Daily Image - Oct 2012 Archive

01 Oct 12. Here is another shot of the Mendenhall Glacier taken from on of the local viewpoints. Some of you will be surprised to see people in the image, but in this case they provided a bit of needed perspective. I was visiting a bit too late to have the fire weed at peak color, but there was still enough remaining to provide for some variation in the foreground. Seeing this glacier up close is pretty impressive; one can only imagine what it must have looked like 100 years ago based on the information in the visitor's center that it has been receding at a rate of 3 feet per year on average for the past 100 years. I would assume that as it has receded it has also shrunk in height, so it must have been really impressive back then. Next trip up to Juneau, weather permitting, I plan on walking on it and getting some shots from that perspective. I did that when we visited the Athabaska Glacier in Alberta back in '73 and it was a memorable experience; I suspect that Mendenhall will provide no less. The clouds you see did not remain white for long and about two hours after this shot was taken we entered into a 5 day rain shadow. D800; 70 - 200; ISO 100; 1/320 sec @ f / 10.

02 Oct 12. We'll take a break from the landscapes today and venture back to that dahlia garden at the Silverdale post office. Along with the hundreds of lovely flowers were an equal number of pollinating insect, so many so, that I couldn't resist working on that perfect bee photo. Not there quite yet, but this one is getting closer. Still haven't quite got it down to where I can get a very sharp insect, an almost as sharp flower, and do it with the competition from the wind. Now, I could of course resort to the old photographic trick, still employed by thousands of very good photographers but generally not admitted, of capturing the insect, placing it in the refer to slow it down, and then placing it on the flower where desired and photographing it as it returns to normal body temp. In the process I'd likely get the insect doing what I'd like where I want it to be, but so far I've not resorted to that clever trick. So here you have a very active bee on a flower that is swaying in the wind and still reasonably sharp, caught in the act of retrieving some nectar. I've enhanced the bee a wee bit to compensate for the shadow on it's head, otherwise, it is a straight shot. D300s; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/800 sec @ f / 9.

03 Oct 12. Just a short drive or walk above Picture Lake sits the lower end of the ski area. Literally along side the road is the masters level ski lift, which goes almost straight up a fairly good sized "hill", providing for some very nice vertical skiing. Just under that area is a lovely meadow which simply begs one to come and wander around in it when the lifts aren't operating, which is exactly what we did for about 3 hours Saturday afternoon in the fog. While we were there we saw not a single member of our group of 42, which was sorta sad in one way (most folks missed a wonderful opportunity) and delightful in another (no one to get in the field of view save for the two of us). We started shooting around 1500 and remained until dinner time about 4 hours later. During that time the fog was playing cat and mouse with us but all the time offering some very nice scenes for us to capture. The fog made for simply saturated color and I had great fun playing with the show on the ground. The only alteration to this photo was a tiny bit of cropping. This image may not show well if your monitor is not calibrated, so I hope it is, as the color of the ground cover vs the fog is rather striking. D300s; Aperture Priority; 18 - 200; ISO 400; 1/60 sec on a tripod @ f /11.

04 Oct 12 . Moving as we have across the sound, I now find myself somewhat isolated from my favorite mountain range, the Cascades. We do of course have our "own" range of mountains not too far away, the Olympics, but I've yet to find much there to compete with the Cascades. Many locals will of course strongly disagree with my observation, but that, I would imagine, is just a matter of taste. We made our second disappointing trip to Hurricane Ridge a week ago and this was one of the few images I feel worth sharing. It is a pano made without the proper equipment, so there is a bit of distortion in it I can't correct, but I shot it as I was standing beside a 3 foot or so display showing something somewhat similar and with the names of all the mountain peaks labeled. I would have labeled them in this shot but felt that it would have degraded it a bit much. One thing this image provides, that the display didn't as well, is the definite layering of the "hills" which is not really apparent except from a high perspective like this one. Right behind me is the visitor's center, a rather small building more designed to sell you junk than provide any useful information. It is a stark contrast from the two visitor's centers on Mt Rainier. I'll provide a couple more shots from the visit in the next week or two and let everyone come to their own opinion about the park, the smallest in the National Park series. D300s; Aperture Priority; 18 - 200; ISO 200; 1/800 sec @ f / 9.

