Today was a really nice day.  Sunny and warm with a beautiful blue sky.  I left work quite late tonight and on the way home drove over to Grass Lawn Park to take some pictures.  The sun was just going down behind some trees and I found this great looking yurt in the park.  I positioned the camera so the sun was peeking through the trees and got a great shot of the yurt, with the sun behind and a great red sky.

Fortunately all the people in the park were behind me so none of them got in the image.  I walked around the park a little more but it was full of families and kids playing soccer and I’m not sure it’s a good idea to just start photographing kids playing in the park.

On the way home I drove through Fall City and Carnation but no other pictures grabbed me.  When I got home I checked out the yurt picture and it came out pretty well, so that’s my posting for today.

I had to buy a new XBox a couple of weeks ago and found the Halo guys tonight trying to break into the box to get the games console out!

Tonight I went out to the movies (went to see 21 Jump Street – very funny go and see it if you get the chance), so I didn’t get to take my picture of the day until quite late.

I left the movie theater and walked back to the car thinking about what I was going to shoot.  I remembered that when you come of the 520 freeway to enter Redmond, you cross a cool bridge with street lamps along both sides.  So I drove down to the bridge to take some pictures.

At first I shot some images on the main road and while the pictures came out ok (I had some nice head light and tail light lines) they were a little boring.  However by the side of the road bridge was this small foot bridge that also crossed the river.   Photographing this created, I think, a much nicer image.  I shot this with a high aperture so the street lights had a great starburst.

The street lights cast some strong orange light and created some cool shadows through the foot bridge.

Carter and Master Chief also went to the movies with me.  I brought a beer and popped to the bathroom, when I got back I found them both trying to down my pint!

Last night on the way home I went to Anderson Park in Redmond to shoot some more “Tree Socks”.  While there I took some pictures of some of the log cabins in the park.

I was walking round one of the cabins trying different compositions and saw this stone chimney.  I took some pictures as the wall was kind’a interesting and didn’t think much more of it.  When I got home I reviewed all the pictures and found this shot of the stone chimney against the wooden slats of the cabin looked really cool.

This is kind of an example of interesting textures.  The horizontal wooden logs that make up the cabins walls, against the siding that sits in the roof’s eves and the stone of the chimney go together to create, I think, a great image.

The sun was setting way off to the left and didn’t really affect the image directly, but it did add some great shadows on the cabin’s walls.  In post processing I boosted the saturation a little and warmed up the image, finally I added a vignette (or a vinegar as my 30 year old niece calls it) and the image was complete.

I now know why Carter was lifting weights last night.   He was prepping for his attempt at lion taming.

Last week on the way home I stopped off at Anderson Park to take some pictures.  When I got there I found these fantastic tree socks decorating loads of the trees.  I was really pleased with the images I shot, so today I went back to take some more pictures.

When I got there the sun was starting to go down so I had to work fast.  The socks were still on the trees so I started working the scene looking for a strong composition.

The park not only has trees but also has a number of wooden log huts.  Some of the trees were close to one of the huts so I walked around it taking pictures.  I found one position where you could just see the setting sun between the hut and a tree and shot that.

When I got home I was really pleased with the image but I wanted to do something to kind-a make it pop.  I know that black and white images that have selective color are considered a little tacky, but I tried it with this image and liked the end result.  Lisa did too (and she is always right) so I left the image that way.  I think the park looks great in black and white and the socks really stand out, as they are the only items in the image in color.

I think Carter is trying to build some body mass, this evening I caught him pumping iron muttering, “feel the burn”!

So I have two questions tonight.  Firstly, why is it that I sit in my office all day looking out the window at a beautiful day, sun shining, warm outside etc., but when I leave the office to come home (and take my evening picture) it starts to rain?  What’s that about?  And secondly, why am I so obsessed with the weather all the time!  I think it’s because it’s so crappy here at the moment.  When Summer gets here it will be great (can’t wait).

Anyway as it was raining when I left work (and it was really cold tonight) I decided to pick a picture from my backlog.  Tonight’s image was taken last month at Clyde Beach Bay in Bellevue.  I was there taking a sunset picture over Lake Washington but behind where I was standing was a small bay surrounded by some beautiful homes.

I have no idea who lives in these houses but I’m really jealous I’d LOVE to live here it’s absolutely amazing.  They all seem to have boats too and I love the idea of walking through my garden to the lake and jumping in my boat for a quick trip to Seattle.  Well, when I win the lottery this is where I’m moving.

Tonights circus lesson is on the trapeze.