Are you sick of the snow pictures yet? Well this is what happens when you take a picture a day and it’s snowing outside! Anyway I went out today (even though Lisa said I shouldn’t coz it was bad conditions) and took this shot.

This is a picture of our community center. This is the place that James (my son) painted when he was 5 years old. When I say painted, I mean Lisa and I were there for a community meeting and we put the kids in the “safe play area” (no such place) and they found some paints and proceeded to paint the walls, floor and furniture. Some other younger kids were doing most of it and I suspect James realized pretty quickly they shouldn’t be doing it but didn’t know what to do. You could argue it wasn’t him (he tried to) but the paint on his hands kind of gave him away! Needless to say I paid for the place to be cleaned and painted, the other parents just ran off. – So I feel in some strage way I own part of this building 🙂

OK slightly off topic… but it was a pretty scene and the picture came out well. Expect more of the white stuff tomorrow, and the day after, and after that etc. etc (yes I am sick of it).

So Carter here (blue dude) is actually standing up, but like me needs to go on a diet as he’s neck deep…

This water catchment area behind my neighborhood looked beautiful after the snow came. The kids sometimes come down here to play (or catch frogs) and there’s even a golf tee for some guy who likes to practice.

Anyway I walked down to the pond and took some shots. It had just stopped snowing and the clouds parted just long enough to catch some blue sky. I thought the pond, tree line and blue sky looked great. The big tree in the front was just a bonus 🙂

More snow play, tell me you have never wanted to do this to someone?  I know I have…

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?