Tonight’s picture was taken at the same location as yesterday’s image, the Pumpkin farm on Avondale in Redmond.  This is a pretty small place that seems to have a few fields by the side of the road.  They tend to sell their own produce although I suspect the bring the pumpkins in (but I could be wrong).  They also do a roaring trade in Christmas Trees in December and I know they don’t grow those.

Anyway the sales store is right by the side of the road on the way home and you can see all the pumpkins lined up on tables.  As I said yesterday I couldn’t resist stopping and asking to shoot some images.  This one (tonights) is my favorite, I love these food type shots where you focus on the front item and everything behind falls out of focus.  As you can see from my Halo picture tonight I brought a massive pumplin to bring home and will carve is later in the week.

All the pumpkins in the farm were really large, most had their storks and there weren’t too many miss-shaped ones (those are the ones Lisa usually buys and they are a total pain to carve).  Anyway I loved this idea of this shot, this is what I actually stopped for, hence it’s my favorite.

Carter got himself a little pumpkin and was really pleased, that is until he saw Master Chief’s pumpkin!

Come on, you had to be expecting some pumpkin pictures, I mean it’s the middle of October!  Well not wishing to disappoint tonight I thought we’d start with some halloween themed pictures.

This morning I lead the photowalk in Redmond and despite early morning rain, some people still showed up.  It only rained lightly for 5 minutes at the beginning of the walk, after that it was lovely.  We didn’t have a full turn out though, as 29 said they would come and only 13 turned up, so I guess the threat of rain scared people off.  But that aside we did the walk, everyone got some great pictures and we ended up at the restaurant as planned.  The rain was coming down so hard at 6am, we were really lucky – truth is I nearly postponed the walk too – but I’m pleased we went ahead.

Anyway, on the way home, I passed this local farm that was selling pumpkins.  Now I wouldn’t have normally pulled over but the rows of pumpkins with the trees behind with yellow leaves looked great.  It was pretty overcast by 2pm and the farm had already turned on some overhead lights and I think they added to the image.

When I pulled up at the farm I immediate went to the sales office and asked if I could take some pictures, I also promised to buy a big pumpkin after.  They said no problem and off I went.  I got loads of shots, even lied down on the wet muddy floor to get one picture, and as a result had a few to different images to pick from tonight.  There were three Lisa and Abi really liked but we thought we’d start with this one.  (Others to follow in the week).

And wait till you see the size of the pumpkin I brought – it’s massive!  I can feel some carving coming on…

The boys were feeling creative tonight so they made a pumpkin with melty beads.

I was at work today trying to decide what to post.  As usual I have hundreds of “backup pictures” and don’t really like any of them anymore.  Anyway I work in one building on the Microsoft Campus and had a meeting in another across the road.  As I crossed the road I noted all the leaves on the path and the beautiful colors in the trees.  So after my meeting I went back to my office and grabbed my camera.

Now a year ago I would have taken a picture at head height and the image would have been “very nice”.  But these days I’m always looking for a different perspective and I loved those leaves on the floor.  So I got done and lied on the ground.  I got this picture and immediately loved the image.  As I’m lying there of course some senior leaders walk out of the building and give me “that” look.  You know the one, the one that says, “You’re an idiot”.  But at the end of the day I love the picture so I don’t care.

The sky looked pretty white while I was outside but when I got home I managed to bring a little texture back into it which really helped the image.  The bright yellows and reds of the leaves in the trees look great, and I really love those fallen leaves too.

So I’m very happy with the end result.

Master Chief was all excited about the new iPhone 5 until Carter showed him his Windows Phone.

You know when summer is over and fall is coming when the fog rolls in and you lose the sky in the morning.  That’s been happening a lot here lately so I thought I should capture some examples.  Normally I see it on the way to work in the morning as I live at the top of this hill and on the way to work I drive past a large lake.  The fog (I guess) builds up on the lake and then rolls onto the land and I hit it as I drive down the hill.

Anyway, in the past I’ve seen some amazing “fog” pictures, you know the kind of thing, fall trees by a field with a fence and fog coming off the field (I so loads of those) so I thought I’d try to capture some myself. This does of course require me to get up early enough so I have time to stop of the way to work and take a picture (that may be a problem).

But I do have this picture of a sail boat on Elliott Bay with a foggy Seattle skyline.  So I thought I’d start with that.  Ironically this was captured a while ago but I like the image so I thought I’d post it tonight.

The downside of fog I’m finding (in pictures that is) is that my images have no (or very little) contrast or color and look a little boring.  So I had to boost the contrast to make this even slightly interesting.  Now this could be because I suck at photographing fog, but it also could be that there is little foreground interest in this image.  There is the boat (that’s white with a black sail) and then there is just loads of water.  So I shouldn’t be surprised that this is pretty washed out.

Anyway I’ll keep trying and see what else I can get.

Oh, by the way.  My photo walk is this Saturday and I’m leading a group of photographers (28 in total) around Redmond.  So that should be interesting and will hopefully produce a lot of images.  Of course rain is suposed to be here on Saturday but as we live in the Pacific North West I’m hoping people will still turn up – I mean we are used to rain right?

Today, Master Chief was attacked by a huge green spider.  Carter Tried to help, I think it was because Master Chief’s uniform is also green!

Those of you who visit my blog know I like to photograph cars.  Every week over summer Redmond would hold the “Redmond Exotics Car Show” and you’d get the chance to shoot loads of different types of cars – ranging from modern super cars to really old classics.  One weekend I came across this beautifully maintained 1961 Rolls Royce Silver Cloud II.  It was quite something, the paintwork was in great condition and the black bodywork and silver chrome worked really well together.

When the owner came over he started the engine and considering this was a V8 engine it was amazingly quiet, they really don’t make cars like this anymore.  The interior was all real wood and leather and was probably more comfortable than my sofa at home.  The owner was so proud of his car he was literally preening.  Mind you I would have been the same if this was mine.

What was odd was seeing this amazing old car next to modern exotics like Lamborghini’s and Ferrari’s.  Given the choice I’d pick the Rolls any day.

I suggested to Carter that he and Master Chief needed to make some new friends, so they met up with Marcus Fenix for a chat.