High Tech Apparatus

Can you guess where I was today? I'll give you a hint - My Medical didn't cover it, and my Dental didn't cover it. Luckily, my Vision covered it. New frames and lenses ordered today and holy-freakin-cow-man I'm glad it's covered!
But anyways, so this is what it looks like from the eye doctor's side. Click here to see what it looks like from my side.

Wealth

We turn the handle and delicious, crystal clear, germ free, life giving water comes out. We are pretty well off compared to some places in the world.
Looking at this got me thinking about something I read on Ian's site San Juan Update a month ago, written by Jim Carroll:

"This morning I stood in a steaming shower and had a recurring revelation. I remembered an evening when my son Ben, who had just returned from a long period of working with AIDS orphans in Lesotho, had first turned my perspective on its head. He walked to the kitchen sink, filled a glass of water from the tap, and drank it. As he set the glass down on the counter he said “pretty much everywhere I’ve been in the last couple of years that would have been the definition of wealth.”
Here I was, standing in a wasteful stream of water from which I could actually drink without becoming ill. I realized with a kind of horror that I am MUCH closer to being a member of the 1% than the 99%. I can turn that horror to gratitude, but the guilt doesn’t wash away so easily."

Click on the photo to see it full-size.

Working When I Should be Sleeping

Burning the midnight oil. Burning the candle at both ends. Time to sink or swim. Bit off more than I can chew. It's either feast or famine. When it rains, it pours. I'm up to my ears in projects. A day late and a dollar short. Painted myself into a corner. Trying to keep my head above water. Working hard, or hardly working? Crack the whip. Get this show on the road. Putting my ducks in a row. Snooze you lose. Time's a wastin'. Gotta put my nose to the grindstone. It's back to the salt mines. Get my head in the game. Gotta go the extra mile. It's a labor of love. The hurrier I go, the behinder I get. Someone opened the flood gates. Can you think of any more?

Click on the photo to see it full-size.

Are You Experienced?

Tonight was a great show at the Community Theater - Jimi Hendrix Tribute featuring Carl Blake on guitar, his son Hunter Blake on bass and Brad Dolson on drums. Plus we were treated to a special guest appearance by Steve Fisher of Heart fame. But Carl totally stole the show and it was difficult to choose a winner from all the photos I shot, so here's some three-fer madness for you.  >>Edit<< Oh alright, I know you want more... here's an encore of 2 more shots. (sorry Brad, your cymbals were in the way and I didn't get any decent shots of you)

Lopez Adirondacks

Today I attended a small business workshop at the Lopez Island Library. Outside on the lawn they have a row of very comfortable looking Adirondacks facing the bay. I liked their repetitive lines and their color against the library so after several shot, this one here is the winner. And again, in keeping with the style of the last few days, this image is processed quite heavily in Photoshop - mostly what you're seeing here is the Poster Edges filter. It looks best if you click on the image to see it at full size.

Big Bird

It was a beautiful day today with not a cloud in the sky, when I heard Thunder! Really? Then I saw this huge twin rotor helicopter fly over and touch down at the airport. A few minutes later, the crew went heading off toward town. I think they flew in for a quick lunch.

Click on the photo to see it full-size.

Salt Shaker

Just playing around with different objects, close up, looking down, looking up, and I settled on this close up of a salt shaker.

Alfa Romeo

I saw this car in a parking lot today and just had to get a photo of that gleaming chrome and shiny paint. What a beauty. They don't make 'em like this any more.

The Codfather

Haley's Bait Shop and Grill. Good food and good times. This is the bar with portraits of locals and their catches lining the walls. Shot with the iPhone and then very lightly photoshopped to add some artistic flavor.

The Fridge

There's gotta be something in here that's edible... I don't get it: we go to the store; we spend over a hundred dollars; we fill 4 shopping bags; bring it all home and put it away; and then nothing sounds good for dinner. There's nothing to eat in here. Why is that?

Almost

I was inspired by Colemama's photo the other day, and it sparked an idea that I wanted to try to convey with a photo. This is almost there, but I think I need a better subject. And I have a model in mind, but she's not here today, so when she gets back and we find some time, we're going to revisit this one. For now, this is a shout out to friends and family whose power got knocked out by the snowstorm this week. I hope your lights and heat are back on soon!

The Snore

Have you ever tried to photograph a snore? Neither have I. But I tried tonight. This is Madison, or "Fatty Maddy". She's staying with us for a couple days while her master gets over a bad cold. I've never heard a dog snore as much as Madison - she just sprawls out (she does know what "make yourself at home" means) on the couch, and saws logs all afternoon.

Spring Street Arbor

We had a nice quiet dinner tonight (well except for the accordion player) down by the waterfront. Saw 2 ferries come and go, and the whole time I was looking at the arbor at the end of Spring Street, thinking "that looks like my photo for the day". And you know what? I was right!

Snow Day

Well they were right, sort of... we did get snow, but I wouldn't say we got "dumped on". Not like the areas south of Seattle anyway. I heard they got over 12" in some areas. But we got enough here to close schools and some businesses, including where I work... SNOW DAY!!! Woohoo!! So I stayed in and got caught up on some important (and overdue) projects. Way cool. But now where did I leave that shovel....?

Click on the photo to see it full-size.

Crisp Winter Night

This is our driveway and right there by those footprints in the light from the front window is where I shot yesterday's photo. I thought I'd try a long exposure tonight to see what the snow would look like in a nighttime photo. Also, this will be a good comparison for tomorrow morning - they're saying we're supposed to get dumped on tonight. So I guess we'll see in the morning.

Click on the photo to see it full-size.