05 Oct 12. Traveling along the eastern edge of Olympic National Park, we stopped at the Quilcene office of the Hood Canal Ranger District to inquire as to where we might go for some good shooting, especially of water falls. We were directed to the Falls View Park campground where we were told there was a wonderful falls to shoot. Arriving at the closed campground, we walked about a quarter mile to find the trail leading down to the falls. Quite steep in places, we made our way down a series of switchbacks expecting a spectacular view. What we found was a narrow river with a series of drops of perhaps a foot or so meandering along the side of the hill we had just descended. To say it was a disappointment would be the under statement of the year. We shot what we could before making the breath taking, in this case not beauty but out of breath - climb back up to the vehicle. Not finding the falls to be of even the slightest interest, I noted a very tiny creek? that was feeding into the river that held some interest for me, so I concentrated on that small stream, electing to shoot all the shots in HDR format. This is one of them, but I am presenting just one frame of the five as I think it holds up well on its own. Other than some heavy cropping at the top, this is the straight shot. D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/sec @ f /16 on a tripod.

08 Oct 12. With good friends (neighbors) of 8 years during our D.C. tour visiting two weeks ago, we did a little traveling along the western side of Hood Canal taking in a few of the sights. One we visited for the first time was Mt Walker and we drove to the summit to see the view from the two viewpoints. As you arrive at the destination you are greeted by a sign that says "Viewpoint" with an arrow underneath the word pointing in both directions. It is somewhat of a humorous sign and reminded me of the saying "he went that away" with the speaker pointing in both directions, 180 degrees opposite the other, with both thumbs. As it turned out, on our visit the south viewpoint offered some spectacular views while the northern one was basically a dud. This image is one from an HDR series but is just one of the frames in a five shot sequence. The original is a bit on the hazy side and somewhat lacking in contrast, so I had to work it over a small amount to bring out all the detail that was captured in the shot. Sharp eyes will not only find a rather interesting perspective of Seattle, but may also notice the rising moon. They may also pick out the two sports arenas as well as several of the major buildings in the city and the Space Needle. Critical enlarging will also identify the tower at SeaTac. Those same eyes may also find a building or two in Bellevue where I used to work as a barber in my college years. D300s; Aperture Priority; 18 - 200; ISO 200; 1/50 sec @ f /16 on a tripod.

09 Oct 12. Returning from a camera club meeting tonight I was surprised to find a large tree (c24" dia) down across the driveway. Something akin to the large tree in the image, but a hardwood, I think maple, not an evergreen. Guess I know what I'll be doing in the a.m. Recognizing that light is what makes a picture what it is, I endeavored to get as many different colors of light as possible bathing the foggy environment as I could, and as such spent the entire day working with the fog from the time it rolled in around Picture Lake Friday evening until it dissipated some 36 hours hence. This image was taken right around 6 a.m. sun time and clearly shows the cool temperature of light during the early morning hours. One could of course get such an effect using tungsten film for a daylight shot in days of yore, but this is how the camera saw it early Saturday morning pre-breakfast. Since I typically have my white balance set to cloudy to achieve a slight bit of warming in all my shots, the real color of the light was even cooler than what you see here. This shot was taken just a short distance from where I took the grey one I sent earlier in landscape format. This frame, as was the case yesterday, is one frame of a series of five I shot for an HDR effect, but have elected to use as a stand alone as I think it can carry its own weight. Most of the work I did on the Mt Baker retreat was done in HDR format and I'm having fun working the images from both the HDR perspective as well as using isolated frames. A nice advantage of employing the bracketed (HDR) approach is the freedom it gives you for working the final image many different ways. While shooting just single frame images has the advantage of requiring far less storage, it also provides for far fewer options in the digital darkroom. In this case, the only manipulation employed was some small amount of cropping off the top. Nikon D300s; Aperture Priority; 18 - 200; ISO 200; 1/5 sec @ f / 9 on a tripod.

