A couple of weeks ago Lisa and I went to Redmond to the weekly farmer’s market.  I think it was the first one of the year so there were a lot of people there milling around checking out all the fresh fruit and vegetables, flowers and crafts.  We didn’t have any intention of actually buying anything we were just wandering.  However we saw some fuchsia hanging baskets and thought they would look lovely on the porch.

So we brought two baskets and struggled with them back to the car – they were massive.  One was still wrapped in paper but the other was opened up and hanging so we had to carry it up in the air.  Fortunately none of the fuchsia blooms had opened up so it was all stalks and leaves.

When we got them home we hung them up and inserted our sprinkler system hoses into the baskets.  I also turned on the sprinkler system so they would be watered every day.  Unfortunately though the water wasn’t coming out!  Lisa called the landscape guy who put the system in and arranged for him to come over and fix it.  It took nearly two weeks for him to get to us and I had to periodically manually water the baskets when I got home.

However once the water was back on the baskets started to get the sun and water they needed and these beautiful fuchsia flowers came into bloom.  I thought they’d make a great subject for a daily posting, so today I put the macro lens on the camera and went outside with a tripod.

Now these baskets were hanging from the porch roof and it was windy today and they were swinging and spinning around.  I tried to get a shot but my lens choice needed a long exposure with a small aperture and every shot had motion blur.  I really wanted the flower with a green background but it wasn’t happening out front.

So I cut one of the stems and took it into the back garden and pinned it to a light stand.  I had the trees behind as a nice green backdrop and tried again.  Once again the wind was killing me, I really needed the flowers to stay motionless for around 3 seconds so this wasn’t working either.

As a result I tried plan three.  I pulled the light stand into the house, shut the patio sliding door and tried again.  Now the flowers were not moving, but the ambient light meant that the flowers were dark for the outside exposure, or the green trees outside were blown out for the inside exposure.  ARRGGGGHHHHH!  So out came the lights.  I put a small softbox on the flowers to the right and some fill light off to the left and captured the picture below.

I’m sometimes asked how long I take on a picture.  Some are really quick, you walk up to the subject and away you go.  Other times you have to go out of your way to find the subject, and others like today you just have to work it until you get the shot you want.  I’d like to say that most times it’s quick, but that’s not the case, it’s usually a lot of work.

Even halo guys like a good sucker!

I wanted to post something different tonight so I waited until the sun went down and hit the road.  At first I was looking for something interesting to shoot in Redmond Town Center, but the security guys don’t like me there (you’ll have to read an earlier post to find out why) so I kept driving.

In the end I found myself in Carillon Point in Kirkland.  This is a private harbor for local residents who clearly have some money – you should see the size of the boats.  They have lots of lights along the water’s edge and piers that head out and around the harbor, these piers are also lit up.  On the water front there are loads of bars and restaurants and they were all full of people.

So there I am walking around with a camera bag around my neck and a huge tripod and camera in my hand – everyone is looking at me like I’m nuts.  I took lots of shots and got some really nice images – it’s very pretty there.  I even bumped into a friend from work and stopped to talk to him and his wife for a bit.  When I was done I started walking back to the car.

Just before I reached the car I noticed these huge pink roses in a massive bush.  There were three roses and they bigger than both my hands together.  Just by the roses there was a large group of people standing outside a bar drinking.  Anyway I thought a close up shot of the rose in focus with the boats in the background in soft focus may look nice so I set up my tripod and took a few pictures.

When I got home I showed Lisa all my shots and she fell for this rose image so that’s the one I’m posting tonight.  This was taken with quite a long exposure so while it looks pretty light outside it’s really not.  The sun had set and the sky was dark.  Anyway I think it came out well, hope you like the image.

The guys found a mouse trap today and started to play with it, big mistake!

