Daily Image - Apr '22 Archive

08 Apr 22 For this Friday's macro/close-up I've selected a close-up shot from a local nursery of a fully opened tulip. It is definitely missing a pollinating insect of some kind for perspective but none were working on the afternoon I took the shot it being on the weekend. It would have been a better shot had that front anther been in focus but I was hand holding, there was some movement courtesy of a fan, and I'm not steady enough to take "sliced" frames without a tripod. On the other hand that less than sharp anther provides for some feeling of depth. I grabbed this shot as we entered the nursery. By the time we left the light on it had disappeared, that left most petal had drooped, and the blossom was looking a bit bedraggled. We were fortunate to have timed our visit as we did, but it was all just luck. Tulips locally are now making their presence known, the daffodils are all but gone, but the forsythia, scotch broom, and skunk cabbage will revive the yellow landscape. Stay tuned. This is straight from the camera save for a bit of distraction removal and some slight contrast enhancement to really show off the pollen on the anthers. Open for Business Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/1,000 sec @ f / 9.

01 Apr 22 Eight weeks ago I shared a shot of a sprig of pink pussy willow from our front landscape. This pink plant has had folks asking for a start as most are not familiar with the pink variety. We weren't until a few years ago. Just like any typical "white" fuzzy pussy willow that red fuzz turned into a bright yellow pollen which attracts lots of pollinating critters. I've shared many images of that stage over the years; it is among my favorite plants to shoot close up. After that pollen phase dissipates that "flower" becomes a bunch of cotton-like material of which in the past I've mostly been oblivious. Earlier this week as we were taking Maggie out for her morning walk Jan noticed that our hummingbirds were collecting it, something we never observed before. So I decided it would be fun to try and capture them at their trade. Took a few sittings but eventually I got a few shots I thought shareable. Today's offering is of one of our year round resident male Ruby-throated hummingbirds collecting some of that cottony material. At the moment the shutter tripped he had just alighted on a branch for a very brief rest. You can see the cottony material clutched between his upper and lower bill; note that he has collected enough that his bill isn't fully closed. Trying to photograph these little birds who are zipping around in the branches is a lot fun and makes one glad to be shooting in digital; most of the shots are not keepers. While I was observing them they refused to do any collecting near me in the open if I was holding the camera; put it away and they would collect directly in front of me. Next year I may have to spend a lot more time sitting with them with camera in hand to get them acclimated to that big black thing being pointed at them. This is a small crop from the full frame, perhaps only 20% of the full capture. I've given it a very wee bit of sharpening to compensate for the bird's movement. Nest Building Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 800; 1/320 sec @ f / 7.1.

06 Apr 22 We return to Rocky Brook creek and falls. That 200 yard walk from parking area to falls parallels what I guess one would call Rocky Brook proper. From the falls to river where it completes its run it is a series of small waterfalls all at most a foot in height but literally dozens of them. When the water level is sufficiently high it is a beautiful stretch of water. Right now it is that way. Later in the year when the runoff is much smaller many of these tiny falls "transition" to nothing more than rocks in the riverbed around which the water flows. Today's offering is a sample of what you see every few feet as you walk the trail to and from the falls. If you have the time and live nearby, now is the time to go visit. This is straight from the camera save for a wee bit of cropping and the removal of a few small annoying twigs. Babbling Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 400; 1/250 sec @ f / 9.

12 Apr 22 Our oldest cherub is an up and coming artist who for the last 6 years has been gifting us with an original painting as her Christmas gift. Each year her ability grows and we have them hanging together on one wall. She and her sister are visiting us for Easter week and as I almost always make a color sketch of each image I thought of her work as I was making the set for today. So with that in mind I decided to go with a creative version for today's offering, that of a color sketch of the subject. Probably should have selected a different version since she works with acrylics, but I liked the sketch best and it reminded me of something she would do. This scene is just one of the dozens of small one to two foot falls that line Rocky Brook. There are so many it is hard to decide which one is your favorite. This particular shot had a little more color than some of the others so I selected it. I'd like to claim that the orange colored blur near the top was a fish but it was just a leaf. The light pink flowers at the right are the blossom of Salmon Berry. With that info you can write your own story to go with the image. This is straight from the camera save for a wee bit of cropping and conversion using the Topaz plug-in Impression 2. Color Sketch Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 400; 1/200 sec @ f / 9.

