not an actual part of the vessel, but stacked on the deck. The vessel is a double keeled barge that is capable of beaching itself and then backing off once again. The owners live in Anacortes, WA, and dad is teaching son to take over the business. I had the opportunity to chat with dad last evening while doing some night work and it turns out they will be moored in Kingston while I'm over working on the property, so I may try for some more shots of the boat then. This image is obviously an HDR effort and a subject that I thought would render well a bit on the garish side. I played with it in a few different HDR programs, all of which rendered it differently, but in the end I really liked this heavy handed approach best of all. The right hand edge might be cropped a bit tighter to further emphasize the crab pots, but I felt that including a bit of the bow helped in identifying what it is you are seeing. ISO 200; 1/160 sec @ f / 16.

02 Jun 11. As you approach the locks proper walking through the Carl S. English Jr. Botanical Garden you encounter a sign encouraging you to visit the overlook where you can view a Great Blue Heron heronry. The sign is virtually impossible to miss, so I found it a bit amusing to listen to a group of folks discussing what this strange bird, standing on a floating log in front of the spillway, might be. I guess it never occurred to them that it might be one of those birds who we were supposed to view at the overlook. This individual was totally oblivious to our presence and spent quite a while preening, almost as if anticipating a hot date later in the evening. It was quite a contrast to the behavior I more commonly observe while photographing them on the low tides such as the -3.2 tides we will experience on the 15th and 16th of this month. ISO 200; 1/250 sec @ f / 8.

03 Jun 11. Growing up part time on a farm had lots of adventures associated with it, many of which numerous govt agencies would not now "allow" me to do if they were to be made knowledgeable of same. So what goes on the farm stays on the farm to re-state an oft used phrase. Not far from the barn, among many other places, grew this lovely tall green plant with tiny pale purple to pale yellow flowers that was a delight to see but painful to encounter, and the smaller (younger) the plant the more painful the event. Appropriately named Stinging Nettle, it is a plant that grows in very rich soil, and they are quite abundant on the property. Fortunately, so are Bracken Fern, of which the juice obtained from crushing the fronds provides the perfect antidote to the chemical released by the plant that results in the red rash and pain. Convenient that one generally grows either next to or close by the other. I decided that, even though I think they are beautiful, others don't share my opinion so I've "played" with the shot a bit to give a somewhat more alluring look. ISO 400; 1/200 sec @ f / 6.3.

06 Jun 11. Departing for the other side of the pond (Puget Sound) on Thursday morning I observed that our grouping of Icelandic Poppies were starting to present a very nice display that I would be missing almost in its entirety. But one blossom in particular was making itself an interesting object with just the right amount of water remaining on the petals and some briefly decent light appearing between all the rain. So it was a quick shot snap and then off to chase the ferries. I got the image where I wanted it and then decided that since I've only seen a grouping of blue poppies once, that I would convert this particular plant to a blue poppy. Got the color almost perfect although a wee bit darker than I wanted before realizing that a orange fringe remained at the very edges which rendered the transformation useless, so I would up going back to the original color to share. In the process it became very obvious that as I decreased the brightness of the image I got significantly more detail in the petals but the entire image was getting too dark. If anyone has a suggestion as to how to work around this behavior I'm interested in learning how to do it. ISO 200; 1/200 sec @ f / 9.

07 Jun 11. Having spent 10 hours picking up after contractors, apparently having the mess they make cleaned up by them is considered a separate expense by many in my state, I came back to my house sitting job, grabbed a wonderful hot shower, made a simple supper, and grabbed a cold drink to enjoy sitting outside on the deck in a large wooden chair with arms large enough to hold the drink, something to read, and the heads of a couple of dogs. Sitting there under a light blue-gray sky listening to the songs of the birds, watching the rays of sun embellish the hundred shades of green of the large trees gracing the 1/2 meadow of tall grasses, buttercups, violets, and various other small flowers, convinced the toil of the day to seek another venue. Sipping the soda while relaxing in that big chair brought back memories of sometime around my 6th grade year when my father embarked on building a similar set of chairs for our back yard use. I painted mine teal, a color no one else in the family particularly liked, but I did so anyway and I kept it that color until the summer of my marriage when it got painted a different color. Our view wasn't anything close to the view I had this evening, and the kind I hope will be in the near future on a regular basis. This image is straight out of the camera save for a little removal of some annoying background material and represents just a peek of the view surrounding the house. ISO 640; 1/80 sec @ f / 7.1

