August 30th - Crystal Candle Holder

Looking around for something to photograph tonight I found this crystal candle holder. I'm surprised I've not found this before in moments of frustration wondering what to shoot for a daily photo. This worked pretty well - 2 bare strobes on either side, and by mistake I got my hand in the photo - I was going to simply shoot it with the candle lit, but I had an itchy trigger finger I guess...
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August 29th - Farewell

Six days sure can go by in a hurry when you're having fun. Maurice left Friday Harbor this morning on a float plane, bound for Seattle and then Nevada and Arizona for 2 more weeks of adventure before returning home to Switzerland one day before college classes begin.
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August 28th - Fox Cove Sunset

For our third and final night we took Favorite around to the southwest side of Sucia. We originally planned for Fossil Bay but it looked pretty crowded so we opted for Fox Cove instead, and good thing too or we would not have seen this beautiful sunset over Little Sucia island.
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August 27th - Two Favorites

This is my folk's boat "Favorite". It's where I've spent the last 4 days while up at Sucia Island. In this photo, it's on a mooring buoy in Ewing Cove which has got to be my Favorite place in the whole world.
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August 26th - Kayaking

If you ever go to Sucia Island, be sure and bring some kayaks along. Or a canoe. Or a row boat. Or whatever small craft you can get your hands on. It's all about going where the big boats can't. Floating over colorful starfish covered rocks with kelp and sea anemones 2 feet below the surface. This is Maurice in my kayak adding a new item to his list of adventure activities.
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August 25th - On Holiday

I've been away on vacation without internet for the past few days. We had a friend here from Switzerland and we took him up to Sucia Island. This is the view from the aft deck (a.k.a. "the poop deck" - that's an inside joke) looking at some fellow vacationers' boats on Shallow Bay.
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August 24th - Madrona and Harbor Seal

Courtney and I took our friend Maurice to the west side today for a short hike. I thought this Madrona tree looked very nice in the sunlight with Haro Strait in the background - I like the red and yellow bark against the blue water.
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I also liked this harbor seal hauled out on a rock sunning herself as the fog burned away. Couldn't decide which of these photos to post today so I picked two this time.
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August 23rd - Rocker Chick

If you look at Eric's comment on my photo yesterday of TJ's guitar, you'll see he suggests we start a band...
Well we're one step ahead of ya. We've been playing with some guys and practicing some songs. I wanted to get a shot of us all at band practice this afternoon, but I didn't have time and Jake had to leave to go to work. So instead, I got Courtney on guitar again, in the living room this evening, with some dramatic lighting this time.
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August 22nd - Blue... I mean Yellow!

Yesterday it was TJ's amp, today it's his guitar with a cool paint job. It looks either red or green depending on what angle you view it. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to illustrate that with a still photo, but this came out pretty well I think.
1/250th sec. f/8 iso 200 - with one bare strobe bounced off the ceiling.

August 21st - Fender Amplification

This is TJ's practice practice amp. It's a nice little amp with some cool effects and decent tone. I put a red thing in front of it to reflect in the nameplate for some color. Also my blue cell phone but it didn't reflect as well. And I'm outta time tonight so this will have to do.
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August 20th - Red Flower

We have some friends who are going to Hawaii for a few weeks and we're going to be watering their plants at the community garden. While we were over there getting the grand tour I shot a few photos and this one is the winner for today's daily photo.
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August 19th - Game On

Late night in the garage/boys' room. X-Box Live wired up with a headset playing action games with other gamers around the country.
And I used to play with a stick in a mud puddle when I was a kid.
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August 18th - Scrabble

Shannon, Cody and Courtney played a game of Scrabble tonight and they used up every single tile! And Cody won the game.
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August 17th - Beach Houses

We had a picnic down at South Beach this evening. The weather was perfect - just enough of a breeze to keep the campfire smoke away from the picnic table, not too hot and not too cold. And we saw some rustic waterfront cottages right on the beach.
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August 16th - IV, V, VI

Sometimes I just don't have a lot to say about a photo... Right now is one of those times and I'm not going to force it.
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August 15th - The After Picture: Open for Business