I guess there’s two approaches to car refurbishing.  There is the “make it like it rolled off the production line” version, you know what I mean, refurbish the car back to it’s original state, and then there’s the Custom Car version, when you supe up a car, drop the suspension chrome it up and add a massive engine and add a super cool paint job.

I have to say that I actually prefer the first type, I love the idea of an old 1950’s car looking brand new, exactly like it did when the first owner drove it off the sales lot.  I can appreciate those custom cars, even admire them, but I don’t think I’d want to own one myself.  Clearly I’m getting old, but that’s what I like.

Now having said all this, Lisa and I saw some refurbished cars that fell into both camps at the Big Rock Classic Car Show in Duvall.  Of course as you’d expect I was all over the 1950 Chevy’s and Oldsmobile, but Lisa found this Ford.

This car, even I have to say, was pretty amazing.  It was a 1940s Ford (I have no idea what model) that had been heavily customized.  The interior was completely carpeted, the seats looked totally luxurious and the dials and dash (pinocle) was modern and super cool.  The engine was surprisingly boring as it was predominantly the same color as the car.  I think the car had like 800 miles on the clock so was really a new, “old” Ford.

What caught Lisa’s eye however was the paint job.  I know in this picture it looks flat gold, but it’s actually covered in tiny specks of color.  It was truly amazing and when I get my beautiful 1950’s Chevy Bel Air (in my dreams), I’m having this paint job.

I think Carter was bored tonight, I found him “note tabbing” Master Chief up!

Another picture tonight from Northwest Trek.  While there when we drove round the “free-range” area and came across three goats.  If you remember, the free-range area is 435 acres and we saw the goats several times.  We were driving around, and every time we hit a new corner, there was one of the goats again.

The guide told us that there were only three and I don’t know how many times we saw this one but we were out there 2 hours and saw them loads of times.  This image was taken at the base of a hill.  We were in the tram and the goat was at the top of the hill.  When we stopped to take a picture the goat just looked round, and this was the shot I got.

As you can see the weather was pretty crappy.  It was overcast like this for the whole tour, but at least it was dry.  Of course the moment we got to the end the clouds parted and the sun came out.  After tonight I’ll take a break from these Northwest Trek pictures and post more later, so tomorrow expect something different.

Tonight the halo guys decided to do a little wood shop.  They made a nice “Bird House”.

A Northwest Trek tour really has two parts.  You get taken around the 435 acre “free-range” area in a tram where you check out all the “safe” animals (the herbivores), and then you walk around what I guess you would consider a traditional zoo and check out the “dangerous” ones (the carnivores).

The tram ride is awesome.  The deer, moose and bison come right up to the tram and you get to see them in a way you never would in the wild.  The walking part though can be a bit of a disappointment.  I’ve visited Northwest Trek twice now and the carnivores really aren’t great.  This visit they were all hiding, we didn’t really see anything.  We stood in front of a large enclosure that said Grizzly Bear and all we could see was trees and bushes.  This same thing happened with the Black Bear, Bobcat, Cougar, Lynx, Wolf, Fox and Coyote.  We didn’t see any of them.

However there were a few animals on the walking tour we did see.  One of them was the raccoon.  There were two of them in a relatively small enclosure (always seems a little cruel to me) and they were very playful.  Interestingly none of these enclosures had bars, animals were separated from us by water or electric fences.  While this was good for us (nothing in the way) it seemed a little crappy for the animals.

Anyway the two raccoons were playing together (may have been fighting I don’t know – I’m no raccoon expert), they were climbing on some fallen trees and jumping on each other.  They move pretty fast so it was hit or miss if the pictures came out in focus and I took one fantastic pic with one of the raccoon’s hanging from a branch by one leg staring straight into the camera – but it wasn’t sharp enough to post.

In the end I liked the picture below.  This raccoon was posing almost to camera and stood still long enough for me to get this shot.  Would have been better if I had got the raccoon’s feet in too, but you can’t have everything.

Tonight the guys wanted to have a little party, they had some music, did a little dancing…