Picture of the Week


Again I missed my picture of the week day. Rick and I went on a photo shoot Saturday but I've just been in a funk regarding my photos, not feeling like they're what they could be. Not when I look at the stuff the guy I bought my lens from does. But, then, I remind myself, I'm only seeing the best of the best of his stuff, if I pick and chose only a handful of my stuff it would look as good. And then last night I began to play with some of my recent stuff in Lightroom and found myself much happier after I did some tweaking. Now my pictures pop!


So here's one that I particularly like from our Saturday outing. I keep having issues with night photography but this one has good color and composition, even if the clarity isn't the best. This is taken from the 12th Street bridge on the north side of Beacon Hill.


Rick has been updating our smugmug, there are new galleries and categories. If you haven't been there recently - check it out!

Like I said - Potty Training


OK, so I said what was up next was potty training. That's pretty much just because when Rick and I went to Denny's to help them finish off their Stouffer's lasagna we were greeted at the door by a 2 year old with pants around the ankles, no diaper and saying "pee".--

Later that evening he was excitedly having everyone go into the bathroom to share in his joy - there was a poop
in next to the toilet! Not in the diaper. Way cool!--

Well, at least it's cool to them.

Picture of the Week


This shot I'm posting is on Queen Anne. These people have that famed Seattle view. While I was taking this shot a guy actually walked through the shot! But because he just kept walking and it was a 10 second shot he never even registered.--



More Seattle Photography Fun


This weekend, as I'm finally getting over yet another cold this winter, I pried myself outta this house and went out to play. The kids planned a lunch at the Old Spaghetti Factory and Sarah was on a field trip for an art class in Seattle as well. So we met at the OSF and picked up Sarah from the art museum to join us. We had a nice lunch, Hunter is becoming quite the attention grabbing personality. After lunch Rick, Sarah and I headed over to Archie McPhee's to get shots of some of the oddities there.--





Well, it turns out AM moved so we ended up in the Fremont neighborhood. With cameras in hand we headed for the canal there and got to watch all the activity on and next to the water, including, bikes, kayaks, sail and motor boats, ducks, swooping pigeons and even the opening and closing of the drawbridge! We discovered the whereabouts of Google and Adobe. From there we wandered over to a statue of 5 or 6 people called "Waiting for the Interurban" whom were clothed this time in wedding garb. Fremont is a very colorful, eclectic area and we had photo opps everywhere we turned.--






When it was just getting dark we finally made it to McPhee's and were not disappointed, it was jammed with all the silly things it's known for. Rick probably has a few posted on our smugmug so go there to see what it's all about.--


After it was even darker yet we headed up to Kerry Park on Queen Anne to get some night shots of the Seattle skyline. I learned an invaluable lesson - use the remote for those long shots! I didn't think my pushing on the shutter release by hand would shake the camera so much but I was WRONG! Rick and Sarah got plenty of nice shots but me? Not so much.--

Next up - potty training!

Picture of the Week


I'm pulling this week's picture of the week (a day late as usual) from my archives as I was sick this weekend and we didn't get out to shoot anything new. So here's a shot from one of my trips to Hawaii. This one is from the west side of the Big Island that I visited in 2007 with Dane. We stayed for 3 1/2 days and rented a VW camper as our transportation and lodging combo:




This picture actually passed muster and got onto my Fotolia site, the site where I was for a time selling stock photography and actually sold this one. So you may find it on someone's website or brochure someday. I called it "Road to..."

You can also see it in our Smugmug somewhere I think. I dunno, go look and see if you can find it.

Picture of the Week


Woops! Forgot to do this yesterday! Rick and I were having too much fun playing with the pictures we took on Saturday at the Black Diamond Cemetery. He's experimenting with using "RAW" pictures in his DSLR vs the usual JPEG. They're HUGE and have less pre-formatting (hence the "raw" aspect) so they are more friendly to editing, actually, I think they require editing, conversion anyway. But, that's the reason I didn't get this posted yesterday. I don't know if I'm actually finished with this but it is what it is:



I don't know if Rick was interested in photographing cemeteries, I know I was. They're usually parklike and the headstones can be interesting as well. The moss and lichens that grow on them add to the interest. Now we have Sarah pulled into our web, after Rick sent her a picture that he fixed she said "Can we go there this weekend?"

Maybe we should add a gallery of our cemeteries to our
smugmug site, huh?

Pic of the Week Upgraded


I liked that goose shot I just posted as my picture of the week but it needed something, it isn't the greatest shot so I decided to apply some filters to it and now have it as my desktop (I have 2 monitors, hence the long wallpaper) Here's the final result:



No, this isn't my picture of this week, just a sample of what one can do by screwing things up more.

About Me

My photo
After 2 unsuccessful marriages I spent 12 years as a divorcee, only to fall prey to another man's wiles. We had a fun 5 years together and then he decided he wanted more freedom so once again I'm single.

So I'm freshly divorced at 57 and have 5 great kids and now 7 grandkids. My kids are still a major part of my life but I'm busy helping my aging parents on Kauai.

I've lived in California, Hawaii and Oklahoma before finally settling here in Washington. I love Washington and come back to visit family, friends and take care of my garden often but will be temporarily a resident of Kauai.

I've moved 30 times in my life (no, my parents weren't in the service, at least not since I was about 2) and finally planted roots when I got my little house that I've owned since '91.

My family are Jehovah's Witnesses, I've been one since '72.