Maundy Thursday For today's Theatrical Thursday's submission I'm going with a straight version of the image I shared on Tuesday . . . . with a twist. The "twist" being the creative part. One of the filter programs I have called Filter Forge has a library of over 5,000 filters. The filters are primarily created by the individual purchasers of the program and are uploaded to the corporate web page where they are free to download. It is also possible to purcha$e the entire library of filters so you don't have to download them one at a time. The program comes with a filter generator so you have significant control over your filter creation(s). One of the filters available lets you make a stamp out of your image. It does lack the ability to put the price in the upper right hand corner but it wouldn't be all that hard to add such as a layer when creating the "stamp." I've applied the filter to the straight version of the Rocky Brook photo, sans price, for today's creative offering. The original is straight from the camera; the creative aspect applied with Filter Forge. Postage Stamp Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 400; 1/200 sec @ f / 9.

04 Apr 22 With the weather looking promising on Friday we took off on a little jaunt to Brinnon, WA to look at rhododendrons at one of our favorite nurseries and visit Rocky Brook Falls which we hadn't visited in over a year. Some of you may recall I've shared shots of the falls prior. It was a good decision as the falls was spewing far more water than we have ever seen over the last several years. Having never visited the falls in the spring the amount of water flowing may be typical. The walk from the parking area to the 100 foot high horsetail falls is roughly 200 yards and easily accessible as long as you are ambulatory; not suitable for wheel chair or stroller occupants. At the trails end there is a large assembly of rocks which are easily navigable and on the other side is a lovely little pool at the base of the falls. You often find youngins frolicking in the pool but it is a bit on the chilly side for this old guy! For those not inclined to encounter the rocks the full falls can be seen from the trail but you don't get the full experience like you do on the rocks with the spray of the falls hitting you in the face. If you live in my part of the PNW and you haven't yet visited Brinnon, get a good pair of walking/hiking shoes, a couple of sticks, and make your way to the west side of the sound. You won't be disappointed. This is a 5 frame vertical stack. Other than some necessary cropping for the merge, this is what the camera captured. Runneth Over Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 400; 1/400 sec @ f / 9.

18 Apr 22 My apologies for not getting this out last night; one of those day's when life's events get in the way. Back to the Dosewallips river today for the bigger picture of the really teal section of the river. As I wrote before I have no idea why it s the color it is but it was nice to see it. Nothing to add to this as I basically said it all in the earlier post. Hope you all had a blessed Easter. This is a 14 frame pano; other than cropping for composition, this is what the camera captured. Around the Bend Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 400; 1/400 sec @ f / 9.

05 Apr 22 We'll leave Rocky Brook for today and return tomorrow. From the parking lot you can take a 15 - 30 minute walk east - depends on how fast you walk - or a 5 minute drive and follow the Dosewallips River or just the Dosewallips as it is commonly called by the locals. It is a salmon spawning river like most all of the rivers out here that empty into salt water. We drove along the road with the idea of taking it all the way to where it joins the main highway, 104, but only made it about 2 miles whereupon we encountered a road closed 2 miles ahead sign and turned around and headed back towards the falls. As we made one slight turn Jan suggested we stop and look at a small section of the river that looked teal blue to her. By the time she said it we had gone past so we had to turn around and loop back. I walked a small portion of the road and noted that the river was several different shades of blue/green as I walked but found that spot that she thought looked teal. I'm sharing that section with you today. Of note is how clear the water is and what a nice location it would be for spawning. The climate is very wet in this location and the trees are fully covered in moss; you can get a small idea of how they look in the upper left hand corner of the shot. As you meander through this location you may experience the sensation of being in another geologic time when mammals weren't walking the ground. This is a five frame pano; other than cropping the merge for composition and adding a wee bit of contrast, this is what the camera captured. Blue Water Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 400; 1/125 sec @ f / 9.

