Daily Image - July 2019 Archive

08 Jul 19 As promised we return to the trip images. The evening of that first day of the trip when we stayed in Seaside was for the most part very disappointing but probably mostly my own doing as I tend to build up expectations far beyond what I should and then find things not to be as I thought they should be. Or so I'm told frequently enough! When Haystack Rock didn't pan out - and that isn't an exaggeration - I turned my attention to different sea stacks that were more readily available and weren't crawling with humans and dogs. This set of two large and seven small rocks were to the immediate left of Haystack and were being ignored by all but two individuals whom I made seem as though they were working with Houdini. At first glance these rocks and the surrounding water don't necessarily appear all that interesting, but take a little time and study the image carefully. You should find several hundred birds either in the water or flying around the rocks, many more on the rocks, a ship on the horizon, and what I believe to be either a solo Killer Whale or False Killer Whale between the two bigger rocks centered between them about one inch from their tops. The majority of the birds are Cormorants but there are also several seagulls and a pair of large birds I can't identify. Have fun finding all the critters; Waldo however isn't among them. This is basically straight from the camera save for some straightening of the horizon and a bit of contrast enhancement. Towers of Life Nikon D500; 18 - 200; ISO 200; 1/500 sec @ f / 9.

03 Jul 19 Something a bit lighter for today and maybe even amusing. It's a simple documentary shot and not anything special except for the action it caught. Driving down to Cannon Beach that first evening we noticed a horse posed very gallantly along a stream over which we were driving. It was a shot I should have taken but I had my mind on Haystack Rock and passed it by. On our return to the motel we passed over that same bridge and now the horse was quite a ways off but with others and I thought there might be a photo lurking there. So we stopped and I got out to shoot. As I walked onto the bridge two of the horses began quarreling with each other and I started trying to capture the action. Didn't get exactly what I wanted, but I did get quite close. I snapped the shutter fractions of a second late but the shot caught the head of the paint as it snapped back having just been kicked by the white horse. You can see the motion in the head of the paint and the tail of the white guy. Not sure which mare they were fighting over but it was an interesting show. The fight continued for another 5 minutes post kick with both stallions eventually getting, I would imagine, too tired to carry it further. All the farm garbage ruins the shot but it does put things in perspective. Back to the more picturesque stuff tomorrow, hopefully with a bit of fireworks if all goes as planned. Other than some cropping, this is straight from the camera. Round Two Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/80 sec @ f / 9.

02 Jul 19 After briefly visiting with my sister and her husband in their new abode, we set off for our first stop in our trip, Long Beach where we were to visit two lighthouses, closed as it turned out, and the jetty where the Columbia River meets the Pacific Ocean. That was closed also. So our first two locations were a bust. So we headed south to Seaside for our first night with the intention of shooting Haystack Rock, a sea stack I've heard about for years, seen many photos of, and a place I've wanted to see for years! Houses prevented the view of the rock for the most part, the beach surrounding the rock is just plain sand and nothing else save for hundreds of tourists and their trash, and the clean up crews trying unsuccessfully to stay ahead of the mess. So no images that night worth discussion. Although I did get to see a nice horse fight, the subject of another mailing. Got up the next morning to try and shoot Haystack Rock before the crowds arrived but the clean up crews beat me to it and had it roped off with their crews and truck surrounding the area trying to clean it up.No photos there! So I headed back to the motel and on the way found an access area that wasn't yet full of "civilization" or whatever other name you might give to it and wandered out onto a part of the shoreline. I knew I didn't want the typical Haystack Rock photo for many reasons including the fact that as a sea stack it isn't all that impressive; WA has far more such rocks and far more interesting they are, especially the ones with the inter-tidal life forms surrounding them. So I tried for a different look and attempted many approaches. Of them this is one of the better views, especially since I've removed several items of civilization that added nothing to the shot. It was a partially foggy morning and I had to work fast to use even some of it. The blue tone is due to the fog. All the tiny dark specs around the rock are sea birds. Other than cleaning this up some, this is what the camera captured. On a Partially Foggy Morning Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture priority;ISO 200; 1/40 sec @ f /9 on a tripod.