08 Jun 11. The folks for whom I'm house sitting, more accurately critter sitting, have this marvelous Leonberger named Mini Cooper, Mini for short. She is an absolutely delightful dog and simply adores people. Very demanding of affection, she is fortunately, unlike Maggie, totally voice controlled and does as she is told. She and Maggie get along famously even if Maggie, still the puppy at 45 pounds and approaching 2 years old, does tend to tire her out very easily at c125 pounds and 6 years of age (middle aged). Mini has an amazingly soft coat, almost like cashmere, and a very attractive top knot, for lack of a better description, on the top of her head. It tends to stand upright and gives her a very distinctive look. Whenever there is activity at the property, Mini is there to greet the workers and accept any and all handouts. To put it conservatively, she is quite good at getting a snack now and then. But everyone loves her and she seems to have been enjoying the building project. Maggie leaves here and returns to Seattle in another couple days but I will have constant immediate companionship as long as she is still walking this earth. I took a shot of her lying down with the top knot fully displayed, and then thought it deserved some "special" treatment, so here you have Mini in her finest raiment. ISO 200; 1/50 sec @ f / 9.

09 Jun 11. Although I've now been gone for a full week and thus can't see in person, I'm betting that the fishing fleet has now rendered Fisherman's Terminal more of a ghost terminal that a safe and busy refuge for beleaguered fishermen. The Polar Lady was really showing herself off nicely on the afternoon when I took this shot about two weeks back. She is truly a beautiful lady, but I fear that what she and bigger boats represent is not so beautiful food source wise. As these big boats literally vacuum the ocean, the size of the catch is constantly diminishing and at some point I believe the sources won't have the time to resupply themselves. Point of fact. When my father was fishing off the southern coast of Alaska, it was not unusual to catch King Salmon weighing over 100 lbs. He has a fish on record, the 3rd largest caught that year, and on a hand line no less - sometime in the mid-30s - that weighed 101 lbs after field dressing (head, tail, and guts removed, generally accepted as 1/3 of the live weight), that measured exactly 6 feet in length. That made the live weight approaching 135 lbs. Think about the last time you saw such a salmon; not even at Fish Throwers. That aside, the vessel was simply begging for me to capture all her radiance as the sun glistened along the starboard side reflecting the light shimmering on the water's surface as stores were being brought on board for the next several months of work. ISO 200; 1/125 sec @ f / 16.

10 Jun 11. This was one of those days that might be compared with the "writer's block" approach to the desired chatter to accompany the image except that the choice for the image was experiencing the same problem. Then a comment made at dinner tonight made me think of an image that I would have shared, but this little voice in the back of my head kept saying, think again, you can do better. In reality I think it would have been acceptable, just not competition quality, so I elected to go with something very different in appearance but of identical content. In the garden portion of our back yard where Jan grows herbs aplenty there resides a nice section of chives, and each year I endeavor to do them justice photographically, in addition to enjoying them on the plate. The shot I had originally selected showed off the blossoms quite nicely, but had some competing material that made me change my mind. This shot does not suffer from that because I've rendered it such that it more closely resembles an impressionistic painting. I would have liked it better had one of the blossoms not been clipped off by the software processing, but even with this flaw I like the tension between the greens and the purples. More importantly, the missing part of the blossom is what brought about the theme as while at dinner tonight there was a vase of chives on the table, and I was asked if I liked chives. My response was a hearty yes, to which the follow on question was have you ever eaten the purple flower. At first I thought this was just a cute question, until I understood that they are quite tasty and come with a bit of a bite. So while back home next week I plan to find out if I like all of the chive, or just the stalk. ISO 400; 1/400 sec @ f / 6.3.

