Daily Image - Jun 2012 Archive

All the Daily Image mailings for the month of June 2012

04 Jun 12. Well, here we are, moved in and even partially settled. While we've had PCS moves where the new house had a punch list that needed finishing, this is the first time we've moved in where we are simultaneously completing the house as part of the move. A far different experience than any we've had before. But we're plug'n along and making progress. Internet connection was delayed by a whole week, and much to our chagrin, we learned that ALL the info given us by a former Centurylink employee (left their employ to take care of aging parents in Nevada, one of whom died before he got there) was wrong with respect to internet connection, so I had wired the entire house incorrectly at some considerable expense. But that aside, the setup was a total success taking less than a half hour and included Jan's internet access for the T.V. So now we should be permanently on line. During the weekend of the actual move we had the two grand kids over which added to the interesting move in but overall not all that bad. Our first real guest was my sister who brought us, as a house warming gift, this lovely orange potted plant which has a gorgeous orange blossom - thanks Pam - and which I wanted to use as the first image from our new location, but, as all my graphics computer stuff is still boxed, I can't. Instead, I've substituted a grouping of tulips from the one trip we took last April up to LaConner as a replacement which has some nice orange in it. This was one of the 50 or so shots I got total before being rained out! But as several were acceptable the trip was still a good one. This image was taken in a partially to fully shaded area save for the moments the sunlight managed to pierce the cloud layer, of which this wasn't one of them. ISO 400; 1/800 sec @ f / 5.
05 Jun 12. As Monday will see me across the sound, now meaning on the Seattle side vice the peninsula side, leading a morning (0830) Mountaineer's shoot at Golden Gardens for the -3.3 tide, and again starting round 1900 at Kerry park for a full moon over Seattle shoot, I won't be even close to a computer to send the mailing, so I decided to send it early (Sunday vice Tuesday) and let you open it when you prefer. As the morning session is planned around salt water and the associated intertidal zone normally beneath it, I thought at least distantly aquatic related would be fitting. Since I have nothing inter-tidal associated, this image is from the bow of a vessel tied up in Fisherman's Terminal, a stop I hope to sandwich in between the Golden Garden shoot, auto repair, dinner/computer assistance, and the moon shoot. I figure I ought to get my ferry fare's worth while over on the other side. The shot was taken of the bow plate on a fishing boat that has been a yearly resident at Fisherman's Terminal during the off season, and looks pretty much the way I am displaying it, save for a lot of cleanup of both the plaque itself and especially the background. The work I did to the original was my attempt to return it to what I think it looked like when new. Of course I have no way of actually knowing how that was, but based on recreations of dinosaurs as seen in "scientific" programs where we learn what color they were, how and when they mated, number of offspring, and size of the herds, I'm certain I can't be far off. ISO 200; 1/250 sec @ f / 8.
06 Jun 12. As I was sitting in the line for 90+ minutes waiting for the ferry on the 25th, the day we left Ballard, I got to thinking of our two different occupations of that beautiful old house. We purchased it in Sept of '71, lived in it for almost 6 full years, and left it for active duty in May of '77. Retiring after 30 years of active duty, we returned to it in Sept of '06, lived in it for almost 6 full years, and left it for our new home in May of 2012. To my obtuse way of thinking, I saw a pattern that was both interesting and a little eerie. But I couldn't make something like that up and it is how it was. Monday morning saw me at Golden Gardens for the -3.2 tide; the weather was terrible, windy, rainy, cold, and cloudy; the beach over run with kiddies screaming their heads off, and much less inter-tidal activity than I've experienced prior. So I started looking for patterns and other interesting shapes in what was available. Along the way the camera starting acting up, then failed completely, and finally, upon return to the vehicle, began working as advertised. So this shot is from last year's visit in the same location. The original was taken for the "pattern" of camouflage displayed in yellow and greens, and while I rather liked it as originally shot, I like it even more when "rendered in oil." Now while this was obviously created using one of the filters I really like, it does, I believe, look a lot like the old paint by number oil paintings we did as kids, only much better. ISO 200; 1/250th sec @ f /11.
07 Jun 12. The winter of 2010-11, such as it was, and that was mainly one of rain, devastated the lavender plants all over western WA, and that included the majority of ours as well as roughly, my estimate, 20% of those in Sequim, the home of the Lavender Festival which we attend annually. When we visited the fields last year for the festivities, I was amazed at how much empty land I saw where previously there had been only green and lavender. But that emptiness paled in comparison to how our yard looked. I couldn't understand the degree of loss we had experienced until one of the growers explained that it was do to the soil not sufficiently draining, as lavender liked VERY dry roots. So when one nice growth appeared in the front of the Ballard house earlier this spring, I was delighted. Hopefully, several more plants that we thought we had lost will also make a comeback. We'll just have to wait and see. Having that one plant showing so well I opted to try and get at least a portion of it to show, and after a few trial and error shots, got this one which I like. The image captures the flower in a somewhat earlier stage than any I've both taken and/or shared prior. It wasn't until I began working on the shot that I realized it was quite different. So here you have a young flower without any insect activity to distract form the plant itself. Almost straight from the camera; I've cropped it a very wee bit. ISO 200; 1/200 sec @ f / 7.1.

30 Jun 12. It being the baby time of year I thought I'd share one of four baby Prairie Dogs. These guys were perhaps 5 inches in size, so I guess we'll have to consider this a close up, or even a macro, depending on your viewing screen size. They are part of a colony of Prairie Dogs that sit atop of the visiting area on the Olympic Game Farm. There were perhaps 20 + of these little guys but it was hard to get an accurate count as they kept going in and coming out of their burrows at a fairly fast rate. It would have been fun to just sit and watch them for a spell, but as we arrived late at the farm we paid them only a short visit. But with this image you can watch this group for as long as you'd like. I've never seen one in the wild, but it sure would be fun to come upon a group of them somewhere in the mid-south west and just sit and watch them, image collecting or not. ISO 200; 1/400 sec @ f /10.