Today I worked from home and had no idea what to shoot.  I had to pop out in the afternoon to go to Bartell’s to pick up something and while I was in the store I saw some bamboo potted plants.  Now those who know me will tell you I am useless with plants, I can’t grow anything.  There are those with green fingers, well I have death fingers.  If it’s a plant and I touch it, it has days to live.

But I have a friend at work (Eric) who has one of these bamboo plants on his desk and it’s thriving and has been growing for the last two years (it’s now nearly 2 foot tall) and Eric tells me he doesn’t have to do anything with it, just keep the roots under water.  So when I saw these plants I thought maybe I could keep one alive for a couple of weeks.  Being the kind of guy who is always up for a challenge I got one.

Anyway at 5pm I had to go and get Abi from school (who was rehearsing for her school play) and I’m still wondering what to shoot.  When I get home I walk in the door and see the bamboo plant and thought maybe I could make something interesting out of that.

Now I once heard the great Joe McNally say “If you want to make something look interesting, don’t light it all”, so I tried to keep the lighting low and subtle.  Having said that I actually went from one light to three and took loads of different shots, but ironically the one I liked the best was one of the first single light shots.

So here is my picture for today, a bamboo potted plant that will be dead in two weeks.

Tonight was Halo card night and as I walked passed I heard Carter say “All In” and if I had his hand I would have done the same.

I captured this image yesterday from the observation roof of the cruise terminal in Seattle.  The view is overlooking Elliott Bay as the sun sets.  You can see a ferry coming in in the center of the picture, I’m not sure where it’s coming from but it’s either Bainbridge Island or Bremerton.

I liked the idea of composing the image just above one of the binoculars and using that as a point of reference the viewer can follow.  I had to compose the image as I did as there was a load of machinery down on the dock and when in frame it was overly distracting.  That said I couldn’t remove it completely at capture time and had to take it out in post processing when I got home (that’s two hours I’ll never get back)!

I actually like this image more than yesterday’s and particularly like the sun’s reflection on the water.

Halo guys wanted a break from the kitchen tonight so they ordered take-out!

Today was dry (thank goodness) so I hit the road with my gear and headed for downtown Seattle.  Today I wanted to capture a picture of the city and scout some potential new places for future trips.  I thought I start at the waterfront so drove past the Space Needle and got to the bay.

Seattle is a great city to visit and walking down by the water and piers is a lot of fun – on a sunny day!  While not wet, today was very windy and cold and like an idiot I went out without a coat or gloves.

For today’s picture I found some high ground by the water that overlooked a small harbor and the city.  The site is actually the location of the cruise terminal where large cruise ships dock when visiting Seattle, and when no cruise ships at port you can get on top of the building and take in the views.  The building right below me on pier 66 is Anthony’s Restaurant.  This place sells probably the best fish in the city and has both a low cost and expensive restaurant where you can sample the catch of the day.  Really worth a visit.

Right next to Anthony’s is a small harbor, I have no idea how much it costs to dock your boat here but I’m betting it’s not cheap!  Finally in the distance you can see the city (well basically downtown).  You can’t see the Space Needle here as it’s actually behind me.

I love this picture and think it gives a nice view of the Seattle bay shore line.

I stuck around for a little longer and got a great shot of the sun starting to go down over Elliott Bay, so I’ll probably post that tomorrow.  After I took some shots I went for a drive and found some fantastic locations for the future.  But I’ll save those for another day.

Note to self, never leave any lenses around the house as “somebody” might find them and play with them!

Today is a sad posting.  We have lived in Redmond now for 9 years and love our neighborhood.  Within walking distance of our home we have a small shopping area called the “Marketplace” which has a gas station, bank, restaurant, a few shops and a coffee house.  Or at least it did have a coffee house, as today Sorrento’s closed.

Lisa has been going there every day for 9 years and today I found out that she has spent $9,027.25 in coffee!!!!  So I guess I should be pleased it’s closing down, but I’m really not.  The place was great, the people who served there were really nice, knew our names and exactly what we liked to drink and were always friendly and welcoming.

We would often visit Sorrento’s on a Saturday or Sunday taking the dog for a walk and even use it as a meeting place for friends when we were heading out on a road trip.

Well, the recession has finally started to impact us in Redmond – I know that sounds really bad as for many it’s been going on for years now and yes it’s true we live in a bubble (especially with me working for Microsoft).  But we love this shop and are sad to see it go.  As today was it’s last day (closing at 1pm) we headed down there at 12 noon and had our last coffee and talked to Glen who ran the shop and said goodbye.

I took a couple of pictures, one inside and one outside to remind us of the shop and the fun we’ve had there in the past.

Below you can see Danielle, Glen and Lisa who work at the shop and serve us our coffee.

To add to the disappointment of the day, one of the Halo guys was viciously attacked by a soft cuddly toy!  Fortunately our hero Carter was there to save the day and fight off the rabid animal.

Not a great day today.  I drove to Seattle to get some nice sunset shots but when I arrived in downtown the sky opened and it REALLY started to rain.  I mean really heavy.  I drove around for 30 minutes hoping it would ease up but it actually got worse, so in the end I came home.

As a result tonights image is from my backlog.  I haven’t posted a picture from the Museum of Flight in a while so I thought I’d grab one of those.  This is the SR-71 Blackbird “Spy Plane”.  When you go to the Museum of Flight (something you should definitely do if you get the chance), you’ll see a number of exhibit areas.  The largest area is filled with around 50 planes either around the floor or hanging from the ceiling.

The Blackbird takes center stage and is the main exhibit in the middle of the room.  You can walk all round the plane (and underneath it too) and it’s pretty impressive.  When I was driving to the museum, this is the image I was going to get, I knew exactly what I wanted and pretty much got the shot.  I took another one of the plane from the rear looking underneath and that’s a cool one too, I’ll probably post that in the future.

I think Carter was getting bored or something, tonight he decided to play with Hello Kitty.