11 Jun 11. About 2 hours before quitting time Friday afternoon I received a call from my cousin requesting help with a cow that was having a difficult delivery. A couple minutes later I hit the road and picked up a gutter salesman along the way who was just about to make it to the property to give me a quote for gutters. All I could think about as I drove to the farm was all the stories I had heard as a child from grandfather, father, and other relatives who had often had to assist an animal having a difficult labor, but something I had never witnessed. Moments later were at the farm to observe the cow of interest as far away diagonally across the farm as she could possibly position herself. So it was a good walk to get her and try to herd her up to where she needed to be. That took most of an hour as she had a different idea as to where she wanted to be than we had for her. Eventually we got her into a corral where she could safely (for her and all of us) be attended. She had apparently been in labor for some time as the placenta had ruptured, and time was running out for the calf if in fact it hadn't already done so. An exam of an unwilling adult cow is quite the challenge, and the exam suggested we were too late. To make matters worse she wasn't fully dilated, so a natural birth was not likely to be happening. All of this examination and positioning took the better part of another hour. Eventually all was ready, and to solve this problem, a calf puller was employed. Small chains were wrapped around the front legs of the calf, just above the fetlocks with the other end of the chains attached to a ratcheted puller. As the ratchet was worked, the calf was pulled side to side and once the process was begun, a lovely little heifer made her debut into the world about 5 minutes later, just before 1800 last night. Believing that the calf was likely to be still born, it was a real exciting moment to see her move as soon as she hit the ground. My first birthing of a large animal. So I present to you, at roughly 5 minutes old, Eleven Three. You can still see the attached chains and the calf puller tool next to her. ISO 320; 1/80 sec @ f / 8.

13 Jun 11. Disembarking the Kingston ferry you travel west approx 3 miles on Hwy104 to the intersection of 104 and Hansville Road. Turn right onto Hansville Road and go about 4.3 miles to the intersection of Hansville Road and Eglon Road. If you turn right there, onto Eglon Road, go another mile and turn left onto Pilot Point Road, then go 0.3 of a mile and turn left again onto a private road, you will be where I am working on the property. However, if instead of turning right onto Eglon Road you continue straight on Hansville Road for roughly another 3 miles, you will pass this very picturesque farm on your left. This is my cousin's farm. Roaming around in the fields will be a small herd of Angus cattle. As of Friday evening the herd was one larger in number for this was where Eleven Three made her entrance into the world. If you look closely at the image you will see a group of cows directly behind the building on the left. In that far back corner was where it all started, and just to the right (left in the photo) of that same building is where it ended. Now you know all about the modern day adventures of Spin & Marty. ISO 200; 1/321 sec (middle of 5) @ f / 13.

14 Jun 11. With Sunday being a time of sunshine, I took the afternoon to consolidate all the loose stacks of lumber into two piles according to size and type. As the sun beat down I found myself tiring and feeling a bit lazy so I sat down only to doze off almost instantly. With the blue skies and bright sunshine accompanied by the songs of several song birds, it wasn't difficult to do. It was interrupted now and then by uncommanded positional shifts each of which gave me pause to ponder anew the beauty that surrounded me in the form of heavenly landscaped surroundings. The task finished, I took the opportunity to just walk around and record a few of the thousands of photogenic scenes beckoning my lens. They were all plant type, but had I had the camera with me at the dinner table the night prior, at least one of the shots would have been of an absolutely beautiful yearling coyote who entered the back yard, checked out the sand box, found something it considered to be of value, and trotted off with it. So here is a shot of a fern instead, that actually caught my eye from the seat of the SUV, and was taken while sitting thus. ISO 200, 1/800 sec @ f/ 8.