10 Oct 12. Today's submission will not be one for your keeper's list, should you actually have such a thing. It is in fact not a very good photo, but it is a documentary of something I don't often have an opportunity to see and I'm assuming most of you don't either, unless of course you hail from Alaska or places similar where such a scene is common place. Driving through the Tumwater Canyon last week we noticed some streaks in the very low river that looked a lot like sticks but, thinking otherwise, I pulled off the road and we got to watch a group of perhaps 12 Sockeye salmon spawning in the very shallow edges of the Wenatchee River. Having hatched here a few years earlier, they had made their way down the Wenatchee River to the Columbia River, across the bar into the Pacific Ocean, survived several years in the ocean, and then retraced their path back to the mouth of the Columbia River and then up to the Wenatchee River and then to where we were watching the final moments of their lives. It was interesting to watch as they circled round and round putting down the eggs and milt but in less than desired photographic conditions with the light harsh, the activity brisk when it occurred, and me without my polarizer handy. Still, you get to see most of what we saw even though it isn't an optimum image. D30s; Aperture Priority; 18 - 200; ISO 200; 1/200 sec @ f / 8.

11 Oct 12. I had called the Wenatchee Ranger Station a couple days prior to our trip over Steven's Pass to ascertain the state of the fall colors. The report I got was that the individual on the other end of the line thought them to be rather nice. As we were heading up the pass I was beginning to think that the two of us had very different ideas about nice color, that is, until we crested the pass and started down the other side. It was then that my thoughts changed to we share similar ideas on nice color. While the western slopes were primarily still green, the eastern slopes were magnificently colored and that color remained all the way into Leavenworth. The trees were predominantly yellow, the ground cover went from bright yellow to bright orange with a little red thrown in to make it really interesting. This year we caught it right at its peak, and it is something to see at peak. During the morning while we were there, there were absolutely no clouds in the sky, so I've pasted in some of the afternoon vapors. Combining the early morning fog, the mid morning to late afternoon color, and the early afternoon spawning salmon, the day trip was one of our very best. Since I've been alluding to HDR images a time or two this week, this is an example of an HDR image that doesn't have the HDR "look." Nikon D300s; Aperture Priority; 18 - 200; ISO 500; 1/500 sec @ f / 5.6 (middle of three).

12 Oct 12. While Hurricane Ridge is not on my favorites list, I would be remiss to imply that there is nothing of beauty there, as obviously there is, else we wouldn't have the park. Our two visits there haven't been the most productive for me photographically, which could in part speak to my photography instead of the park itself. With very few trails to walk, and the view from each of them being somewhat similar, I don't find a lot of material that piques my interest. That said, there are a couple of views that I feel offer some nice perspectives of the area, and the image for today was taken along the path that leads to one of them. This view is from the top of a "hill" and you are looking back towards the visitor's center ( 9 o'clock center). It being a rather hazy day, I've enhanced the background and sky a bit by introducing a very small amount of micro contrast. Without my having done so the mountains would simply look like a blue patch running across the scene. With that little bit of enhancement you get a small idea of how these mountains appear when you are up amongst them. D300s; Aperture Priority; 18 - 200; ISO 200; 1/320 sec @ f / 9.

15 Oct 12. Traveling as we did on the 20th of Sept to Mt Rainier, I should have been more aware of the impact the smoke form the Eastern WA fires would have on the atmosphere at the mountain. But somehow I was totally oblivious to it all when I considered visiting there. The drive up to the mountain, I chose the eastern approach which was a total mistake, gave no suggestion of the problem, but as we got to the 180 degree turn and parking lot just prior to the summit it became immediately obvious that I had made a poor decision in my choice of where to visit. The mountain, which sits right in your face at that parking area, was appropriately white but was set against a milky background courtesy of all the particulate matter from the fires. A huge disappointment to say the least. The hillsides were covered in lovely fall colors, but once again the garbage in the air left the photography less than satisfactory. Nonetheless we worked the area to the best of our ability before leaving to visit Tipsoo Lake. That proved to be far more successful and included a serenade for perhaps 45 minutes of bugling elk. I haven't yet traversed the trail around the lake but plan to tackle it next year. Since I couldn't get anything of the mountain worth sharing from that trip, I'm providing a shot from last year in which the weather cooperated. D300s; Aperture priority; 18 - 200; ISO 200; 1/100 sec @ f / 9.