Good Friday For this Good Friday's macro /closeup I've selected a shot of a Bleeding Heart (also know as Lady in the Boat) which I feel appropriate for the day. This beautifully fragile plant - 6 of them - is a main show piece in the side garden aligned with our front walk as well as the sole participant in a corner display at the bottom of the drive leading to the back yard. They come in three colors, white, pink, and red with varying hues in each color. Their bright yellow-green leaves make them really stand out from the other green plants in the garden as does their reddish stalk. Ours stay in bloom for a couple of months which makes the a welcome member of the landscape. When we lived in Ballard we had one at the base of the door going out to the back yard which at the time we moved was roughly 3 feet in diameter. It had been there for many years and we had hoped to bring it with us as part of the move but it didn't happen. I was very disappointed that we couldn't successfully move it but now we have 10 of them total and it won't be long before a couple in the front garden reach that size. If this plant will grow in your climatic zone I highly recommend it to you. Other than some cropping and distracting element removal this is straight from the camera. Arching Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 400; 1/200 sec @ f / 9.

07 Apr 22 Current weather in these parts is best described as spring time. Yesterday on her way into work Jan called and said "you might want to come and shoot the mountains, they have a fresh snowfall on them and are really pretty." I did and they were. Today it reached the low 60s, tomorrow supposedly it will hit 70, and then a chance of some snow over the weekend. Spring Time! Now back to the mountains. Two miles from our house there is a large amount of acreage which is really a tree farm, the kind used for building not Christmas decoration. It was clear cut about 5 years back and when that happened it opened up a section of the acreage providing for a nice view of the Olympic Mountains. As the vegetation is rapidly growing back - although it isn't trees, another story - that view is becoming obscured but we have fortunately found another location a few miles distant with an even better view. After shooting the location near us I drove to the other one and took some more shots. Today's offering is from that other location. As you can see the mountains got a reasonable accumulation of snow; nice to have these later snowfalls as they go a long ways in providing for summertime water. This is a 5 frame pano; other than cropping for composition, this is what the camera recorded. Freshly Frosted Nikon D500; 19 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/1,250 sec @ f / 9.

29 Apr 22 For this Friday's close-up/macro offering, and the last mailing until I get back from Yellowstone in the middle of May, we are looking at a Pasque Flower. I first encountered these lovely flowers while wandering around Tipsoo Lake on Mt Rainier which is an important breeding ground for the Western Toad and the Cascade Frog and sits at an altitude of 5,849 FSW. A most striking little flower that is a bit challenging to shoot as the blossom is generally arched over and facing the ground. As it turns out they surprisingly can also thrive at sea level and we have a half rain barrel full of them. I was able to encourage this individual to look straight out so you can see not only the interior of the blossom but also some of the fine hairs that adorn most of the leaves and stem. As this displays on my screen the flower is about 6x its real life size. The flowers last anywhere from 5 - 15 days depending on the weather; the stems and leaves a bit longer and they are rather attractive as well being covered as they are in the fine hairs. We find them rather easy to grow and one nice aspect of the plant is its tendency to spread although not rapidly. If you find this flower attractive you might consider adding a few to your landscape. This is straight from the camera. Up Close Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/320 sec @ f / 9.

11 Apr 22 Another week, another waterfall, or at least one fall of a series. Ludlow Falls is a small series of cascades in what I would call a stream located about 50 minutes away in the community of Port Ludlow. The stream drains what at best might be considered a marshy area filled with tannins which turn the water a light tea color as opposed to a more traditional clear water. From 2015 - 2019 we visited it at least once a year; this past week was our first trip back since 2019 and our first during the spring runoff. Between visits the appearance of the falls has changed drastically as it hasn't been kept groomed and there are now lots of fallen logs across it and a lot of distracting vegetation growing off the logs. It is in a private garden open to the public. While the caretakers have improved the "native" plants garden which leads you to the falls, they have also "improved" the access to the falls by installing obstacles to the edge of the stream banks making it more difficult to get where you need to be to properly photograph the falls. However, the impediments are not all that hard to circumvent and so I did. Now Mother Nature, on the other hand, has seen to it that any attempt to get out onto the rocks in mid stream isn't so easy; the amount of water rushing over those rocks right now strongly suggest that one not try it. We'll have to see if it is such in another 6 weeks or so. Meanwhile here is a shot from our visit there 3 days ago. IF I did it correctly, when you initially looked at the image or when you do, the water should have appeared to be moving. Curious to know if you experienced such. This is what the camera captured. Moving Through Time Nikon D500; 18 -200; Aperture Priority; ISO 800; 1/20 sec @ f / 22 hand held.