15 Jun 11. IF you were to follow the directions I gave a couple days back to the property, at the SW corner of the intersection of Eglon Road and Pilot Point Road, you will see an old farm house that has been painstakingly cared for and a large equestrian exercise area directly north of it. My grandfather and father built that house almost 100 years ago, and the exercise area was then a field of alfalfa, or clover hay, most of the time. Now as a kid hay really wasn't something about which I cared much, but the insects that could be found amongst it were of interest. One of my favorite pastimes while staying there was to see how many bees I could collect in a single jar WITHOUT either getting stung or having any of those captured escape. I don't recall having ever kept count of the number captured, and I never kept them so long as to have them die in the jars, but it was a real delight to be able to see them up very close and safely too. To this day I still have a love of bees, and never tire of trying to capture one. Part of the "game" is to get the perfect image of one; I've not so done to date, but a few of the images have come close. Look closely at this individual and you can see her split proboscis. Yes, I could have gone with a lower ISO and likely still have had a sufficiently fast shutter speed. ISO 320; 1/1250 sec @ f /7.1.

16 Jun 11. Yesterday and today are our -3.2 low tides for the month of June. Yesterday it was primarily overcast and quite cold requiring a fair bit of clothing to work comfortably on the beach; today is sunny and much warmer. Off to lead a shoot there in just a few minutes. There are several beaches available for working the low tide, and I find the one at Golden Gardens the very best in this part of Puget Sound. Just a couple of miles south is another beach that while it doesn't offer much in aquatic wildlife, it does offer other opportunities, such as a very nice old light house. I've shared photos of it before, but this time I thought I try a different approach and use some driftwood to frame the building. I found one large piece that had an appropriate opening and used that as my wooden frame. It isn't as formal as a framing shop would do, but I think it isolates the main subject sufficiently well. ISO 200; 1/160 sec @ f / 20.

17 Jun 11. The two shoots of the low tides, although both of the same proportions, -3.2, were day and night different both in the crowds there (10 gazillion screaming and running school kiddies on Wed), the weather (very cold on Wed), and the animal life seen, more on Wed but more interesting on Thur. I did the two shoots differently, with Wed dedicated to generally anything there suitable for an 18 - 200 mm zoom, and Thur dedicated to a 105mm macro. Both days I intended to concentrate on shapes, colors, and patterns, but the approach was quite different each day due to limitations/features of the two lenses. Overall I think I liked what I accomplished on Thur somewhat more than what I did on Wed. Although the majority of yesterday's work was on the macro scale, I did play with the Great Blue Herons a bit using the fixed focal length of the macro. The 105mm with a DX (APC-C) sensor gives the equivalent of a 160mm lens on a film or full format sensor camera so it also worked well as a "portrait" lens. Most of my previous heron work has been to feature them as the main subject; in the image for today the bird is merely there for perspective and decoration. ISO 320; 1/ 1600 sec @ f / 6.3.

20 Jun 11. Looking around in the inter-tidal zone provides one with a myriad of delights if a little time is taken to ensure that you do not disturb the inhabitants. That may sound silly, but in reality it does not take much in the forms of sudden movement, shadow creation/disturbance, or repositioning of items to scare all these life forms causing them to stop the behavior of interest and hunker down. While I was looking for something much different than that which I found, I noticed a single anemone which had retracted its tentacles but which had not fully closed up leaving small portions of the tentacles displayed as several crossed arms. The colors, shape, and texture of the tentacles held my attention for several minutes as I tried different approaches to capturing what I was seeing. The shapes in the image are accurately represented, the colors come quite close to what was there, but the texture is totally lost which was a significant part of the picture. So you will have to use your imaginations to supply that missing part. ISO 200; 1/160 sec @ f / 10.