16 Oct 12. With the weather having turned to gray, it is time for something cheery. My only living aunt, who has just turned 94, when asked how long she expects to live, commented last year that she thought at least as long as a relative in Sweden, who is something like 103 years old. She said it with such simple conviction that we had to laugh even though she was totally serious in her statement. Pink has been her favorite color for as long as I can remember, and once when she visited us in the Spring, while we were living in PA, we took her on a Chesapeake Bay area tour to include D.C. at the height of the cherry blossom season. She was in hog heaven with pink everywhere. Her desire for a photo of the visit was of the cherry blossoms, and it hung on her wall until she had to move to assisted living where there is no room for hanging anything on the wall. As pink is still her favorite color, I couldn't help but think of her as I came upon this display of flowers in a local nursery. The image is straight from the camera save for the white vignette I placed around the entire frame. I have no idea what the flowers are, but they struck me as a pleasant display when I took the image. Nikon D300s; Aperture Priority; 18 - 200; ISO 200; 1/320 sec @ f / 5.6.

17 Oct 12. Not all of the mountain was enveloped in smoke, and was very apparent as we made our way down the road to pay a visit to Tipsoo Lake. This small lake is surrounded by a series of steep hills, mountains to those of you on the eastern shore, and a shoreline lined with wild flowers of several species. Among my favorite is the Pasque Flower, a plant whose flower and seedpod are seemingly not related to each other. The flower is smallish in size, about the size of a half or silver dollar, generally a beautiful yellow in color, but can be white or purple, and lies close to the ground, but the seed head sits atop a stalk upwards of 18 inches in height and looks a lot like an old man with a long bushy beard. I really like to photograph it with back lighting, and an entire field of them back lit looks not unlike a city viewed from above at night, with all the lights on. This back lit image is of a small grouping of them taken at ground level. I thought this group to be particularly appealing and I apparently was not alone in my feeling. D300s; Aperture Priority; 18 - 200; ISO 400; 1/320 sec @ f / 9.

18 Oct 12. Here's another from the Picture Lake series in the fog. This one was taken roughly three minutes earlier than the first one I shared that was predominantly gray. It can give you an idea as to how fast the fog was rolling in on us. It should be immediately obvious how much more color there is in this image when compared to the other. The two photos were taken in the same tripod holes, ones I created, but the format is different, one obviously landscape and the other portrait. The different formats I think give the scene a very different feel and when combined with the varying amount of fog evoke very different emotions, yet both photos are of virtually the same thing. Next time you find yourself working in weather that is rapidly changing, assuming the conditions in which you find yourself are not hazardous, stay your course and keep shooting, you may find that the best pictures are the ones you would not have normally captured. Nikon D300s; Aperture Priority; 18 - 200;ISO 200; 1/30 sec @ f /14 on a tripod.

19 Oct 12. Well the rain exploded with a mighty crash, that would have been Monday night as the tree fell across our driveway, then abated giving us an absolutely lovely Wed and Thur until this evening when it returned with abandon! So much so that I thought it prudent to get the trusty old boat in shape just in case we need it. While it isn't big enough to hold two of every kind, it will likely suffice for the two of us, the dog, the two lizards, and the snake. Since I think we're supposed to have two of every kind, perhaps we can entice the neighbor's dog, several from which to choose, and find an additional serpent. That should complete the sets. May be in need of a new set of oars, but any of several of the branches from the fallen tree should work. Now all I need to do is grab some stout branch, some good strong glue to keep it upright in the boat, and a good piece of canvas to serve as both a sail and a canopy. We can partially empty Jan's pantry to provide for both ballast and sustenance so we should be all set to go. Lets just hope we don't find any leaks in the vessel. Nikon D300s; Aperture Priority; 18 - 200; ISO 200; 1/321 sec (gotta love that digital accuracy) @ f /13.