09 Jul 19 Roughly 3 hours (110 miles) south of Astoria on the Columbia River to Lincoln City - both in Oregon - on Highway 101 is Siletz Bay. This is a really lovely section of the Oregon coastline and well worth the drive to visit. There is much to see including the Siletz Bay Wildlife Refuge but we did stop to see any of it save for a brief shoot at one of the roadway pullouts. Directly offshore lies a major fault known as the Cascadia Subduction Zone. Apparently there was a major earthquake there on 26 Jan 1700, supposedly 9+ on the Richter scale which created a 50 wave (Tsunami) which struck the shoreline exactly 20 minutes later with many more waves to follow. Interestingly there was no scale for measurement back in 1700, no way to have measured the time it took to arrive nor the height of that wave, nor how many waves followed. Still, there is a big sign telling you all about this event and it is very specific in its information. Always nice to have a little humor on your travels! Road sign apart, it is a lovely location and on the day of our visit bathed in bright sunshine and blown spotless by blustery winds accompanied by a delightful show of water vapor over an incoming tide. We made just this one stop as we were on our way to a zoo at the bottom of the state where we were to hold a variety of baby animals. I straightened the original, cropped off a bit of needless material, and added a wee bit of contrast enhancement. Remains Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 500; 1/2000 sec @ f / 9.

22 Jul 19 Our second day started with me getting up before sunrise to shoot Haystack Rock about which I've already written, then down the coast to the Tillamook Cheese & Ice Cream Factory for a self guided tour and cheese tasting of which the tour was interesting but not necessarily the cheese, and then a mad rush down highway 101 to the West Coast Game Park Safari located about 9 miles south of Bandon, OR before it closed. Jan had visited it before and was insistent that I would just love it. Their stick is "a handler will present our ambassador animals for specific interaction with visitor groups. Visitors will be allowed time to visit, pet, play, and photograph our ambassador animals within each given presentation area." Well, that might have been her experience the first time, but it wasn't quite so on our visit. We spent about an hour there and got to "pet" one animal, an opossum, and had one other critter we can't remember walk across our legs. Whoopee! There were two other animals "presented" but we got to "experience" neither, so over all it was a long hard drive for virtually nothing. One of the "presented" animal was a cross breed cat which they were breeding for some reason we couldn't comprehend but we did get to photograph it. I'm sharing a photo of that critter today. All the big animals (carnivores) were in cages from the '50s era and I found it very disgusting. Having been on the Board of Directors of Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo in the early 70s when we were trying to bring it out of the dark ages I still don't understand why Jan and our daughter thought this was a place worth visiting. The presenter discussed their success in breeding endangered species and how many happy breeding animals they have, all of which may well be true, but from my perspective this isn't a "happy" place I'd ever visit again and certainly wouldn't recommend. Others may have had a different experience. The cat by the way wasn't unhappy, it had just finished playing with a toy, and is yawning. I've cropped the original plenty to get rid of a lot of unnecessary material, otherwise, this is what the camera recorded. Big Yawn Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 1,000; 1/80 sec @ f / 9.