21 Jun 11. After tiring of working with the anemone I shared yesterday, I walked a few feet, perhaps less then 10, and noticed a very dark red object with white spots over it, so I got down close and found yet another interesting anemone, the likes of which I've never before seen, either in real life or in the books. Probably means I don't get out enough, have the right books, or both. In any event, this critter looked as though it had decorated itself with a lot of broken shell pieces in the form of a necklace. It brought to mind an old joke whose punch line goes along the lines of "what else would you wear with basic red." While I've seen other marine animals that decorate themselves with materials that help in camouflage, this is the first time I've seen an anemone do it. Of course one could argue that it didn't, and that these pieces of shell just happened to fall on the creature or something/someone else had put them there, but I think this somewhat unlikely based on our being there pretty much ahead of anyone else. Regardless of how they got there, it made for an interesting observation as well as image. ISO 200; 1/500 sec @ f / 9. 105mm macro lens.

22 Jun 11 . Tuesday morning, while parked for less than a minute at a local (chain) grocery store an individual walked past our vehicle and slammed the open door shut with a sarcastic comment about closing it for us. A rather rude approach to a group of visitors/strangers, to say nothing of mishandling another's personal property. As I was thinking about what would prompt such behavior, I came across this image taken at my cousin's home early last fall. As we were about to sit for dinner, we observed this vessel running very close to the shoreline in front of his home. A few minuter the skipper simply beached his vessel on my cousin's property, put down a ladder, and a crewman walked across his property to go fetch some beer at the corner grocery store. No permission was requested, no apology provided, and certainly no thank you was forth coming. The absolute and total rudeness of such behavior, to say nothing of running a vessel while consuming alcohol was,/still is, simply over the pale. Likewise the slamming of a vehicle door belonging to another. One begins to wonder what has happened to common courtesy in our society, and this in a country setting where such behavior is truly not the accepted. Perhaps it is an example of the trickle down theory. ISO 200; 1/320 sec @ f / 8.

23 Jun 11. About a month back the rains were so heavy that the water in Lake Washington was way too high and the spillways at the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks were wide open allowing for a large volume of water being released into Puget Sound. The velocity of the water cursing over the spillways was such that it created its own waterfall looking effect, and I wanted to capture the effect. No single exposure, no matter what I tried, could do it justice, so I opted to go with an HDR approach in order to capture more of the mist making it look much more like what the eye was seeing. There was a bit of a breeze blowing at the time I took the photo, and you will note that it is blowing in the opposite direction of the water's flow, so that may help give you an idea of the amount of mist being created by the outflow of the lake water. You may also notice several wires stretching across the water. They are there to curtail fishing birds from eating all the little smolt that are exiting Lake Washington to Puget Sound. If you haven't visited the Locks and live in the area, or are visiting the area, I highly recommend a visit there during times of high rains and/or the salmon run in mid summer to early fall. ISO 200; 1/100 sec @ f / 22 (middle of 5 exposures).

24 Jun 11. I've written often about the idea of macro vs close-up photography, with the generally agreed definitions that close-up is something along the lines of 1/10 to 1/2 life size and macro starting at half life size and going up to roughly 10x life size. After that we start getting into the ream of photomicrography at greater than 10x. Here we have a photo that I'll let you decide with respect into which category it should be assigned. Look closely, and you will notice little things sticking out of the legs of the critter. Now the bigger question is what is the critter which the image name gives away but try to ascertain what you are seeing before looking at the name. If you are familiar with books of electron microscope images, this form factor should be something you've seen prior, but, as I don't have a personal electron microscope, the question is just what is it. Of course it could be a photo of another image, but . . . . So, have a good look and see if you can come up with it's identity, or if not that specific, something close, before checking. ISO 200; 1/200 sec @ f / 14. 105mm macro.