22 Oct 12. With the fog dissipating on Sunday morning we initially made our way to Artist's Point (it closed this week for the year) for some pre-breakfast shots and then did a bit of work around Picture Lake until approx 1100, then made our way to the Bagley Lakes region and prepared to walk that trail for the remainder of our time there. We managed to make our way along perhaps 5% of the trail, being constantly derailed by one photographic opportunity after the other, even retracing some of our steps to re-work the same area under differing light conditions. Today's submission will give you a small idea of what it was we were experiencing and it may help to explain why we didn't make much progress on our planned hike along the trail. At the time I took this particular image they sky wasn't as interesting as I would have liked it to have been, so I've taken the option of replacing a rather mundane sky with the one you see. That of course meant that I had to do a little alteration to the water and the snow banks as well, because the grayish tone they displayed represented correctly the grayish nature of the sky, and as I elected to substitute a blue sky, the water and snow fields needed to reflect light of a similar temperature. Otherwise, this is how it looked as we spent about 4 hours walking along the area in the vicinity of the darker area near 4 o'clock of the small lake. D300s; Aperture Priority; 18 - 200; ISO 200; 1/125 sec @ f /16 on a tripod.

23 Oct 12. While we were in the process of reducing our logs into splits of a size that we could chop for firewood, I had a chance to look closely at the butt ends of many of them prior to applying the chain saw. What I saw was far more than rings of growth, although to be certain, they were clearly there. But I also saw patterns, colors, shape, and design. The dripping pitch could be seen as rain falling on the tree or perhaps as the tree crying tears that were falling down across its surface. Perhaps the red color was anger at having been cut down, or signs of the fever that caused its decay and ultimate death. The cracks being signs of aging like our wrinkles or merely indications of sever periods of stress. All of these are things that we seldom see as we toss our firewood into our fire places or wood burning stoves, but things that are present on every log. Next time you are out in the woods and find a fallen tree, or perhaps cutting down your own tree for firewood, or tossing out your next Christmas tree with sawed off butt, take a moment to get a good close look at that cut end to see what you might observe there. You might be really surprised. Nikon D300s; Aperture Priority; 18 - 200; ISO 200; 1/60 sec @ f / 5.6 with fill flash.

24 Oct 12. This is another shot taken from the top of Mt Walker while we were sightseeing with friends almost a month ago! It is from a series I shot to create an HDR image but I liked this well enough to use it on its own. In the far distance at the left about 9 o'clock I believe you are looking at Tacoma, and I am at a loss as to the name of the islands in the foreground. It was just prior to 1700 PDT when I took the shot and it was beginning to look like we might get rain. But we managed to avoid such and shot for almost another 30 minutes before calling it quits for the day. The image was O.K. as it was, but it seemed to be lacking a bit of detail in the sky, so I did a little micro contrast increase over the entire image, then masked it out everywhere except for clouds in the upper area of the sky. Otherwise, it is a basic shot straight from the camera. Nikon D300s; Aperture Priority; 18 - 200; ISO 200; 1/60 sec @ f /16 on a tripod.

25 Oct 12. Let's start with a bit of correction concerning yesterday's image. What you are seeing is as follows: the first portion of water is Dabob Bay which co-mingles with Hood Canal, then that initial piece of land is Takutkso Point, part of the same Olympic Peninsula, then the land straight ahead is the Kitsap Penisula where we reside, and then Tacoma way in the distance which you can't really see. I was a bit confused last night when I was writing and it was brought to my attention by a question from my sister and a note from one of the members on the list who is employed by AAA. With that grievous error cleared up, we look at the image for today. It is a creative shot made by employing a filter that allows for taking an image and placing it on top of itself as many times as you want, much like looking at yourself in two mirrors, one in front of you and the other behind. Probably something that most of the guys on the list have done many a time while sitting in the barber's chair. Unlike the two mirrors, this filter gives you ultimate control on how you create your image. In preparation for a talk I'll be giving this Saturday at a seminar in Abbotsford, B.C, I've been playing around with a number of different approaches to improving a photo (the topic of my presentation). While this one is going to make a radical alteration to the original, it is a fun filter to employ when you want to achieve something interesting as well as potentially comical, depending on your starting image. Some of you may recognize a form here that can be found in nature. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 1250; 1/3 sec @ f / 5.6 hand held.

