Coming from England, the term “fast food” usually means places like McDonalds, Burger King or KFC, quick and easy restaurants where you walk in, sit at plastic tables or grab your food to go.  The experience is the same everywhere, pretty clinical and boring.

So how are things different in the US?  Well obviously America is the king of everything fast food and all the famous names come from this side of the pond.  But what’s different, is that you can still find places that mimic the old fast food joints of the 50’s.  Two types of restaurant spring to mind, there are the diners, that offer malts and shakes with your burger (some are even in old trailers – very cool) and then there are the old fashioned drive-ins – places like Sonic and Burgermaster, where you drive in, flash your lights and someone comes out to serve you in your car.

In Bellevue we have a Burgermaster where it works just like that.  You drive in, leave your lights on and a server comes to your car.  You place your order and they return with a little tray that hangs off your window that holds your burger and fries.  There is something really quaint and fun about these places and I’m sure American friends who read this are wondering what all the fuss is about, but you would never find a place like this in Europe, and quite frankly, that’s sad.

The food is, well fast!  It’s ok I guess but the real reason we go is for the experience which is just fun.  Sonics are great to go to as well, as the servers come out on roller skates.  At our Burgermaster they walk to your car, but it’s still worth a visit if you’ve never been.

I drove past the restaurant the other day and wondered what it would look like in a night picture.  So tonight I came home from work and waited until it got dark.  At 8pm I headed over to Bellevue to take the shot below.

Kat wanted a banana colored coat, so Carter helped out with a cool idea.

I’m really angry with myself as last night I passed up a fantastic picture (because I was too tired) – how lame is that?  I was driving home and it was a lovely evening, nice sunset, warm, blue sky (you get the idea).  Anyway I was driving past some field and right near the fence was a tiny calf (yes that’s right a baby cow).  It was eating grass and very close to the side of the road.  There was even a place to park up!  But no, I was too tired, so I drove on and went home.  All the way thinking, I’ll get the picture tomorrow, it will be there then.

So tonight I leave work and it’s raining really hard.  I get to the field and there isn’t a cow, calf, duck, goat, chicken in sight – nothing.  I bet I NEVER see that bloody cow again.  As a result I didn’t get a picture and am forced to post something I captured the other day.

On Sunday Lisa, Abi and I went to Seattle and I got this shot of Lisa and Abi at the Space Needle.  I don’t get to photograph Lisa very often so this was clearly a special occasion.  I really like this image but that little cow would have been great too.  All I can say is, Bugger!

Carter was playing “Show me the Money” tonight from his quarter throne.

If you read yesterday’s posting you would have seen that I went out for a photo drive.  As I said in the posting I rarely have a plan, I just go out looking for inspiration.  Sometimes you just stop and try to capture an image without really being sure what you are after, and sometimes you know immediately what image you want (you literally can see it in your head).

What becomes really odd is, after doing this for a while you start to look for picture opportunities everywhere you go.  At work, out shopping on the way to school, literally everywhere.  What’s really funny – Lisa, James and Abi do it too.  We’ll be driving to town and everyone is looking out the windows for something to shoot.

As a result it wasn’t a surprise yesterday when I got a call from Lisa telling me about some blossom trees near Abi’s gymnasium.  Abi goes to gymnastics twice a week and she happened to have an additional 3 hour session yesterday.  When Lisa was dropping her off both Lisa and Abi pointed to the blossom trees and said “great picture”.  So Lisa gave me a call.

As I was heading back to Redmond, I went past the gym and stopped to get a picture.  The trees looked great, they were not very tall but the blossoms were in full bloom.  I took the picture below and definitely got the feeling that spring is finally here.

Carter and Master Chief were really thirsty tonight so decided to make themselves a soda.  So the grabbed the Soda Stream and away they went.

Today I decided to head out in the car and see what I could shoot.  I drove to Carnation, then on to Fall City, up to Preston and then down the i90 to Issaquah, then round Lake Sammamish to Redmond and finally on to home.

It was a lovely day for a drive and I had Howard Stern in the car and could probably have driven an extra 100 miles.  Anyway, when the scene caught my eye or the moment got me I’d pull over and take some pictures.

This is normally how it goes.  I rarely have a big plan or target destination, I just go out and see what I can find.  This means that sometimes I’m really lucky and get lots of images, and others it’s a disaster.

Today wasn’t too bad.  I was out for just over two hours and came home with four pictures I really like.  Obviously I took a lot more (70 today) but most don’t come out as I intended or I just don’t like them when I get home.

Today’s image was taken on the Fall City to Preston road.  Following along the road for most of the journey there is a river called the Raging River – cool name.  At one point the river goes under this green bridge and there is a spot by the road to pull over and easy access down to the riverbank.

So I parked up and went down to the river.  The water was moving pretty fast (well it would do I guess I mean it is called the “Raging River”), so there is a lot of motion blur in the shot in the water.  But that actually looks good I think, and gives the impression of water flowing.

To make these pictures look really good you need to slow your shutter down so the water takes on a misty sheen.  To do that you need something called a Neutral Density filter.  This is a dark piece of glass that you put in front on the lens.  It restricts light and lets you take a longer exposure (and consequently blurs the water further).  I don’t have the proper filter to do this yet, but it’s on my shopping list.  When I get one I’ll take more river pics and you’ll see the difference.

Either way this shot turned out pretty good so I thought this would be my first posting from today’s trip.

On the way home, in Issaquah, I passed a Krispy Kreme Donut shop (or Doughnut shop – if you want to spell it properly) and got a box of 12 for the family.  After dinner James went to get one and found the Halo guys tucking in!

This afternoon Lisa and I took Abi to see Mamma Mia at the Paramount Theater in Seattle.  Abi loves the film and has never seen the musical on stage so it was a treat for her.  Lisa and I have seen it a couple of times before (once in England and once here in Seattle) and it’s a really good show.  Abi loved it – had a blast.

When we left the theater it was lovely and sunny outside and with blue skies, so we went looking for something to shoot for today’s picture.  We drove over to the Space Needle as they are currently hanging a huge Angry Bird off the side to advertise the release of the Angry Birds Space game.

We parked up and took loads of shots.  I got the one below of the Space Needle and some lovely ones of Lisa and Abi with the Space Needle behind (but I’ll save those for another day).

Carter left school early to join the army and didn’t graduate from High School.  As a result he never got his GED. (That’s a General Educational Development certificate for any Brits reading this).  Well he has decided to do something about that and now spends time each day revising for his upcoming test.