12 Jul 19 Our first move to CA had us purchasing a home sight unseen and arriving at it during the first week of September. The architectural rendering of the home in the provided property portfolio showed the home fully landscaped, such landscaping being included in the purchase price. What it didn't say was that such rendition was how it would look in 10 - 15 years with the provided landscaping. When we arrived to actually see the property for the first time and sign the paperwork ALL the landscaping package fit on the front landing and the grounds surrounding the house were bare brown concrete. Well, not actually concrete, but just as hard. Trying to break it up into plant able soil I broke a diesel rototiller! I had to leave Jan and the kids a couple days after we arrived to attend a 6 week course held in Monterrey, so I just made it back home on alternate weekends. One of our neighbors just down the hill was trimming her plantings during my absence and one of the plants she was heavily trimming was something called ice plant. We had never heard of such a thing but it is a form of succulent with triangle shaped "leaves" and brilliant dark pink or yellow flowers. She brought Jan a couple buckets of the trimmings and told her just to poke a hole in the dirt and insert a piece. Sounds easy, but that hard ground required a steel screwdriver and hammer to bore out the holes for the cuttings. Seemed crazy; 3 months later we had a fully covered bank of this beautiful plant. All ours was green but in the San Francisco area we've seen lots of plants with red "leaves." Leaves in quotes because I don't know what you really call the succulent part. Today we are looking at a single flower in the dark pink version. At first viewing you are going to say he did something to it to make it look like it does, but I didn't! This plant puts out the most amazing brilliant flowers of any plant I've ever seen. I would love to have it growing in our yard, and it would do very well for the better part of the year, but our winters would kill it; it doesn't like freezing weather. If you've never seen this plant in person, next time you are in the area of the Pacific coast of California look for it; it adorns much of the sides of the 101 highway. This is straight from the camera; all I've done is crop the original for composition. Strutt'n Its Stuff Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/320 sec @ f / 9.

10 Jul 19 Departing Siletz Bay you drive another 170 miles south taking approximately 3.5 hours assuming you don't stop for anything and drive the speed limit will find you near the town or Port Orford. Nothing particularly exciting about Port Orford but nearby is Battle Rock Park, named for the historic battle fought between members of the Tututni Tribe and Captain William Tichenor's men in 1851. "When Captain William Tichenor of the Steamship Sea Gull arrived in June 1851 and left nine men with muskets and a cannon to establish a European settlement right in their village, the native Qua-to-mah band reacted with hostility. They felt the newcomers were encroaching on their territory; this resulted in deadly conflict between the two cultures. After the men disembarked with their weapons and supplies, Tichenor sailed south to San Francisco on his regular run. The men climbed a rock at the edge of the beach, set up camp and waited. When natives approached and began to climb the rock, the would-be settlers opened fire. Accounts differ, but, apparently, there were skirmishes over several days. Some natives were killed. One or two of the white men were injured but not seriously. Captain Tichenor did not return in two weeks as he promised because his ship was impounded in San Francisco due to debts. When tension and numbers of natives increased, the nine men climbed off the rock – known since as Battle Rock – and left in darkness, traveling north on foot. They kept going until they arrived at a settlement on the Umpqua River. When Tichenor did arrive at the rock,he thought there must have been a massacre of his men, though no bodies were found. The nine men eventually found their way back to Portland." Today there is a lovely park there commemorating that skirmish offering nice walks, easy access to the beach although it is a bit of a walk, Grey Whale watching from the shore - none of which we did - and magnificent views of the coastline which we did enjoy. If you are ever in that part of the Oregon coastline and you haven't visited the area you owe it to yourself to so do. I've cropped the original a tiny bit, removed a few distractions, and added a wee bit of contrast enhancement. On a Breezy Evening Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/800 sec @ f / 9.

24 Jul 19 Today's image is another shot from that parking lot featuring teasel. This time I did it almost as a silhouette but not quite, allowing the green of the plant to be prominent and of course employed back lighting for the effect. I've over sharpened the teasel some to let the wispy tops of each plant show. They were quite visible in person but lost some in the capture so I thought I'd help just a little. Not much more to say additionally over what I wrote with that previous mailing. This is what the camera recorded save for the sharpening I mentioned above. Backlit Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/6400 sec @ f / 9.