26 Oct 12. As you walk along the Malecon in Puerto Vallarta, think of the boardwalks in our country, you are struck by some of the art that adorns its seawall. Some of it straight out of science fiction cinema, and some of it straight out of I have no idea. Much of it was rather strange, but fascinating non the less. I was particularly impress with what I think are either characters out of the Star wars movies, or at least characters that were inspired by movies of that genre. Many of them were such that I wanted to stay the day photographing them, but time constraints, i.e., NOT missing the ships sailing, prevented me from so doing. The image for today is one of the more unusual sculptures along the walk, and I think I might have to say that it was the most unique of all those we got to see. Nikon D300s; Aperture Priority; 18 - 200; ISO 200; 1/500 sec @ f / 9.

29 Oct 12. While sitting around the breakfast table this morning in the motel where we were staying for the APAC seminar, one of the other individuals joining us for the meal asked if we had ever been to the Tulalip Resort to look at the art work. We said no but as it was on the way home we thought we might give it a go, and we did. There wasn't as much art work there as was suggested, but what we saw was quite nice, nice enough to recommend it to anyone in the area who might be passing that way. But more impressive to me was the beautiful landscaping all over that campus and today it was in full fall display. An area directly in front of the main entrance to the casino is landscaped with several Japanese Maples that were about as brilliant a red-orange as I ever seen; while I have no idea if the color is how they always turn or if it is just special this year, it was most memorable.They were however situated such that the images of them are far too busy, so if I do share one or two it will have to be after severely cleaning them up. However, there were lots of leaves on the ground which were both colorful and sporting many drops of water on their surfaces. This shot has been severely cropped at the top, had a wee bit of structural enhancement added, along with a minimal amount of saturation increase applied to specific parts of the image. Otherwise it is basically straight from the camera. D300s; Aperture Priority; 18 - 200; ISO 200; 1/160 sec @ f / 7.1.

30 Oct 12 . With rain forecast for most of Monday, it was our pleasure to see a beautiful sky with fantastic clouds as we crossed Puget Sound to spend the day in the dental office. Not exactly what I would describe as my preferred use of a beautiful day - should be reserved for a nasty day - but it certainly did get it off to a wonderful beginning after a very stormy night. The clouds were of three different types with the sun breaking through in places even though much of the sky was clear blue. An very interesting bit of atmospheric display. Today's submission is one shot of those clouds. It is not exactly what the camera recorded in that I have selectively lightened the water about 10%, added some color to the section of clouds that the sun had blown out, and tweaked the structure of the clouds to show more of their detail. Plus I've removed a portion of both the top and bottom which really didn't offer any additional information. All of this, save for the structure manipulation, would constitute nothing more than general darkroom technique in the days of yore. D300s; Aperture Priority; 18 - 200; ISO 200; 1/1000 sec @ f / 9.

31 Oct 12. Since my talk at the APAC Seminar was on how to improve any image with some creative editing, why not one for the group. Of course you've been seeing these "things" for several years now, but as they are what keep me having fun, let's do another. This began out as a straight picture of a hydrangea like flower to which I added a duplicate layer and then manipulated that layer to get a result that looked a bit like the petals had been electrified. I then blended that manipulated layer with the original normal layer by reducing the opacity of the manipulated layer to get the effect you see. Rather simple to do, but the hard part was deciding how much of the manipulation I want to affect the base image. In reality the manipulation took about 3 minutes, the decision for the final look was closer to half an hour. D300s; Aperture Priority; 18 - 200; ISO 400; 1/1000 sec @ f / 7.1.