13 Apr 22 Back to Ludlow Falls but this time for a view along the trail. A century back this was prime lumber territory and one of the ways to transport the logs was via rail. The area of the falls contained a section of the railroad used to move the logs from the site of cutting to the mill(s). There are small remnants of the tracks still in the area but you'd need help in finding them. Fortunately, some signage has been provided to assist in that endeavor. Also left after the departure of the logging work was some of the chain used to keep things together. Some of that is now being re-used to create "barriers" (sorta like those ropey things in a bank) designed to keep you some distance from the stream bank but I see them more as photographic opportunities. The chain is really showing its age; zoom in and you can see portions of the links that are not too far away from rusting through at their ends. It is most obvious on the section of chain connected to the furthermost right post. Rather than looking at these "barriers" as distractions I rather think they are a nice addition to the path taking you to the falls. This is straight from the camera save for a tiny amount of contrast enhancement. Chain Gang Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 800; 1/40 sec @ f / 9.

19 Apr 22 Growing up in Puget Sound one thing you could count on was Easter vacation - Holy week - would be wet. I can't remember a single Easter Sunrise service when we weren't sitting on wet benches under an umbrella which often was basically useless due to winds. This past week started out a little wet but the last few days, Maundy Thursday through Easter were gorgeous! Perfect weather for photograph, especially Good Friday! That day was marked by beautiful clouds. I had to make a trip to Suquamish, a site for a ferry run to Seattle in the 40s and 50s, and thought I might get a nice view from there and was rewarded for the effort. The clouds were fantastic, the Cascade mountain range clear and snow capped, the water beautifully blue and just enough activity, a commercial airliner, sailing boat, and tug with tow, to make it interesting. In retrospect I didn't approach the subject correctly; instead of taking 26 horizontal frames I should have shot closer to 40 vertical frames to make the panorama. As a result I failed to get all of the pier I wanted for perspective. But it is the clouds and mountains that I wanted to primarily share. The original composite was almost 8 GB so I didn't make any of my normal multiple creative copies as the computer was struggling handling the large file size. Got it down to 66 MB once saved as a jpeg but then I had to drastically reduce that to share. I was standing at what used to be the dock for the Suquamish ferry; to the left is Indianola and at the far right Seattle. The Cascades run the entire length of the image and a whole lot more. Mt Rainier is beyond the right hand edge and Mt Baker the left. This is a 26 frame composite. It required a little cropping and cloning to get it as you see it. Indianola to Seattle Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/1,000 sec @ f /13.

25 Apr 22 On the southern most corner of our church's property was a stand of four cottonwood trees each maybe 100 feet in height. After several years of discussion of what we should do about them, it was recently decided they should come down. I had proposed that we could take them down ourselves but there were a couple of considerations that came into play that made us rethink that idea and hire out the job. One of those was that between the trees and the ground are both power and telephone lines and the other was their proximity to the church itself. Plus we would then have to clean up the mess. Now as it turns out one of my neighbor's sons has his own tree removal business so I asked him for a price and it was one we couldn't refuse. So last week we became cottonwood free for the first time in the church's history as far as I know. Now, if you are not familiar with cottonwoods, you may not appreciate why we wanted them down. In the spring they release a "cotton" like material that carpets everything around, much like that awful green pollen released by maple trees. In the fall, being a hardwood, they dump all their leaves as do all hardwoods, but they aren't at all colorful. So twice a year they are a lot of work; the rest of the year they really aren't all that attractive. So for a small amount of money we are rid of a lot of bothersome work. All-in-all a good exchange and nice outcome. The work removing the trees began much earlier than I had anticipated and by the time I got there only one tree remained but it was a bit more of a challenge than the others and required climbing to take it down. Today's shot is of it being limbed before felling. Notice the chips from the saw and the branch on its way to the ground. This is straight from the camera. Roped Up Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/2,000 sec @ f / 9.

