Sideshow Christmas!

I commissioned an artist from the Museum of Northwest Art Style show (I'm organizing the event) to paint a dog portrait as a Christmas gift for my husband. since he collects circus sideshow banners, I asked her to make a tiny banner of our dog, Blini. I think it turned out great and, just from the photos I took, she captured Blini's personality amazingly well! My sweetie will be thrilled.

winter choices...

I thought this was an interesting project.

to simply snap snap snap

I had a good time taking pics whereever I went

and in some cases returned to my roots

Blending

I visited Magnuson Park's wetlands again. The ponds are new and offer reflections as well as attracting more water birds. The wetlands are also convenient, just a couple of blocks from my house.

On these cold, clear days, I worked at catching the light at sunrise and sunset. It was difficult to capture the range of light values so I used a blending technique to overlay a photo metered for sky on another metered for the ponds.
In the second photo, I added geese from another photo to enliven this sunset shot of trees.

New photos

Happy belated Thanksgiving everyone! I was back in San Diego for the holiday and went to 2 of my favorite places: Maritime Museum and Balboa Park. I was playing with light a little... to see the differences in warmth between daylight, shade, and late afternoon sun. Top photo is the late afternoon shot (I upped the saturation for a little more pizzazz) of the HMS Surprise (with the Berkeley paddlewheeler in the background), the ship that was in the Russell Crowe movie Master and Commander. The other 2 photos are more architecture at Balboa Park. It was unusual to get them with few/no people in them 'cuz the park was really busy. I'm still really into shooting arches! The middle photo was taken in the shade. I made the bottom photo in a protected courtyard. I'd appreciate your comments when you have time. Thanks!

Another perspective

After a week of rain, I visited Magnuson Park's newly installed wetlands and got some playful shots of cottonwoods in the late afternoon as the moon was rising.

BACK ON TRACK AGAIN

A trip to St Helens, Oregon for Thanksgiving brought me my first Photo for the December project. As I was driving home along the Willamette River just North of Gobel, Oregon I caught a scene that captured my heart. I almost kept driving but I turned around and back tracked a few miles to find the right spot and photograph what I had seen. It just seemed like such a beautiful and peaceful room in the surrounding country side.

Circles from Beth

More Circles from Beth

Circles from Beth

Getting My Ducks in A Row

Until I could find some circles. That's what I have been doing....

Circles in Nature

I selected Circles in Nature. Here are a few so far:

My circle of family

We had our family reunion this weekend with 6 aunts and uncles in their 80's and 90's from my mother's generation of 12 plus 15 cousins, their spouses and partners from my generation of 26 in our 50's to 70's. We filled 8 tables of four. We chatted, laughed and shared stories from 5 generations: our grandparents, parents, us, our children and grandchildren.

I went home with a set of letters from my grandmother to her mother-in-law written in 1905 and a promise to share photos from this reunion.

A 5 MILE RADIUS (CIRCLE) FROM MY NEW HOME

A Saturday drive within 5 miles of my new home opened the world. When a person takes time to look it's amazing what you see.

The day was semi cloudy and it opened my eyes and the eyes of the camera to a wonderful neighborhood. There are places I saw that I know I will re-visit.

Welcome to Mount Vernon, WA

CIRCLES

A culvert in the side of a mountain on a trip over the North Cross provided my first circle.

A Camera in the ceiling of the Harbor View Hospital in Seattle Washington was an amazing find. The fixture hangs from the ceiling like a large round light fixture but when I took the picture it seemed to almost invert and capture a very large room full of images!

angle of light changes an image

family circles ...

I found this an interesting and difficult topic.

then I realized family circles can be found in many places

I went to Lincoln Park

looking looking looking

for circles of all kinds

I found 2 excellent families doing different thangs together

one family was spending major energy bringing driftwood to make

an amazing driftwood fort.

they were very very happy

one family was dressed somewhat alike

having their foto taken

they were all smiles for this great moment

Ordinary Circles