I guess everyone has their favorite flower, for me it’s the Gerbera. I’ve taken quite a few pictures of these flowers in the past, I even have a shot of a pink one blown up on canvas in my family room over the file.

I love the symmetrical nature of the flower and the over abundance of petals make it, I think the perfect flower subject.

For this image I wanted to change the lighting, so I shot this is a small softbox, making sure there were plenty of shadows behind the petals. The composition of the flower is deliberate, it’s considered “uninteresting” to place a subject in the center of the screen so this flower centers around phi supporting the golden ratio – basically just off center – (I won’t bore you with composition science, I save that for Lisa 🙂

Back out into the snow, this time to make a snowman.

This shot was taken in the park opposite our house. A fresh layer of snow had just fallen and you can see the entrance to the park. The footprints are mine; I made them just before taking the shot. In the background you can see the play structure we built for the kids in the neighborhood. We had a couple of crappy swings and we convinced the housing association to give us some money if the dads in the neighborhood did all the work. Seemed like a good idea at the time, but nobody seems to use it these days (maybe that’s because it’s freezing outside!)

After a long day playing in the snow the guys wanted to get warm, what better way than this?

Today I went looking for something cool to shoot. It had just stopped snowing at home so I decided to drive to Fall City (about 10 miles away). I knew that there was a really cool red barn on the way and thought that would look great against the white fields and evergreen trees. Failing that there was always the Tolt river and and bridge there that would also look great covered with snow.. But ironically, no snow – anywhere! Feeling dejected I drove home through Carnation (where it has been snowing) and drove past this cool church. It seemed like an appropriate thing to photograph on a Sunday so I pulled over and go the shot.

These Halo guys apparently like to play board games!  Who knew?

Today we got our first snow of the year, so Abi and I grabbed the tripod and headed out to see what we could find. We live in a neighborhood called Turnstone and behind all the houses are miles of trails. These trails are used by runners, hikers and even the odd horse back rider.

The nearest trail has this great winding path view through the really tall trees.  With Abi standing just in shot I think it looks great.  We’re being told by the weather men that this is just the beginning , the big snow fall is due in a couple of days.  So expect more whit stuff in postings.

What do you do when the first snow falls?  You make a snow angel right?  Well so did the Halo guys.

Today I was asked to go to Cross Fit in Redmond to photograph Danielle.

I’ve never been before and didn’t know what to expect and it was quite a surprise!

The class was called “Barbell Group” where members attend and (it appears) try to lift the heaviest weights they possibly can. These weights were massive, huge and I sat there feeling completely inadequate. The people there were lovely, very friendly and amazing to watch. But it looked really painful! One guy was was screaming as he lifted the weights and his face was totally red.

While I was watching all I could think of was how heavy my camera and lens was – what a loser I am! I knew I was in another “land” when I heard a women behind me say to someone else “I love chin ups”, I mean, who loves chin ups? What’s wrong with chocolate!!!

On the way there (I promised to get there at 5pm), I drove past what I can only describe as the most amazing sun set I have ever seen. I was crying as I drove to the gym – but then that’s usual.

OK technical bit coming, so stop reading now if you want. Taking the picture was a challenge. Not only was the light horrible (lots of fluorescent tubes throwing out nice “green” light) but there were so many people there that getting close to Danielle was really hard. I had to shoot with very high ISO and get what I could. I’d have liked to have put up a couple of lights and then I would have got some great shots – maybe next time.

This was another fun won.  I’ve decided that the blue Halo dude (Carter) is the cleaver one, and the other is an idiot!