Today was a lot cooler than earlier in the week and it felt a little “muggy” out, like a thunder storm was coming.  That said it was still warm  so we decided to take the dog out to Marymoor Park.

Marymoor covers around 640 acres and provides loads of outdoor facilities for Redmond residents.  They have baseball and soccer fields, nature trails, a velodrome for keen cyclists, a concert area where they are currently showing movies at night, a huge area for model plane enthusiasts and an off leash pet area where dogs can run free and play.

We take Roxie there every now and then and she loves running the trails and meeting other dogs.  One trail takes you along a large lake and loads of dogs fetch balls and swim in the water.  While on the trail we came across one dog, called “Ballmer” who was playing with his ball in the water.  We watched as his owner tried to get him to drop the ball for around 15 minutes, I was exhausted watching the dog who wouldn’t give it up.  He kept jumping into the lake and splashing everyone, clearly the dog was having a great time but I really felt for his family, Ballmer needed a lot of exercise!

Roxie on the other hand just watched from the side, relatively uninterested.  She doesn’t like water much, and James’ hobby of holding her over water to watch her “swim in the air” probably doesn’t help.

We were out for around 40 minutes and on our way back to the car I took this picture of Abi and her friend Charlotte.  They were both having a great time and gladly jumped into the long grass so I could take a picture.

It’s a little early to say Summer is over, but things are definitely cooling down, so getting these out door pictures now is kind of a good idea.  We had a great time walking in the park and on the way home got some bagels from Blazing Bagels (definitely worth a visit).

Today the guys spent some time in the garden chasing bubbles

While visiting the Flying Heritage Collection museum we got to see LOADS of planes.  But one of the challenges was to capture a plane on its own without others in the way.  The hanger the exhibits were in was full (I say exhibits but they are all working planes that are taken out “for a fly” regularly).  So when we saw this old Messerschmitt I couldn’t resist taking a picture, it was, well so alone!

This model plan was considered the first truly modern fighter plane.  With its all-metal stressed-skin and mono-wing design with enclosed cockpit and retractable landing gear there was nothing like it.  It was also the fastest military plane in the air until it was replaced by the Focke-Wulf Fw 190.

This particular plane was commissioned in 1940 and was shot down over Dover in an air battle.  The pilot managed to get the plane back to France but didn’t survive the landing.  In 1988 somebody walking along the beach in Calais saw a tip of the planes wing sticking out of the sand and the plane was excavated and sent to England for restoration.

Now, living in Everett Washington, the plane looks brand new.  I’d love to see this flying over head, perhaps with a spitfire on it tail, definitely something you don’t see everyday.

This plane reminds me of an old joke, which I probably shouldn’t tell but it’s my blog so here goes.

An old World War II British fighter pilot is being interviewed on the radio and the host of the show asks him what his most terrifying dog fight was like. “Well” say’s the veteran, “I was over Dover and out of the sun came this Focke straight for me, I was so surprised I had to bank quickly to the right, where I found two more Focke’s.  They came at me so fast I was terrified.  We fought in the air over the channel for 10 minutes and it was terrifying.  Fortunately I hit one Focke in the wing, and another Focke in the tail, then the other guy flew off”.  Sounding a little concerned the host of the show reassured his audience by saying “I should point out to all you listeners at home that the Focke-Wulf was a German plane”.  “That’s true”, said the pilot, “but these Focke’s were Messerschmitt’s”

Well I didn’t say it was funny.

You know how sometimes you feel like you’re carrying the world on your shoulders? Well Carter actually is!

When you go to these car shows it’s pretty hard to get a nice picture.  Firstly there are hundreds of people there and they ALWAYS walk directly in front of you every time you try to take a shot.  Secondly, these shows are never held just before sunset or just after sunrise, so there is usually direct sunlight on the car.  So the cars are surrounded by people and the exposure is horrible (lots of blown out parts of the picture).

So here I was at the Redmond Exotics Car show and I found this bright red Alfa with nobody around it.  The bodywork color just popped against the green bushes and trees behind, so I jumped at a shot.  To try and get over the terrible lighting conditions, I took 5 bracketed pictures each one with a different exposure.  Then I HDR’d the images together in Photomatix to get the picture below.

People were starting to approach so I didn’t have much time, ideally I would have looked for another angle to showcase the car, but in reality I’m just pleased I got the shot.  I tilted the camera to give the image a little “interest” but I may have over done it haha, but what the hell, I really like the picture.

Usually I try to tell you what model the car is but there was nothing on the car to tell me and the owner wasn’t around (I sometimes ask).  But this time no info, so you are just going to have to enjoy the nameless red Alfa convertible.

Tonight I found the guys fighting over a very dangerous toy!  At least I think that’s what they were doing.

I would bet I could post a year’s worth of picture a day with just “night shots”.   They are starting to be my favorite images, because they are super easy to do (you just set up a tripod and shoot), and the results are always good.

They do say that the perfect time to shoot landscapes is the magic or “Golden” hour that is an hour around sunrise and sunset.  It’s true that you get great pictures at this time but in summer it requires you being up and about at 5:30 in the morning or out waiting for the sun to go down at 9pm!  And when you work for a living that quite frankly is a pain.

That said when the daylight saving goes and we get darker nights I will probably go back to nice sunsets, but I’m digging night shots in the interim.

Today’s image was taken at the Marina in Carillon Point in Kirkland.  This part of Washington is pretty affluent and there are a lot of boats.  So to cater for the demand we have a lot of nice marina’s and this is one of them.

I do think it’s funny though that they put a lock on the gate on the pier, but I guess some of the boats are pretty expensive so it’s a deterrent against board kids, vandals and wan-a-be photographers looking for the perfect picture.

I liked this image when I got home immediately.  The green lilies on the water, the red light in the entrance and the blue sky make a great picture (I think).  Add to that the fact that any lights at night look cool and you get something interesting to look at.

If I’d had a flashlight with me I would have light painted the Marina sign so that stood out more, but such is life I guess.

Today Master Chief and Carter decided to enjoy a game of Jacks!

Tonights image was taken in Bellevue’s Botanical Gardens and as you can probably tell it was a beautiful day, very sunny (hence the shadows) and as I’ve said before, the worse possible conditions for landscape photography.

This area is near the entrance to the gardens and is surrounded by numerous flower beds and lawns.  Of all the images I took out in the open (not shaded by trees) this was the only one I felt justified a posting.

At Christmas, this whole area is covered with fairy lights and is amazing to see.  The pergola is completely lit up and really beautiful, but impossible to photograph as there are hundreds of people walking around and they just get in the way.  I tried one year to photograph Abi and Lisa under the lit up pergola and it was a disaster!  This was the first time I’ve visited the gardens in summer and while it’s very pretty, it’s not as nice as the year end lights.

Ironically I think I missed the real opportunity for capturing the flower beds as most of the flowers now are starting to wilt.  Spring would have been much nicer but I’ll remember next year and go back earlier.

That said the manicured flower beds and hanging baskets are really nice and make me realize just how much I suck at gardening.

Today Master Chief introduced Carter to his new pet!