Kevin’s Photo Blog

As the weather gets better, some of the easiest photographic subjects make themselves available. This is one of the few tulips from the wife’s garden this year.

Like I said, flowers tend to be just too easy to photograph — sort of like animals too. Hopefully I don’t clutter up this place with too many flowers. I’ve been trying to shoot more portraits, but every now and then… ya just gotta capture the easy ones.

What a beautiful day out today, so we didn’t waste it and enjoyed lunch at the local park. The boys had a blast playing on the playground, and Dad had fun because he got time behind the camera. A good day for all.

This field was full of grass daisies, I believe that is what the wife called them, and so I wanted to see if I could capture the little one in them. Unfortunately, I think it would have turned out better had the grass been a little taller, but this portrait turned out pretty nice. Getting this kid to smile is incredibly tough to do!

The weather was spectacular today… enough so for the youngest boy to be able to get out and experience sidewalk chalk.

Of course, a 13 mos old simply can’t resist the temptation to taste the chalk — yuck!

Today was the first time I’ve picked up the camera in a few months. Things have been busy and I simply haven’t had to the time for photography. Unfortunately, it looks like things will continue to be as busy at least up until June. I hope by then things will begin to slow and allow me to get behind the camera more.

Technorati Tags: Darrin, BW, Chalk

After sucking wind that past couple of weeks on this challenge, today was just too beautiful of a day NOT to capture something.

I have a list of the different things I want to capture for the challenge, but most of them will be better when the weather turns nicer and everything gets greener.  But this one, I had an idea for it the other day.  So, seeing it was a nice day, I figured there HAD to be a soccer game going on, and sure enough, I was right.

Technorati Tags: 2008 Challenge, Soccer, Bothell

What a beautiful drive in to work this morning!  Everything just looks so crisp after a nice snowfall.

Well…  I’m sucking eggs on this challenge.  I completely missed the week before, and am a day behind on last week’s.  I hope to capture some more photos this week.

Actually, I had captured a couple of shots on Sunday, but I borked them so bad.  It should go without saying, “ALWAYS CHECK YOUR SETTINGS BEFORE SHOOTING!” or at least return them to you normal settings after changing them.  I failed to do so and had the camera set in manual mode, f/4, 1/40th shutter speed.  The shots I took were almost completely blown out.  And of course…  the ONE time I didn’t chimp my shots!  DOH!

Oh well…  I forgave myself with this shot.  Perhaps I’ll head back over to the UW this weekend and take those shots again.  THIS time, I’ll be fully aware of my settings!

Technorati Tags: 2008Challenge

It was SUCH a beautiful day today… when I mentioned getting out and shooting some photos, she was all for it.

We decided to check out a local establishment that used to be a dairy at one time.  From what the wife tells me, some friends of her grandparents used to rent or lease out the land where this dairy resided.  Apparently, that lady also made quilts for my wife and her cousins or their first born children.

The weather vanes atop of this barn were just too cool.  I’m sure, back when it was a working dairy, you wouldn’t have wanted to be down wind from it.

Technorati Tags: 2008Challenge, Dairy, Weather Vane, Cow

Today’s lunch was awesome!  Not simply because we had sushi, but because we were provided a lesson on how to make sushi.

My manager arranged a nifty lunch for everyone who was interested to show us all how to make sushi and then finally consume our creations.  A fun experience and it all tasted great!

You can check out more sushi shots of our experience here.

Technorati Tags: Sushi

I love it when the wife diggs in to her quilting. I’m not exactly certain why.  Perhaps it’s the creativity aspect of it.  I know she’s happiest when she can be creative.  It’s also been a while since she really got any good, quality quilting time in.  She was just going through unfinished projects (known as UFO’s in quilters jargon) and she realized how many different quilting projects she has started, but hasn’t completed yet.  Hopefully, she’ll be able to find more time for these projects in 2008.

The project above is the beginnings of her Dear Jane quilt.  As I understand it, there is quite a following behind these quilts as well as some interesting history.

Technorati Tags: Quilting, Dear Jane

I’ve decided to jump in to Trevor’s 2008 Challenge to photograph where you live. I have to admit, I punted on this week’s (the first week at that) selection. The weather was just miserable — cold, rainy, and just overall yucky!

This shot of the walking bridge at Bothell Landing doesn’t really do it justice. It makes for a better shot in the spring or winter in the case of snow. It just so happens, this is the same vantage point I used to shoot the bridge last year for a photograph that was a winner in my company’s 2008 corporate calendar contest.

I’ve already begun a list of sites I want to shoot within the City. I just need to now look for opportunities to capture them. I’m promising myself to do a little better planning and capture a better shot for next week’s selection.

Technorati Tags: 2008 Challenge, photography

OK… I MUST get out some time this week and do some shooting. I’m thinking either tomorrow or Friday I’m going to head out during my lunch time and get some camera time in. I’m going to damn it… I mean it… I am!

Fellow Friends in Tech members are doing a theme this month on Circles. So far several of the guys have captured some good shots and we still have the remainder of the month to go!

Likewise, at work, our photo group is doing a theme on Water. That shouldn’t be too difficult of one to do around here!

So, it’s not as if I don’t have ideas or something to shoot for… I just need to GET OUT THERE AND DO IT!

The shot above was taken almost a year ago at the Space Needle — the same Needle with the lame fireworks display this year for new years. Anyway… I was tinkering with some of my presents and liked the way this one turned out. Taken from the observation deck at the top of the needle looking South/SouthEast across the city.