26 Apr 22 For the last few days Jan has been sharing with me some simply stunning images from the tulip fields up in La Conner on her FB page. Without exception all have been taken during the blue hour. But that's when you get the stunning shots. Too early for me in the morning and as for the evening time it's not too late but then I have to drive home at night with tired old eyes that don't fare well with the light from the oncoming vehicles, especially from those who are too inconsiderate to dim their beams or from the new super bright halogen or similar bulbs. Thus I don't get to take in much blue hour shooting. So I thought I'd attempt to create a blue hour-like look from a shot I had taken earlier, light wise. Of course the lighting isn't correct, the light should be coming from under the clouds not from above them, but the contrast and colors are about right. The result I think is reasonably close. The original has been manipulated to give the look you are seeing; otherwise it is straight from the camera. Twilight Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/800 sec @ f /13.

20 Apr 22 Once again life events got in the way yesterday - but boy was it worth it - so my apology for the late mailing. Yesterday started off looking rather bleak and it began with the felling of four large cottonwood trees adjacent to our church. Got a few nice shots of the trees with the individual climbing in silhouette in some rather threatening weather. When I got back home I checked the weather in La Conner - the area where the tulips are grown, - and it looked like it might be O.K., so off we went. What a day it turned out to be. Deep blue skies, fantastic white puffy clouds, and one beautiful several acre field of red, yellow, and purple tulips. Haven't had a day up there like that in perhaps a decade!! All that coupled with a most memorable sunset which unfortunately I couldn't shoot as we were driving but we got to experience it. La Conner used to be field after field after field of tulips with lots of free parking and easy access to the flowers. Yesterday there were but three fields, virtually no parking for access, and very limited colors in the fields. One of the two commercial locations we visit had gone from a $7 entrance fee with military discount and re-entry ability the last time we visited it in 2019 to a flat $15 fee and no re-entry. We didn't bother to visit the second one. The $15 entry fee however did provide access to some LOVELY displays featuring approx 2 million hand planted bulbs; hard to even imagine the labor involved in that. All that aside, the combination of colors and the show in the heavens as the backdrop made for a magnificent day. We even got to see several rain squalls but always in the distance without a drop falling on us; you can see three of them in the image. Thought about removing the naked apes but them let them in for perspective. Stopped for dinner on the return trip at a nice burger place in the Tulalip Casino complex that features a $6 hot fudge sundae, large enough to be your complete meal!! Highly recommended!! The resort also features a water display with falls and full sized Orca; a treat in itself. For those of you near me, the next couple days might be perfect for visiting La Conner. This is straight from the camera; I used a polarizing filter to get the deep blue. Close to Perfection Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/1,000 sec @ f /13.

21 Apr 22 All too often it is too easy to take for granted what one sees when visiting a lovely location and all that meets the eye is the result of a lot of hard work. The fields of tulips, unlike the display gardens which are planted by hand and of which you are made aware, are planted using modern farming equipment. But you usually don't get to see those implements in conjunction with the fields of flowers. This shot was taken to show the relationship between the two and to remind those of us who just make a nice day trip up to see the flowers that it took a lot of work to create those acres of flowers. It was also taken to show the evolution of farming equipment, meaning the tractors, which no longer have wheels but tracks that allow the tractor to move like a tank or, as a more natural analogy, a snake. This is the same field that I shared yesterday but shot from a slightly different position. This is what the camera captured. Necessary Implements Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/1,000 sec @ f /13.