Today I was reminded by my family that I had said on my blog the other day that I would post a photo of my fair booth after I got it done inside and ready for business. Good thing too because today was the last day of the fair and the last chance I would have had to get a shot of it. So here it is - this is where I've spent the last 4 days. What a great time and good experience for my first time doing this!
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August 14th - Water in Water

I chose this photo for today out of several that I shot at, yes, at the Fair again (I was there for 12 hours again today), but I didn't want to do rides again or carnivals, though I think I got some good ones. I chose this because it looks kinda cool and a little out of the ordinary. Also, it's in keeping with my Patterns and Textures image gallery. I have to say though, that I think it is wrong, wrong, wrong to buy bottled water, so this is in no way an endorsement of Aquafina or bottled water in general. I just thought it looked cool.
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August 13th - Carnival

One of the best things I remember about going to the fair when I was a kid was all the lights and rides at night. And the carnival was cool too. We had a pretty good rainfall today at the fair but luckily it tapered off and people still got to go out and play after dark.
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Oh and this next image here makes me want to go eat a bunch of Corn Dogs, Cotton Candy and Caramel Apples and then ride the Zipper...

August 12th - Deluxe Junk

Walking around the fairgrounds when I got a few minutes here and there, I kept being drawn to the "Trash to Treasures" booth where Kevin has gobs of junk that most people would take to the dump. He's got it set up so kids of all ages can tear it apart and combine pieces from different things and make their own cool projects and stuff. And they learn about how things are built and what makes them tick in the process. Pretty cool. This is his off-road shopping cart which I assume he uses on salvage missions. (oh, and I got the title for this post from a cool 2nd hand store in Fremont)
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August 11th - The Before Picture

This is where I spent a good portion of my day - well, here and the hardware store. I thought I'd get a shot of my booth as it looked before I "moved in", and then I'll get a shot tomorrow when the fair is going. It's opening day tomorrow!
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August 10th - Pico de Gallo

I got my son hooked on fresh home-made pico de gallo recently which is way cool because now he likes to make it himself. So roughly a half hour ago (that would be 11:30 PM or so for those of you not paying attention to time stamps) it went kinda like this:
"Dad, are you hungry?"
"Yeah kinda..."
"Because I was thinking of maybe making some pico..."
"Sweet, I think that's a splendid idea"
"Well OK then"

And so not only do we get some fresh pico tonight, but I got my daily photo just in the nick of time also.
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August 9th - Chester Lou

Here's a head shot of Chester. This was shot under the not-so-bright dining room lights. Pretty slow shutter speed so I had to hold very steady and make sure Chester didn't move. Cody took care of that part for me - he was making something to eat and Chester wasn't taking his eyes off it.
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August 8th - The Fan

I like the lines and patterns on the front of our fan and I thought I'd try getting some sharp contrast with the strobe. This was shot with my DIY grid on the strobe at 1/16th power.
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August 7th - Fair Photos

This is our dining room table covered with matted photos. I printed up a bunch of my favorites from over the last couple of years and I'm going to be exhibiting at the county fair next week, so I spent the better part of today matting and taping and packing and signing...
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August 6th - Kayaks

We put the kayaks in the water today. I'm embarrassed to say that this was the first time this year... Yeah I know, it's horrible. We've been so busy. But we had a good time!
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August 5th - AA's

Double-A batteries... How different would life be without them? I wouldn't have shot many of the photos I've shot for this blog without them. Mostly we take them for granted but they're pretty amazing little things if you really think about it...
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August 4th - Chocolate Earths

You saw my favorite dessert the other day. This bowl here has a much sweeter dessert - little chocolate balls with foil wrappers printed like little globes. I can see the Colorado River on there!
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August 3rd - Hard Worker

We went for a picnic dinner tonight at whale watch park but didn't see any whales. We did see this little guy though, hauling some loot back home with him. Not sure what he was hauling - maybe a piece of dried tree sap?
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August 2nd - Dessert Bowl

I don't have much of a sweet tooth. This is my kind of dessert right here. And I just noticed after I shot this that the chips and the placemat have a similar look to them. But I'm glad my chips aren't blue!
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August 1st - Dungeness

We went down to our local floating seafood store today for some salmon to barbeque and I saw this tank full of live dungeness crabs and just had to get a shot of them. I wonder if they're scared? Or maybe just annoyed? Blissfully ignorant?
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