27 Jun. The backlog of prepared images to share is now over 350 and I'm finding it hard to decide what to use. Spent Sunday afternoon at a Civil War enactment, then came home for dinner and the birth of another calf (unassisted.) Meanwhile there have been several visits by large mammals and a whole slue of birds only some of which have been captured. All of which is just more material for additional images. But I think we'll return to the initial rainy day of departure and go with another Icelandic Poppy shot, only this time, we will forgo the blossom and work with just the leaves. At the time I left that June 1st morning the rains had let up for a few minutes and I had an opportunity to shoot the droplets of water that were forming on all the leaves of the poppies. This image is a portion of the total shot and cropped to highlight both the water droplets (primarily) and hairs (secondarily.) This would have been the ideal candidate for a serially focused set of shots, but time didn't allow for such luxury and I had to quickly grab what I could. It would be a much better image sans the soft leaf at lower front center, and in retrospect I should have simply clipped it off, but I didn't. ISO 200; 1/320 sec @ f / 7.1. Hope you enjoy, dave

28 Jun 11. One visiting our shores anywhere in the states of Washington and Oregon are certain to be visited by seagulls, of many different species. They are constant companions even if not necessarily of the affectionate type. But they are very graceful birds who are fun to watch, sometimes for hours on end. They can also be quite comical and I find that I truly enjoy watching them whenever I'm in their company. Trying to capture all these different aspects of the birds on some form of storage can be a real challenge, and although I try to do them justice every time I'm around them, I seldom get what I'm after. The image for today is one that provided something different from what I set out to get, but it did wind up presenting a single bird against a very nice background, and one that I feel supports the bird well. I would have preferred for the bird to have the right wing fully extended rather than beginning to flex, but that was beyond my control. What we do have however is a nice combination of color supporting the dynamics of flight which, when combined, make for what I feel is a reasonably acceptable image. ISO 200; 1/400 sec @ f /11.

29 Jun 11. Unlike previous years when I spent four nights filming the full moon over Seattle from Kerry Park, this year I was able to devote just two evenings due to the constraints of the house project. Both evenings were very different presentations and both offered some interesting opportunities. On both nights I led a Mountaineers activity and had different folks present each time. I have heard from some as to how it went for them and it seems to have been a mixed bag, although I think I provided everyone with the same info. When the moon first breaks the horizon the exposure for it and the city are the same, but as it climbs higher into the sky the difference for the proper exposure between it and the city rapidly changes to being around 10 -12 stops. Since I've written at length prior about this, I won't repeat it today. This will be the first of several shots I share of this June's moonrise over the city. This shot was taken about 5 minutes after it broke the horizon, and is a single exposure composition as the exposure for both was the same. There was some cloud presence that threatened to obscure the entire show that evening but what remained at moonrise simply added to the drama of the occasion. ISO 200; 1/10 sec @ f / 8.

30 Jun 11. Sunday afternoon was spent observing the re-enactment of the Battle of Port Gamble, sponsored by the Washington State Civil War Association. Now, as WA state was nothing more than a territory, part of the Oregon Territory at that, during the time of the Civil War, it is highly unlikely that any such event ever occurred, but it was fun to go watch the show. While I was roaming around I entered an area that was designated a ship, her name I don't remember, but I had an opportunity to speak with several of the players, and learned quite a bit about my service I didn't know. Apparently, during the time of the Civil War, and for a couple decades thereafter, there was a Professorial Corps, much like today's current Medical Service Corp, whose job it was to educate those serving in the Navy. I was told that during Civil War era and later the literacy rate for the general population was 17% (I think we may be heading in that direction today), 24% for the Army, and 87% for the Navy due to the work of the "P" Corp (the insignia was a Fancy letter "P" on an Oak Leaf). I've done a bit of searching for more info but the only thing I found so far is a biography of a James Russel Soley who, from 1886 -1890, was a Professor in the Navy's Corps of Professors of Mathematics. I intend to find out more about this Corps and likely even join the WCWA to participate as a part of that Corps. After speaking with the LCDR who was telling me about all this, I proceeded to the battle field where battle was re-enacted and watched it from the Confederacy end of the field, having been told by one of the directors that that end would give me the best view of the cannon as they were fired. I shot about 150 images trying for the perfect shot but failed, however, I did get one acceptable image. Lots of smoke surround these old guns as they fire which makes it hard to get anything, but here is an idea of how it looked minus the sound that accompanied each blast! ISO400; 1/400 sec @ f / 8.