11 Jul 19 It's been quite a while since I've shared a creative image and as this is Theatrical Thursday I thought I'd go with one for today. As you drive along the Oregon coast there is opportunity after opportunity to stop and look at the lovely coastline with its abundance of sea stacks and other ordinary large rocks that sit in the inter-tidal zone. I know every little cove has a name and likely many of the rock formations as well, but for the most part I didn't attempt to identify the vast majority of them - yesterday's mailing being an exception - and just shot what caught my eye. Jan has a strong liking for teasel and always comments about such when she sees it when we are on the road. At one bend in the road she spied a goodly grouping of the plant growing on a small mound at the road's edge with several rock structures in the background. The mound was comprised of small gravel-like black rocks with patches of purple and yellow flowers in full bloom spotting its top. The sun was beginning its descent into the Pacific and as such was providing perfect back lighting for the teasel. That was just too much to pass up so we stayed for the better part of 15 minutes while I played with the plants, rocks, and water. With that as a bit of background material this creative version of the scene should speak for itself. I had to straighten the horizon a small amount and crop off a wee bit on both ends, and of course it has been turned into a creative version, otherwise, this is what the camera saw. Using Greens & Blues Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/640 sec @ f /9.

15 Jul 19 Another typical OR coastline shot for today. In the NW corner of WA state you see a fair number of sea stacks, most of them more majestic than their southern relatives, but far fewer in number. Then there is a gap that extends to the NW corner of OR where they once again appear and continue down the coast to the Monterey area of CA. I have never heard a plausible explanation for why they occur where they do, or perhaps more accurately where they don't, although that may be due to my not having afforded them sufficient interest. With the entire coastline of OR being publicly owned access to them in that state is much easier than it is in the other two states. There is a booklet provided by the OR department of something that gives all the driving details and other info such as lodging accommodations if you are interested in seeing this spectacular view of the western edge of the Pacific Ocean. It's definitely worth seeing if you are ever in the area and an experience you won't easily forget. In addition to easy beach access there are MANY pullouts / parking areas where you can get easy photographic access of the shoreline. The shot for today is very typical of what you see along the entire coast but weather, and time of year and day, have a great deal of influence on how the view will be when you visit. The winter offers the stormiest weather and the more spectacular shots but any time of the year can be nice. Likewise the time of the day will make a big difference with early morning and late afternoon/early evening being the best time to shoot no matter when you visit. Of course it will be rather difficult to shoot every scene in the early/late time frames but mid day is also good for a daily siesta. I've straightened the original a small amount to get a level horizon and added some small contrast enhancement. Typical View Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/1000 sec @ f / 9.

17 Jul 19 Referring back momentarily to yesterday's mailing, recall that the surfers and the waves were being driven by some reasonably strong winds. Those same winds are at work in today's mailing but this time driving the surface sand. So this is the second image of three featuring two elements. You will have to study the image a bit but at some point you will recognize the sand that is being blown by the wind. I'll help by telling you it is the lighter colored sand that looks a little soft and streaked. It was really interesting to see the sand moving across the top of more sand and watching it undulate as it did. I likely should have taken a video of it, and I did consider doing so, but decided I preferred the challenge of trying to show motion at a moment in time. I don't recall what was casting the shadow right center but it almost looks like a flying horseshoe crab. You can see the sand billowing at the backs of both of the rocks at the left middle edge and with just a small amount of imagination see it climbing and flowing over that tiny hill just above the right hand rock. Have some fun going over all the image to see everything going on at the time. The blue at the top is the Pacific crashing in to meet the beach. This is straight from the camera. Driven by the Wind Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/400 sec @ f / 9.

16 Jul 19 Counting today's mailing the next three mailings will be from the same site and will include two elements in each. The three shots could be used for a triptych if desired, in this case, a triptych comprised of three complimentary images. I don't recall exactly where this location is but it is near the southern end of OR. The wind was doing its best to make itself known and the water was putting on quite a nice show playing with the rocks. A second show was being acted out by a couple of wind surfers who were making their way ashore from about 100 yards out and snaking their way to the beach. I photographed them from about 50 years out all the way to the beach. This is a shot of the first surfer walking his craft in ankle deep water to the sand while his surfing partner is making his final run through the surf. Watching them made me feel like this is a sport I'd enjoy, a LOT! Later in the week we watched a board surfer attempt to get out far enough to surf back but all he managed to do was get pushed about a mile down the beach never getting far enough out to ride his board back. The wind on both days playing the lead role. I've cropped the original to get rid of a lot of empty water, otherwise, this is what the camera captured. Coming Ashore Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture priority; ISO 200; 1/1600 sec @ f / 9.

