Mirror Calm

Wow it's been almost a year since I've posted on here. Been pretty busy with the San Juan Update I guess. Anyway, I thought I'd put something up. This is Little Sucia Island, as viewed from Fox Cove on Sucia Island. I woke up on the boat and all bleary eyed before coffee I went up on deck and shot a bunch of photos of the glass calm water. What a gorgeous morning!

A little while later as I was paddling my kayak around Little Sucia, cutting through that beautiful blue liquid, I was shouting in my head: "First tracks! I'm making first tracks!"

You probably had to be there, or be a skier to get it. But what a great morning it was. Mirror-calm water like this is my favorite.

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First Crossing

I got the honor of shooting the album cover photo for my friend Tom Henry's new CD. This guy is an amazing guitar player and I jumped at the opportunity to work with him on this (although, I use the term "jumped" loosely - it took us a while to get our schedules aligned so that we could actually do it). But once we did, we met at his place where he has a beautiful pond in the front yard, with a little dock and rowboat... what a perfect setting for an album called "First Crossing".
Shot in nearly direct sunlight (above and right), there were a few wispy clouds, but the light was rather harsh with a couple of speedlights side by side on full power just out of view on the left.

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Fall Foliage on Asphalt

The title says it all. Well, most of it. There's some water beaded up on there too which is kinda cool. I saw this in a parking lot today and thought I'd see how it would look for today's photo. (or is it "this week's photo")?

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LaConner

Busy day running around the mainland takin' care of business. It poured down rain driving between Mt. Vernon and LaConner (wipers on full speed - don't do that too often). Then after my appointment in LaConner, the rain quit and the sky was looking beautiful with the pre-sunset light highlighting the clouds to the west. To get a better view of that, I headed over to the channel and that's where I found this wire sculpture on a gangplank. You can just make out the famous orange LaConner arch bridge through the left side of it. And if you look really closely along the shoreline you can see a Great Blue Heron.

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The Old Seaplane Dock

This little short "dock to nowhere" there in the center of the image, used to be many years ago the seaplane float if I remember right. Now it's just an old pier without a float, and it's boarded up so you can't walk out on it even. Too bad, it would be a nice place to shoot a photo like this. But I guess this location will do in a pinch.

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Kayaking on Griffin Bay

Shannon and I took off from the Friday Harbor port docks and went to Turn Island for a snack and then decided to go to Jackson's Beach. That's Lopez Island on the left there (behind Shannon's hat) and Cattle Point on San Juan Island to the right. This was some glass-calm water, which if you read this blog much, you'll know is my favorite. What a great time. Aren't vacations wonderful? Aren't vacations in the San Juans even better?

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Cheating Death

Shannon and I took the skiff and razzed over to Lopez Island for dinner at The Islander in Fisherman Bay tonight. This was shot on the way over, looking west at San Juan Island (our home) and the late afternoon sun in our wake. On the way home after sunset we had a gorgeous flat-calm channel reflecting the evening sky. As my dad would say after we got home, "we cheated death once again!".
Good times....

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Mr. Coffee

Crystal clear filtered water makes a good cup of coffee.

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Rainy Windshield

I went down to the waterfront after dinner hoping to shoot some of the mists I saw in the trees out the back window - I really thought it was foggy out, but when I got down there it was starting to rain. And, no fog. So I shot some humdrum photos out the driver's window and the passenger window, and then I shot this one of the droplets on the windshield. It looked better than the others (especially if you click on it) so after some P/S, here it is.

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Shindig

That's my mom in her favorite rowboat "Shindig" out saying hi to us at Turn Island this weekend. My brother put a crew of buddies together and we all worked on a video idea he had. Many cameras, booms, microphones, a remote cable dolly with wireless video monitoring, and me playing the parts of Young Eric and Old Eric (my first acting gig). It's in post production now and maybe in a month or two I'll be able to put up a link to it when it is completed. We had a great time. And what a great surprise to see my folks. That's my dad just out of frame to the right. (Sorry Dad! I'll get a better shot of you next time! LOL)

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Kayak Droplets

Almost an abstract one for today. Not quite, but almost. This is the bottom of Shannon's kayak as it sits in our back yard on sawhorses, waiting to be sanded for a fresh coat of varnish. We had a bit of rain so the varnish will have to wait.

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Nut Brown

Mmmmmm mmmmm good! We discovered a new treat today at the grocery store. Red Hook Nut Brown Ale. It's one of Red Hook's seasonal brews. Good stuff to start the Summer off right. And another treat, Marketplace's own chicken bratwursts, boiled up in... can you guess?.... That's right - Red Hook Nut Brown Ale. What a glorious day!

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Bubbles

Filling the aquarium, the stream of water from the kitchen faucet makes a lot of bubbles.

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Another Splash

Here is another one I liked from the series I shot the other day. This time with a penny instead of a stone.

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Splash!

Strobes and water and a little flat stone.

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Half n Half

The Half & Half Splash. I messed around with strobes and splashes a few years ago (you may remember this shot if you followed my blog back then), and I thought I'd try it again. I'm gonna do some more this week too, but for now, this is the image for today.

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Lime Kiln Lighthouse

Sunset on the west side of San Juan Island.

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The Place

The Friday Harbor waterfront as viewed from the ferry dock. 

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Reflecting Pond

Does this pond look familiar? It's the same one I shot back in February, (at this link) but this time it's from a different angle, and more close up. I guess I just figure ya can't go wrong with water and reflections...

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Quaint Little Seaside Village

Here's Friday Harbor and the port docks as viewed from across the bay. Like yesterday's photo, this was shot from the U of W Labs property.

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