Iceland wildflowers

Recently, I had some film developed that had been sitting in my Lomo Fisheye for an extended period of time. I was surprised to find that some of the shots dated back to our 2009 trip to Iceland. This is one of the pictures on the roll that I like quite a bit.

Endless fog

It feels like it's been endless days of fog. It's cold and damp and makes one feel that going outside is asking for a bout of claustrophobia and a chill. However, even on days like these when the mountains see more sun than we do, it's important to get out a bit. We took a photo walk around Clark's Creek Park this morning. The fog gave the forest an eerie quality. The moss glowed and everything was lovely quiet. It was really beautiful and good to get out of the house.

No visible moss on this tree. It's a giant, old snag of a tree that could come down with a mighty crash in the right windstorm.

Old tintype

I've been trying to photograph every day, but today I got caught up in scanning a bunch of old photos from my great aunt's scrapbooks. With that came some online searches for a place I knew as a kid and people that Pat was friends with. The day seemed to escape from me (as it does when I get sucked into the rabbit hole of the web...perhaps I should say something silly like, "caught in the web of the web" - ugh!).

There was a tintype in Pat's collection that may have been of her mother. I can't really tell but I see a similarity to another photo that has "your mother" written on the back. The tintype is pretty damaged but the picture is intact. I did a little Photoshop work but wasn't really interested in doing a ton of restorative work on it today. If this was my great-grandmother, then the girl is Mary Louise Butler who was born in 1887 and died about 5 weeks after I was born in 1965.

Mary Louise Butler?

Detail

Trains on the move

We decided to have a date afternoon today. This meant we went to a couple museums, had coffee and then saw "Lincoln" at the Grand. Excellent movie with acting rather than action (what a novel idea).

The Washington State history museum is located in Tacoma and always has something interesting to look at and ponder. There is a large model train on permanent display that is fun to look at...very detailed (it's a realistic representation of the historical rail lines in the area). Anyhow, I took this picture while the trains were in motion. I put the shutter speed down to about an 1/8 of a second which gives the picture the effect of the train speeding through the scene.

A walk in the park

Went for a walk in the park with my mother this morning. We saw lots of ducks and geese and a cool tree. My mother told me that she sees parents frequently photographing their children sitting in this tree. I processed the picture in Silver Efex Pro. Not sure if it's something I will use. I'll have to try some printing to see if it's worth the cost of purchasing the software. The photo is much more interesting in sepia than it was in color.

Frost

Frosty morning. I stopped by the side of the road to photograph a beautiful old oak and found these little frozen delights. It's supposed to be similar conditions tomorrow morning. Maybe I'll take a few more snaps with the macro.

Winter sunshine

With the beginning of a new year comes surprises. The past two days have been notable for the sunshine and blue skies - a rarity in these parts. This morning there was fog and lovely frost covering the world. I'm hoping for a repeat of this morning's weather tomorrow since I have a photo scoped out that I spied en route to an appointment. 

I've been puttering around the house today (that's actually a lie...I've really been puttering around my computer cleaning up photos, researching, and organizing a bit, though I did wash most of the dishes). During one of my breaks to stare at the light outside, I ventured onto the deck to get some shots of long shadows and the blinding light. I managed to get a blur of a hummingbird heading to the feeder. Not a technically good photo, but I still like something about it. Maybe it was the fact that I couldn't actually see the photo as I shot it since the sun was right in my eyes. Maybe it was just the fun of getting buzzed by the hummingbird.

Even the flies were enjoying their time in the winter sun...