18 Jul 19 Last pane of the set of three. Since it is Theatrical Thursday I've elected to modify it some and added an extra cloud. You can choose which one it is. This frame combines the wind, waves, blowing sand, and even, for those of you with a very critical eye, a wind surfer. This is the same location I used for the prior two frames but this time looking to the left instead of straight ahead or to the right. One interesting aspect of this shot when compared with all the others I've shared with sea stacks is that several of them are located at the high tide line and are generally not in the water. This was the only location we found such on the entire trip. Of course there was more coastline we didn't see than we did see, but this was the only such spot all the way down into northern CA. Not a lot more to say about it other than it must be a very popular location as there was another pullout for this same beach just a few hundred yards down the road which you can see immediately to the left of the rock at the far left. Other than my cloud addition, I've cropped off some useless material. All the Elements Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/640 sec @ f / 9.

23 Jul 19 We spent our second night in Crescent City, CA and had as our plan to see the redwoods in that area before making our way south to Eureka. I asked the desk clerk for some ideas and he suggested we take the local route east out of town and visit the Jedediah Smith Stout Memorial Grove so off we went. My navigator was asleep on the job and we wound up many miles from where we should have been before turning around and back tracking to locate the grove. It was a pleasant place but the lighting was extremely harsh and I stupidly failed to carry the tripod leaving it in the Trooper so I had a bit of a challenge shooting in deep forest with penetrating bright sunlight poking its way down between the giants. We had a nice walk and wound up bumping into the same family several times while we followed the path through the forest. As we were leaving we got to talking and they mentioned they had their own business and were thinking about getting photos into commercial buildings. We chatted some about what I do and he took my card to look over my work with the possibility of getting it into many businesses. Since he didn't give me any of his personal info I just cast the discussion aside as friendly talk. Since I haven't heard a peep from him since I think I made the correct observation, but it was fun chatting none the less. While walking through the grove I attempted many different kinds of shots, but the only ones I like even slightly are those I made looking straight up, or close to it. One of them is what I'm sharing today. Every nature photographer worth their salt has made one of these types of images, so there is nothing special about this one save perhaps for the fact that I tried to emphasis one trunk without sacrificing the look although I didn't really succeed; but I came close. The trees are so wide at the bottom and narrow at the top that I found it very difficult to get the 360 degree canopy look that these kinds of shots are meant to portray. This is straight from the camera. A Giant's View Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 640; 1/1250 sec @ f / 5.

29 Jul 19 Today's submission is best viewed perhaps 8 - 10 feet distant from your computer screen or at least arm's length if viewing on your phone, heaven forbid. Day four found us spending our time around Eureka. We started our day by visiting the Humbolt Botanical Garden only to find it closed and so pressed on to Ferndale to look at the old buildings as I mentioned earlier. When we tired of that we headed back to the botanical garden, then on to a local in-town Redwood park and finished our day by walking around Eureka looking at and shooting interesting sights there such as the Carson Mansion I shared earlier. The Humbolt Botanical Garden is, I think, best described as a very large and lovely rock garden with a fair number of plants nicely arranged in groups with paths through the garden. It has several sections dedicated to plants that supposedly go together but for the most part I didn't exactly understand the groupings even though we had a map (brochure) describing it all. There was one grouping I really liked which consisted entirely of heather-like plants in many colors and a shot of that is what you see today. It was to me a very busy grouping but I really liked the colors and was thinking how nice the plants would look in our landscape. We didn't spend enough time there and as it was a free day for all the locals - but not us - the staff was rather busy and spending more time making sure those who came were locals than they were for helping the visitors. So I didn't get the opportunity to learn very much about the plants but since we kept the brochure I plan to contact them and find out which of the heather group - if any - would do well in our climate which appears to be close to ours, with some exception. As Humbolt County seems to be the pot capital of the world, I'm not sure if that is a necessary part of their survival. If so, it still might be O.K. considering the way our stupid state is going. This is straight from the camera. Garden Delight Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/320 sec @ f / 9.

