James and I had to go to Kirkland today to buy some shelving, and when we walked out of the store the sun came out.  We immediately (after quickly popping into Taco Bell for an excellent Crunch Wrap Supreme) headed down to the waterfront to see if we could get a nice picture for the day.

The sun wasn’t really going down yet but it was right in front of us above the water and there was blue sky above (that’s two days in a row).  There was a little girl playing on the rocks, picture right, so James and I enjoyed the sun until she buggered off.  Then I took the shot below.  Walking back to the car I took several other shots of the sky – I know this sounds lame but when you live in the Pacific North West and you have gray skies for so long, you tend to get a bit emotional when you see blue above you.  Anyway, it will probably be gone tomorrow and I wanted some other pictures to remind me of what it looked like.

A year ago nobody would go out with me if I wanted to take any pictures, apparently I was phenomenally slow and amazingly boring (James’ and Lisa’s words not mine), but since I’ve been doing this “picture a day” thing, I’ve learnt to shoot miles faster.  No longer do I look confusingly at the camera wondering what aperture value or shutter speed I should select, it’s finally become second nature and I can see what I want and get the shot really quickly.  So why mention all this?  Well, firstly James was impressed with me today as I was so fast, but all these learnings mean nothing when you have some snotty kid jumping on the rocks in front of you.  I’m just saying…

Happy St. Patricks Day – ‘nough said.

Last week I was going though a bit of a panic over my Picture a Day challenge.  I figured I was around 70 days in and I was running out of things to shoot.  Then I was driving home the other night and just figured I should stop complaining and just go out and take some pictures, and the result was some nice shots.  Tonight I continued my, “get out there with the camera” plan and took this shot of an Antique Refinishing Barn on the Redmond to Fall City road.

I’ve driven past this barn many times and considered stopping for a picture but the weather has been so drab I didn’t bother.  However tonight we had some blue sky so I figured it might be the time to grab a shot.

When I got there I pulled over on a side road and got the camera out.  I tried taking some shots from the road but they didn’t look very good.  So I checked nobody was around and ran onto the property and took the shot below.

There is kind of an ironic joke when you look at this image, I mean the company finishes antiques, yet the barn they do it in is falling apart!  I guess it’s like the old adage of a mechanic’s car is always falling apart.  Anyway I think it makes a really nice image.

Hopefully we have some nice weather this weekend and I can get out there and grab some more images.

Carter is continuing his efforts in learning everything circus!  Tonight it’s hoop spinning.

Tonight Lisa and I went to see Abi in her school play that was an adaptation of Charlotte’s Web – the play was called Charlotte and Wilbur, I’m guessing the school is not allowed to use the Charlotte’s Web name or something.  Anyway she played “Child of Family 4” and was great.

They had a huge set, a live band and everyone (including all the teachers) were in costume.  I was really proud of Abi as she was super nervous.  She was awake really late last night as she couldn’t sleep and was pretty worried this morning.  Well she needn’t have been because she was fab, she danced round the stage and remembered her lines in front of nearly 200 people.

She actually performed the play three times today (twice for the school and once for the parents in the evening) and she has another evening performance tomorrow.

After the play I asked her if I could take her picture on stage and she jumped up for a final shot.  Poor baby was exhausted but still managed to smile for her dad.

When we got in after the play we found Carter practicing his high wire act!  I thought he was pretty good and had no idea he had such great balance.

I was driving home this evening wondering wheat I should photograph, when I looked out over Marymoor Park from the 520 freeway and saw this small hut.  When I saw it I immediately thought black and white, as it was raining quite heavily and everything was gray and drab.

At the end of the day to make an interesting picture you need something to draw the eye, color, texture, contrast or brightness, you need something.  Anyway I saw the hut and thought as a black and white the grayness of the scene would be lost and the sky, trees and wet ground might make a nice image with the hut as the principal subject.

So I drove to the end of the freeway and then doubled back through Redmond to the park.  I found the hut really quickly and found that it’s actually a coffee shop / store room / rest room.  I got the camera out but it started to rain (quite heavily).   So I ran over to the side of the road, put up the tripod and took the picture.  I then ran back to the car (those who know me know I very rarely run anywhere) and headed home.

When I got in I looked at the picture and I have to say it turned out pretty well.

I think Carter and Master Chief watched an old Buster Keaton film or something today, because this evening I found them playing with a train set.

Today was a bizarre weather day.  On the way to work this morning there was light snow, then rain at lunch, late in the afternoon there was amazingly heavy snow, then hail and finally just before leaving work beautiful blue sky!  Unreal.

So I’m driving home thinking “what am I going to photograph today”?  And then it hits me.  The sky looks amazing, blue sky, black and white clouds – real funky!  So I pop into Redmond and go to Anderson Park to take a picture and find the strangest thing.  Anderson Park is full of trees covered in wool socks.  The socks are all bright colors and about 15 feet tall.

I’ve never see this before but apparently they were knitted and put on the trees by Suzanne Tidwell in partnership with the Redmond Arts Commission.  There were loads of them, and I took several pictures.  By this time of course I’ve completely forgotten the “interesting sky”.

At one point I noticed that there were three trees with Red Socks on that were quite close together.  I wondered what an upshot would look like so I walked back to the car and picked up my ground mat (always carry one with me for situations just like this).  Went back to the trees and laid the mat on the floor.  I then got on my back on the mat and took a picture shooting strait up into the sky.

I should point out that people were walking past me at the time looking at me like I was a loony – which I probably am.  Anyway the image I captured is below.

The Halo guys do the strangest things to keep themselves entertained!  Tonight it was knife throwing.