22 Apr 22 Reminder, next Friday's image will be the last until I return from Yellowstone sometime after the 16th. To really see the beauty in the tulips, at least from my perspective, you need to be shooting somewhere near the blue hour. I generally don't get to do that as that's far too early in the morning for me to get up and get there and usually my companions, if they go with me, don't enjoy hanging around that long in the evening. But even so on occasion I get to shoot a bit as the evening light is starting to create some lovely settings. One on this last trip involved the sun shooting a beam of light directly down the center of a fully opened blossom that had bent over. The effect of that light shining straight through it was as if someone was holding a torch beaming it directly at the flower. I thought it made for a nice presentation and so it is today's Friday macro /close-up offering. I've elected to add a wee bit of contrast enhancement to give it a little rim light effect in addition to the central lighting. This was just one plant in a bed surrounded by hundreds of others. It was the only one with a visitor at the time I was shooting. Other than some serious cropping for composition and the contrast manipulation this is what the camera recorded. #12 - Tulip With May Fly Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/500 sec @ f /10.

27 Apr 22 Friday last, like the previous Tuesday (tulip trip), started out as being a potentially good day for a trip so we decided to set our sights on visiting the Hoh Rain forest. We never got there. As soon as we reached the Hood Canal bridge we could see that we were about to enter a "bit" of inclement weather but we pressed on anyway. By the time we had reached Sequim we had broken out of the weather and it was really quite nice. Pressed on through Port Angeles, then past Crescent Lake where I got a few nice waterfall shots, and continued west once again meeting up with the weather. But at that point we decided to keep going a bit further and maybe 20 minutes later exited the storm and broke out into nice sunny weather. A few more minutes and we were almost at the Pacific Ocean shoreline so we pressed on. First stop was at Rialto Beach where we spent maybe 45 minutes during which time both Maggie and I managed to fall while traversing a massive amount of driftwood in the form of BIG logs - think trees. The light was very harsh, the water nice but not spectacular, and a fair amount of haze making photography difficult. So we cut our stay a little short and moved on to First Beach / La Push to spend the remaining of our time. I concentrated on the driftwood and the more eastern portion of the beach (Rialto) while there. The brightness of the water, even with the use of nice sunglasses, was such that my eyes stopped down to a degree that I didn't realize how the area actually looked. I didn't get an appreciation of what was there until we got back home and I could see it on the computer. It actually was far more picturesque that day than I had imagined. More about that tomorrow. Today's offering is typical of what we got to experience Friday afternoon. This was taken around 1600. Good day for surfing if that's your thing. Other than a little haze removal and small amount of contrast adjustment, this is straight from the camera. Breakers Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1 / 1,000 sec @ f /11.

28 Apr 22 Leaving Rialto Beach we drove back along the 110 spur to 110 and then down the hill to 1st Beach or La Push, two names for the same place. Stayed until 1830 but in retrospect should have stayed until dark. The sunset was spectacular but we of course missed it all although we got teaser glimpses as we drove back home. The waves at Rialto were higher but those at La Push were much wider and more spectacular. The depth of the water is reasonably shallow and you get some very broad waves in some places (center of the water is an example.) There is no beach area where you see the rocks and trees at the top of the image so the waves crash against the rocks all the time. From the parking lot, which is where I was when I took this shot, there is a nice sandy beach and while we we there it was occupied by crows, dogs, surfers, and other miscellaneous naked apes. One gentleman was walking his Irish Wolfhound who, when he stood on his hind legs, was as tall as the gentleman. I took a shot of them looking at each other eye-to-eye, literally. The two surfers really didn't have much luck, never mounted a wave they could ride standing on their boards, and only a couple times were able to ride a wave all the way to shore lying on their boards. At one point a couple dozen of the crows lined up on a single log in part probably because a certain human was tossing them dog biscuits. Overall it was a good trip but I need to find a way to take in the evening Blue Hour. Perhaps staying put long enough to let the traffic subside and thus avoiding all the headlights might be a solution as well as just finding lodging for the night. Or I could just fake it and put in my own sunset. Not likely. :-) Other than a little contrast enhancement, this is straight from the camera. Surf's Up Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; SO 200; 1/640 sec @ f /11.