30 Jul 19 Along with the gardens which Jan remembers as being arranged by climate zones and she is likely correct, another feature in the Humboldt Botanical Gardens was a butterfly display. Depending on your personal choice, you might find the butterfly display to be more interesting than the botanical specimens. It was sort of a toss up for me as the garden area was large and the butterfly display just a single tent. But the display was well done with a docent available to not only answer all your questions but one who was eager to point out things you might otherwise miss such as the butterfly eggs and larvae (caterpillars) both of which almost required a microscope to see. As far as I could determine there were only two species in the display, Monarch and Swallowtail. Virtually every Swallowtail had it wing tips broken off and one could almost imagine they had decided to clip their wings, so to speak. We spent maybe 30 minutes watching the critters and I snapped few shots. Today's submission is one of them and you can easily visualize the busted wings. This is a little on the dark side as I've tried to simulate a tapestry of the kind you might have found in the more upper class homes a century ago. I've cropped the original a fair amount to get rid of useless material and converted it to the tapestry look (Topaz Impression 2 ). Tapestry-Like; Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/200 sec @ f / 9.

25 Jul 19 We spent days 3 and 4 in Eureka making several side trips to see the local sights. One of these was to the historic Victorian village of Ferndale, a community nestled between the Lost Coast and the California Redwoods. Its main attraction is the Victorian architecture featured on all its buildings. We spent a couple hours wandering around the downtown streets while I attempted to get some architectural shots but pretty much failed in that effort as that's definitely not my forte. But it was fun to see all the buildings. As it turned out there were several more such buildings a few blocks walk from our motel in Eureka and I had much better luck shooting those. One in particular caught our eye, the Carson Mansion, so we put in an offer for it. Waiting to hear back. The home was built for William Carson, a lumber baron in the height of the San Francisco lumbering days. We thought it might be the perfect location for a winter retreat from the grays of Puget Sound and just the right size for entertaining. We had a lovely Victorian home in PA during our second tour there and this one sorta reminded us of it. I was thinking of removing that annoying shingle in front but didn't have enough information to reasonably attempt it. I had to straighten the original some and, as it is Theatrical Thursday, I elected to add a couple clouds into the boring blue sky. Our New Abode Nikon D500; 12 -24; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/1000 sec @ f / 4.

01 Jul 19 Back from 11 days and 2300+ miles of travel from our home in Eglon to Berkeley and back. Traffic was a bit much, at least half of what we wanted to see was closed, and the class was a total bust! To be fair, the instructor was excellent, his material very good, and he went out of his way to be extremely helpful! But the class taught me nothing new. I had communicated with him prior to taking his class and inquired about the advanced class vice the beginners class. He strongly requested I take the beginners class - even though after having reviewed my portfolio and stating that it was one that anyone would be proud of - he felt that as I didn't have a single image in it that was identical to what he is doing, I would be a drag on the advanced students. So I took the beginners class and wound up helping other students. His technique has been demonstrated by him in several videos and almost step by step in several of his books. So my interest was in the advanced stuff NOT in the books and videos, NONE of which was provided! Very expensive lesson learned; no more classes from so called experts. So just what is it that he does and in which I am interested. He makes very high key images of translucent flowers and other things, but mainly flowers. Sample attached for today's image. The technique for a basic type image is simple; the more complex I'm thinking not quite so. Frustrating part of all this is he stated he is writing a book that will include all the info, step by step, for everything he does. Price will likely be under $50! The method for creating such an image is to take a series of shots on a light box each shot being twice as bright as the former starting from a "normal" exposure and continuing until the last shot is basically white. You now stack each of these frames on top of one another in a graphics edition program starting with the brightest at the bottom and the darkest at the top. On all but the bottom layer you add a black mask and paint with white on the black mask to reveal just that portion of the individual layer you want to show through to the bottom layer. Stated differently, you paint on the bottom layer with ever darker colors until you get the look you like. It is very simple and I use this approach all the time but not in the manner he does for these flower images. In truth the hardest part is the initial flower arrangement. That I do need to master as well as eventually learn the tricks employed for the far more complex designs. I'll wait for the book. This is of course a many layered shot as explained above. Translucency Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Manual mode; ISO 100; 1/60 - 3 sec @ f /13.

