27 Jan 14. A couple year's after we were married, and were no longer living from day to day financially, we began to collect pieces of art to decorate our home. There were several approaches for us to follow among which our favorite was the annual art show held in Bellevue Square when it was still an open parking lot type of store groupings and the art show a part of the summer Seafair activities. One artist whose work we really admired was Nell Wheeler, a Canadian who had settled in the Seattle area and who passed away in 2007. We purchased 3 of her original works over a period of 4 years with the final purchase being one I saw her painting in a local bank and to which I committed when it was roughly only 1/3 completed. It was a painting of a large rock off the coast of Washington state shrouded in heavy fog with several seagulls flying in front of the rock. I immediately liked it even though it was only a hint of what it was to become when I purchased it and it is to this day still my favorite oil in all our collection. That purchase was over 40 years ago and until this past weekend I had always wanted to go see where she got the incentive to paint it. With the wonderful weather we've been experiencing all of January slated to end this week, we set out mid-morning Friday to go to the coast to an area where she might have gotten her inspiration. Considering the fact that an artist can paint what they see as they want it, I have no way of knowing exactly which rock she was painting, but I believe that we found it on this trip to LaPush, WA. The painting being one primarily of fog, the weather on Friday was perfect as it was forecast for morning fog burning off in the late afternoon. Absolutely perfect weather if I was to mimic her painting with my photography. And so it was. We arrived in moderately heavy fog that mostly burned off before the day was over and began to return as evening set in. I found the rock(s) I wanted and proceeded to photograph them all day long remaining until a bit past sunset. The image I'm sharing with you today is my version of her painting although her painting is depicting a much heavier fog with a greater number of seagulls. Still, it should give you a feeling for the large rocks that can be found near the shore along the Pacific Coast and how they appear, or don't, in the fog. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/2500 sec @ f / 8.
28 Jan 14. The second trip up to Fir Island provided us with a day of mostly sunshine after the morning fog dissipated around 1100. As the fog was making its final stand, the mountains began to really show off their stuff, and Mt Baker in particular put on a wonderful show all day long. At one point, as the sun was making its final assault on the fog, we experienced a couple dramatic shows of sunlight falling on the farmlands as lines of light, much as if the ground had been laid out like a gridiron with the sunlight pretending the be the chalk lines, albeit a bit wide. As lovely as it was in color, I liked the composition even better in B&W, so that's what I'm sharing today. About 15 minutes after this shot was taken the fog was fully dispatched and we were on our own to come up with whatever creativity we could muster. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/500 sec @ f / 9.
29 Jan 14. We made a short trip over to Pt Townsend Sunday afternoon, one of Jan's favorite places to visit, especially for shopping. It is an old location, having first been visited by George Vancouver in 1792 and officially becoming a settlement in 1851. The city has endeavored to maintain a mid 1800s seaport "look" and some of the old architecture dating back to the days of sail can more than make the trip worthwhile. But I'm not a very good photographer of things architectural, so while the old building are wonderful to view, they don't serve as much of a photographic target for me. However, on this past trip I "discovered" the local marina and shipyard. Now it has always been there, and we drive past it twice each time we visit, but on this particular trip we drove into the property and I asked if it would be O.K. to take photographs of the boats and was told yes. That was all I needed to know and it made the visit for me most profitable photographically. I shot a lot of reflections of the boats, but the best part was one Great Blue Heron who obligingly posed for me for several minutes. Actually he/she didn't really pose as much as he/she allowed me to quietly photograph the process of searching for supper. I got quite a few shots and all of them turned out nice. One of them in particular, which I'm sharing today, allowed for the feet of the heron to be seen under water. I've adjusted the image just a little in the shadow under the bird to make the underwater view a bit more visible, but other than that, this image is pretty much how it was captured. The water was quite still as it is the marina behind a large break water. Thus the motion you do see, the ripples around the bird, is caused by the bird walking. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/160 sec @ f / 5.6.