Micro Snowballs

The Eskimos probably have a name for this stuff. I'm not sure what to call it, but "granular" comes to mind. This is our driveway this morning. I stepped outside to head off to work, saw this and just had to shoot a photo.

Click on the photo to see it full-size.

Obscure Glass

I've always liked the way this window diffuses the colors from outside and spreads them across the glass, so today I finally shot a photo of it. That was some blue sky at the top there, in between flurries of snow this afternoon.

Winter Sky

They said we might get snow today, and they were right - At around 2:00 I saw the first few flakes start to fall and and it kept on coming down until probably 2:01 or 2:02.
Anyway, then a couple hours later, the sky opened up and I was able to grab this shot. Doesn't look like snow weather, does it? But it sure is cold out; if the clouds move back in tonight, there might be a snowy morning to wake up to.

Art Fence

In my 'spare' time, when I'm not doing photo work or playing (or sleeping), I deliver package freight as a part time job. It's pretty simple work really; it doesn't require a whole lot of complex cognitive ability and there's certainly no challenge to it ("...let's see, should I turn left and deliver these packages first, or turn right and deliver those packages first...?"), but I enjoy it nonetheless. Anyway, just out of town on the residential portion of my route, I frequently deliver to a house whose neighbor has a rather large garden. And to keep the deer out, they have the coolest fence I've ever seen. Usually, I don't like fences much, but this one is way cool and ever since starting this new 365 project, I've planned to shoot this on my next opportunity. Well, today was my lucky day...

Click on the photo to see it full-size.

Painter Girl

Like I said in an earlier post, this year I'm going to experiment more with post processing effects. This is my daughter Courtney graciously agreeing to model for me so I can try some techniques I learned at the Scott Kelby thing in Seattle a couple months ago, and then I thought I'd process it all up to see how many effects I could layer on top of one another. I think it came out kinda cool (and different) and she said she likes it, so here it is, my post for the day. Kinda looks like she's been working in an artist studio and got some paint on her, don't you think?

Ingredient

Being somewhat health conscious, we occasionally like to look at the list of ingredient on the foods we eat. A couple of our rules of thumb are, "If there are more than 5 ingredient - be careful and maybe just avoid if possible"; "If there are ingredient that you can't identify or pronounce, put it back on the shelf"; and basically things like that. So, looking at this package this morning, we were surprised to see that it didn't have a list of "Ingredients" like most packages, but it actually said "INGREDIENT: 100% Whole Grain Rolled Oats". You can't get much simpler than that!

Icy

This is the first thing I noticed this morning. Well, other than the coffee. (I don't usually notice much of anything else until after the coffee.) But after my coffee, when I finally looked outside, I was surprised to see that it had frozen in the night. This is a bird bath in our backyard and I liked how the ice made patterns on the surface, so I ran out and shot it with my iPhone.

Laser Disc

After an exhausting weekend, and the Monday grind at work, I was finding difficulty rather than inspiration for today's photo. I shot pictures of this and that, but nothing was jumping out at me, so I was straightening up my desk when I picked up a cd-rom and noticed the rainbow of colors that reflected off of it. Finally, something to work with! So I held it in front of my computer monitor with a white document filling the screen, and shot a bunch of variations of the "laser" rainbow colors, and this one is the winner.

Vancouver Public Library

Today was all about more Vancouver and less rain! We had a great time exploring and put several miles (kilometers?) on our shoes. One of my favorite sights was the architecture of the library and accompanying atrium.

Burrard Bridge

 

Walking around Vancouver in the rain with no umbrella or rain gear can be a bit of an adventure, and it's always good to keep an eye out for covered areas to walk under. Taking a few minutes respite under this structure, I couldn't help looking up and seeing today's photo op.

Nighthawks

So there we were, walking back to the car after a great dinner at The Trumpeter Public House in Mt. Vernon; I had just shot a great photo for today's post, and we got to the car, when I turned and saw a famous painting across the street. So, suddenly, as often happens in this blogging thing, I had a better and unexpected photo. If you don't know what I'm talking about with today's title, look up "Nighthawks painting".

The Hydrologic Cycle, Part IV

We here in the Northwest know all about this phenomenon... Periods of rain, heavy at times, followed by afternoon showers. And a few sun breaks maybe? Here's some blue sky, seen reflected in the parking lot. Yes, you read that right - Parking Lot! Be sure to keep a PFD with you in your car!

Ordinary Household Object

This was shot with my iPhone, right up close and personal. The colors were very subtle because of the light reflecting on the surface, so using Photoshop, I cranked up the saturation and vibrance all the way to 10.
Wouldn't it be cool if they went up to 11?

Java Jive

It's pretty cool how much you start to really see the things around you when you're doing a 365... All day long, knowing in the back of your mind that you're gonna need a photo for the day, little things that would otherwise go unnoticed seem to say "Pick me! Pick me!". I almost didn't even shoot this though, until it persisted. (meaning until I saw that it wouldn't let go and just freakin' drop into my cup already...) So, finally I went to grab my camera and tripod, thinking "it won't be there when I get back", but it was. So I shot and here it is. Just natural light from the kitchen window and a 1/2 sec. exposure.

Self Portrait

Yes, I call it "Self Portrait". You see - I think I must be nuts. I just started another 365 project. Like I've really got time for this! But wait! There's more... it's actually a 366 project this time. Yup! It's Leap Year baby! Wish me luck...

Processed

I'm starting another 365 and this is my first post. With my 2009 365 blog, I was all about getting the photo as good as possible in-camera and I almost felt like I was cheating if I did a lot of Photoshop work. This year, I'm going to indulge in P/S effects a lot more. So what you see above is a simple photo I shot as part of a work assignment, but for this blog I did some P/S filters and effects just to make it look a bit more interesting.