31 Jul 19 Our first evening on the return leg having departed Berkeley was to provide us with several nice sights as we traveled north finally ending up in Botega Bay for the night. All of you Hitchcock fans will recognize that location. A couple hours before calling the driving quits for the evening we were driving through rolling hills of farming country with little bits of fog thrown in every now and then. At one point as we were oscillating up and down along the roadway with farms on both sides, we came to a spot where the mowing had left the field in stripes of two shades of green, bright and dark. Lying parallel to the stripes were bales of hay that appeared to have just been bailed that afternoon. The combination of greens, fog, hay bales, and the sunset were simply irresistible so I pulled off when I could and walked back to get the shot(s). Jan - surprisingly - decided that this creative version did the best job of evoking the setting so I'm going with it. We were fortunate to have such a lovely evening to end an otherwise disappointing day. It was to get better before night set in. I've straighten the original and then converted it using Topaz Impression 2. A Turner Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/320 sec @ f /11.

July 4th HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA - Wishing you all a wonderful 4th of July We are entertained by two major fireworks displays and many simple shows every year as I suppose many of you are also. One is in Bremerton, a local town that is home to the Bremerton Naval Shipyard, a major employer and support base for many of our major naval craft. The town puts on a spectacular show the Saturday before the 4th, or the 3rd if the holiday falls on a Saturday, called the Bridge Blast which gets bigger and better each year, but it is much too crowded for me and I stay away. The other show is put on by the town of Poulsbo, a small formerly Scandinavian community which I do attend even though it is equally crowded because I get to use the facilities of a congregational member whose barber shop directly overlooks Dogfish Bay - now renamed Liberty Bay by those who found the name offensive - where the display is produced. Last night the show was a bit unique. About two hours before the official fireworks show began, there were a couple gun shots about three buildings down from where I was set up. I didn't hear them which was odd as they were described as substantially louder than any fireworks and I was clearing hearing the fireworks. Panic set in and folks were screaming and running away from the location, stories were growing, and the cell phone and facebook idiots were having a field day. Here is what happened: a) a man shot himself - twice; b) a man confronted police with a screwdriver so they shot him; c) a man with a screwdriver was running around poking people so they shot him; d) a man was armed and the police repeatedly told him not to draw his weapon and then they shot him; e) a lone gunman was on the loose shooting folks; or f) any of 4,186 other versions on facebook and you can take you pick. The event resulted in 19 emergency vehicles - apparently every law enforcement vehicle in the county - arriving on the scene who did absolutely NOTHING to alleviate crowd panic, no realistic crowd control, and nothing to stop or control the rumor mill. They did however manage to TOTALLY screw up the traffic situation which continued so for another 4 hours! Must have been a slow night and they wanted to party some!!! Somehow it didn't make the newspaper. So that was our first show. It also delayed the start of the second (real fireworks) show which was then cut short with about half of the total show being consumed in the final 2 minutes. But the show was really nice and I had some fun shooting it. The attached image is one Jan selected from the almost 150 shots I took. Not all but most turned out, and I learned a few new things on how to do a better job next time. All-in-all not a bad night. Tonight I'll be visiting with a friend who lives nearby on a spit that offers views of fireworks in two directions. I will be attempting a couple different approaches depending on what takes place so maybe something will come of it to share also. Let's hope. Other than a tiny bit of cropping this is straight from the camera. An Evening of Surprises Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Manual; ISO 200; bulb @ f /11 with multiple bursts recorded on a single frame.

