Total Internal Reflection

This has been the worst winter I've ever experienced in Seattle. The snow hasn't been all that bad but the city just isn't prepared to deal with the volume of snow, nor the cold freezing weather. There has been well over a foot in the last few days and streets are nearly impassible. The Mayor decided it would be a good idea to NOT use salt on the roads to melt the ice. I'm sure he will come to regret that decision at some point.

The shot is taken from the round window above my stairwell looking out across the street. The B&W treatment was added in post processing. Luckily the flakes were enormous and they show nicely floating down from the sky.

Img Date = 12/21/2008
Camera = Canon 40D
Lens = 24-70mm f/2.8L USM
Shutter = 1/500 seconds
Aperture = f/4.5
Focal Length = 70mm
Exp Comp = +0 ev
Flash = off
ISO = 400

Stopped over at my friend Scott's place for pub night. He had to feed the dog (Lucy) before we headed out. The dog's head was so intent on the situation yet the tail was wagging relentlessly. I just had to grab the camera. The whole shot seemed to have an old feel to it so I decided to add a sepia tone to it. I think it came out pretty nice except the arm of the sofa in the lower left foreground... plus, the plane of focus is a bit odd since I was sitting off plane and was using a large aperture. Dee Eye Double-N E-Arh is "dinner" which you can't say around Lucy unless you want to see her freak out!

Img Date = 11/15/2008
Camera = Canon 40D
Lens = 24-70mm f/2.8L USM
Shutter = 1/40 seconds
Aperture = f/3.2
Focal Length = 24mm
Exp Comp = +0 ev
Flash = off
ISO = 1600

Here's a shot from a night shoot at Gasworks Park in Seattle. It was nearly a full moon and it was fairly warm out so My friend Sandro and I decided to head down to Gasworks with our cameras. We were experimenting with long shutter speeds to capture motion across the water and sky. There's too much ambient light to capture light trails but the plane trails across the sky were pretty unique. This shot has some nice boat streaks across the foreground. Gasworks has tons of night shot opportunities that I hope to explore this summer.

Img Date = 09/13/2008
Camera = Canon 40D
Lens = 100mm f/2.8 Macro
Shutter = 180 seconds
Aperture = f/22
Focal Length = 100mm
Exp Comp = +0 ev
Flash = off
ISO = 100

Anyone know what this is? It was a tiny little flower I spotted on my early spring trip to Gothic Basin and Foggy Lake. It's very unique and I've never seen one like this before.

Img Date = 07/26/2008
Camera = Nikon CoolPIX P5100
Lens = Standard
Shutter = 1/125 seconds
Aperture = f/3.8
Focal Length = 35mm
Exp Comp = +0 ev
Flash = off
ISO = 64

This pic is from a great hike I did to Myrtle Lake, Cow Creek Meadow, and Fourth of July Peek. We camped the first night at Myrtle lake which was just OK. We did have the whole lake to ourselves that night which was rather nice. Early the next morning some MTBers showed up with a case of beer so we knew it was time to go!

We made our way up to Cow Creek Meadow, which I think is one of the nicest places I have ever camped. The views were stunning and it had a crystal clear creek that was about 3 feet wide and 5 feet deep snaking it's way through the meadow. Odd to see a creek that is deeper than it is wide. But, it sure made for easy water pumping and it was ice cold!

The next morning, the fifth of July, we summited Fourth of July Peak. There was tons of snow and the dog got really overheated so we had to bury her in the snow to cool her off for awhile before we headed back down. The way down was made far easier by the long glissades that were possible. I'm somewhat amazed that my shorts didn't melt as all that friction creates quite a bit of heat!

Img Date = 07/04/2008
Camera = Nikon CoolPIX P5100
Lens = Standard
Shutter = 1/238 seconds
Aperture = f/5.4
Focal Length = 35mm
Exp Comp = +0 ev
Flash = off
ISO = 64

Seattle has a great outdoor sculpture park just South of the main Downtown core. It's right along the waterfront and has some terrific installations. I find it terribly difficult to photgraph down there for some reason. I think it's because all of the installations are so darn big that it's hard to capture just a piece of one of them and have it still look interesting or cool or different in some way. This is a picture of the ramp from the pier up to the ridge.

Img Date = 08/23/2008
Camera = Canon 40D
Lens = Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L
Shutter = 1/125 seconds
Aperture = f/13
Focal Length = 70mm
Exp Comp = +0 ev
Flash = off
ISO = 100

My newly updated Drupal blog is up and running. I may, someday, go back to my old Movable Type site. I had to give up on Movable Type after getting too frustrated with the upgrade process. Every time I tried to update to a newer version the whole blog ended up getting destroyed. Drupal is much smoother in that regard although, it does seem to be a little more clunky & kludgy than MT.

The good news about all of this is that I can start posting images again. For anyone that looks at the blog with any frequency you will have noticed no posts since June 2008. I have tons of backlogged images to post so will do my best to get them done.

This is the first 'new' post for the Drupal Blog.

I Found this flower on the Tronson Ridge trail near Blewitt Pass Washington. It's a very rare Lewisia that is only found in this area of washington. The creamy apricot/pink flowers are very large. They seem to grow in loose rocky soil that is partially shaded but warmed by the heat transferred from the rocks. I see lots of people trying to sell them at plant shows but now that I've seen the real thing I can see that those plant vendors are selling fakes.

Img Date = 06/28/2008
Camera = Canon 40D
Lens = Canon 100mm f/2.8 macro
Shutter = 1/100 second
Aperture = f/4
Focal Length = 100mm
Exp Comp = +0 ev
Flash = off
ISO = 100