05 Jul 19 The planned shoot for the 4th didn't come off as I got too tired, had a terrified dog, and a bride not feeling all that well. So while I started out to do the shoot, I gave it up when I found myself rapidly fading waiting for dark. The 4th was more like a war zone around our abode and even the critters were noticing it in different ways. One of the resident song birds - can't definitively identify it - apparently decided it had had enough of the particulate matter falling from the sky onto it and decided it was time for a bath. The point at which the water begins flowing out of the rocks in the waterfall and falling into the pond has a small section of rock where the water is less than an inch deep and many of the birds like to bathe on that spot. As I was filming this one doing the bath routine I caught it in the act of shaking the water off including some of the water droplets being expelled. Zoom in to 75 - 100% and have a close look at the bird in action. Its tail was whipping about as it was gyrating back and forth. It's more of a fun shot than anything else but does give a good idea of how they get the water off their bodies. Back to trip photos on Monday. This is a cropped version of what the camera recorded as the material removed was both unneeded and highly distracting. In the Shower Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 320; 1/125 sec @ f / 9.

26 Jul 19 Two Fridays back we took a trip to one of the more interesting nurseries we've ever found which we do a couple three times a year, Far Reaches Botanical Conservancy, otherwise known as Far Reaches Farm, in Port Townsend. The two links tell you all about the place but you don't have to live here to appreciate the work done there to provide access to plants you would otherwise not know about or ever see. We get something rare from them every time we visit and it makes our landscaping somewhat unusual and hopefully interesting. I did some freelance work for the owner a couple years back so I now have access to the farm any time I want to take photos although it is only open on Fridays and Saturdays from April until usually October to the general public. This last trip we got three new specimens and spent a couple hours just wandering around. To and from Port Townsend I was noticing that one of my favorite flowers, the CA Poppy, was in full bloom so I tried my hand at getting a few captures of the flower showing off as best possible. After a few futile efforts I found a location with the poppies really popping with the right lighting to present them at their best. I took one of the captures and made 7 versions of it. For today's macro/close-up I'm sharing a totally straight version as well as one of the creative versions as I think you might find them both appealing. The straight shot is what the camera recorded; the other is obviously manipulated (Topaz Impression 2). Back Lit & A Turner; Nikon D500; 105mm macro; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/640 sec @ f / 9.

Same as above.

19 Jul 19 I had planned on another image for today but a day in Sequim enjoying the lavender farms 24 hours prior to the annual festival and crowds, shooting whatever caught my eye, resulted in another offering and Jan selected it. I have had a couple favorite farms over the years but as they grow larger and larger crops, there is more crowding of the plants, and the fields to my way of thinking are not quite as attractive as they used to be. This growth offers different opportunities and I need to learn to embrace them but I still like the smaller and greater number of farms we enjoyed about 10 years ago. One of the favorite farms about which I've written before that has lots of wild (planted by the birds) opium poppies growing among the lavender had hundreds of plants today post flower but with partially developed seed pods. Unfortunately for us they were still green and not ready to harvest (we bad folks always take home a dozen or so of the pods because the farm won't sell them to us) so we won't be adding to our garden this year courtesy of the farm, but I did take the opportunity to take several shots of them. This submission is among my favorites from the shoot and while I wish they were brown (mature) instead of green (seeds not mature) they all made for nice compositions. I shared one similar to this around 2009 but it was a fully creative version and while quite colorful, really didn't do a good job of representing the plant. This one is totally straight, save for a little cropping off of both left and right sides, so it should give you a good idea of how the poppy looks after it drops its flower. So red opium poppy plants in the foreground and lavender in the background. Other than the cropping, this is straight from the camera. Standing Out with the Group Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/500 sec @ f /9.