VAIN

"Who's watching you 

who's watching you  

Well you better believe girl If nobody is then

I'm gonna be watching you" ~ from "Watching You" by VAIN 

 

 

Self portrait taken today which immediately made me think of the song "Watching You" by Vain.  If you don't know who Vain is, they were a Sleaze Rock band from the late 80's and early 90's.  their Debut album, "No Respect" remains one of my favorite albums.   

 

 

PHOTO - 2 exposure High Dynamic Range (HDR) image processed in HDRSoft's Photomatix 4.  The Primary image was taken at 270mm 1SO 200  F13 with my Nikon D300 and a Tamron AF18-270mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II VC LD Aspherical (IF) Macro lens

Playing Catch-Up...

I'm back!  I've been away for a couple weeks due to some software issues and some serious winter weather.  That's behind us now (hopefully) so we'll resume regularly scheduled programming...kind of.  I've decided that the daily post might be too much.  Too much for me to maintain consistently, and too much for those on my FB page that would get spammed with my posts...some of them twice, each time I post a photo.  SO, I'm going to instead, do a weekly post with the photos from that week.  I think that is the best case scenario for all. 


Business out of the way...on to the photos.  Included in here are some pictures I took of my friends pets while I was house sitting for them.  they were my pals for a week earlier this month.  Most of the other photos are of or involve the barrage of snow that we received last week.  The "Snowpocalypse" that shut down the better part of the Seattle Metro area.  The Kids loved it, though when they are still in school on June 25th I'll remind them of that. 

 

Izzy, Hopkins and Fifi were my buds for a week earlier this month when I house sat for some friends.  Izzy couldn't have cared less that I was taking his photo, but Hopkins lost his mind.  barking and growling, even bit at my lens, but I got one reasonable shot and then put the camera away.  After that, he was just fine.  Maybe he's a Canon dog and hates Nikon?   I'm still not sure that Fifi the Cat isn't a Beluga whale, but that didn't keep her from curling up on my feet whenever I sat at the computer at night. 

The "Tree of Life" was actually a photo idea of my son's.  this is an iron garden sculpture in front of our friend's house and at night the street light casts a shadow onto the house.  A 6 second exposure later, and we had this photo. 

Japanese Maple outlined in snow

The past week saw Western Washington suffered through what was one of the worst winter storms in years.  Unfortunately this meant that the roads were not safe enough to travel far in order to get some great photos that I was sure were out there.  I did however go out and attempt to capture the beauty right in our front yard. 

Our neighbor's trees

Our House in HDR

 

The Holly Tree re-Visited

Snow covered trees at sunrise

 

 On the third day of snow, I'm not sure if it was cabin fever or the 12 year old in me, or the simple fact that our yard was beginning to actually resemble Hoth, I gathered a box full of Star Wars action figures and proceeded to lay in the snow taking photos.  Recreating scenes from Star Wars: Episode V  The Empire Strikes Back.  

 

Finally we've begun to warm and the snow has all but vanished and life returns to normal.  So for now, I'll leave you with these photos I too yesterday at a local park and hopefully be back here regularly, every week.  Thanks for stopping by! 


~ Scott

The big rock in the Martha Lake Airfield Park is one of the largest glacial erratic boulders in urban King, Snohomish, and Pierce counties. The retreating ice sheet dropped this massive rock at its current location about 12 thousand years ago. It is a magnificent reminder of our region's recent glacial past.

An erratic is a piece of rock that has been eroded and transported by a glacier to a different area, then left behind when the ice melts. Glacial erratics give us information about the direction of ice movement and distances of transport. Glacial erratics can be any size from small pebbles to large boulders the size of a house.

The big rock needs your help. A thorough cleaning to remove graffiti that detracts from the beauty of this ancient giant is needed. The Park is looking for a volunteer or volunteer group that is interested in adopting the big rock and helping us restore its natural beauty. If you have ideas on how to preserve the rock or if you are interested in volunteering, please contact Russ Bosanko at russ.bosanko@snoco.org.

1.9.2012 - Naked

Naked

Pretty much since the 7th grade, I've had some form of facial hair in the form of a moustache or the Van Dyke (the moustache and goatee combonation).  It's the rare occasion that I go "naked" and shave it all off. 

PHOTO:  Taken with my Motorola Droid X

1.7.2012 - Ring Around the Moon...

Ring Around The Moon

Bright moon tonight with some high segmented clouds.  The moonlight created a colorful halo around our celestial neighbor and back lit the trees nicely for me as well. 

PHOTO:  5 exposure High Dynamic Range (HDR) image processed in HDRSoft's Photomatix 4.  The Primary image was taken at 25mm 1SO 100  F4.0 with a 6 second shutter exposure with my Nikon D300 and a Tamron AF18-270mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II VC LD Aspherical (IF) Macro lens

1.7.2012 - SWTOR

SWTOR

If I'm never seen or heard from again, you'll know why.  Now the burning question...Jedi or Sith? 

PHOTO - Taken with my Motorola Droid X

1.6.2012 - Bah Humbug...

Bah Humbug

The idea for doing this daily photo blog came from Picaboo.com's 365 Project, and it appears that in an attempt to encourage all those participating to keep shooting, they are making weekly suggestions.  This first weeks suggestion was to play with depth of field and in some way say "goodbye" to the holidays.  Something I'm all too willing to do.  This photo is of a holly tree in our front yard.  A 20 foot tall holly tree.  I'm sure it's supplied the holiday craft project of just about everyone on the block at one time or another.  I hate this tree, and vow every year to cut it down...I know, I know, Bah Humbug.  Maybe this is the year that happens. 

PHOTO: This is a 5 exposure High Dynamic Range photo processed in HDRSoft's Photomatix software. The source Image was taken using a Nikon D300 and a 50mm f/1.8G AF-S NIKKOR Lens.  ISO 100  50mm  F/1.8  1/90 second shutter speed. 

1.5.2012 - Into the Void...

Into the void...

I'm fascinated by masks.  Be it actual masks or the emotional ones we wear to prevent others from seeing our true selves or our true pain.  Masks that the longer they're worn, the harder they are to take off. 

PHOTO: Source Image was taken using a Nikon D300 and a 50mm f/1.8G AF-S NIKKOR Lens.  ISO 100  50mm  F/1.8  1/20 second shutter speed.  Then processed and edited using both Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop CS5. 

1.4.2012 - Lightspeed...

I was out scouting for spots to hopefully get a break in the clouds and weather long enough to get a glimpse at the Quadrantid meteor shower with no luck.  I did however stop and take this photo.  This is looking north from the overpass where I-405 and I-5 merge in Lynnwood.  The reflection of the light off the wet roads, along with the fast moving clouds made for what I think is an interesting shot, and a bit of contrast to yesterday's rural photos.  A set of bookends to my life, you might say.  

PHOTO:  This is a 5 exposure High Dynamic Range photo processed in HDRSoft's Photomatix software.  The Primary photo was taken at 18mm 1SO 100  F3.5 with a 3 second exposure length with my Nikon D300 and a Tamron AF18-270mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II VC LD Aspherical (IF) Macro lens

1.3.2012 - The 509...

Christmas Morning

The 509...Stevens County...Colville.  A place that will always be home regardless of where I live.  I like to think of myself as a "city boy" anymore, but I'm most happy taking photos in rural or isolated places.  It's the only time I'm truly comfortable being alone.  These were photos I had taken on our recent trip back to Colville for Christmas, but had not sat down to process and edit until today.

The First image was taken Christmas morning.  I had just headed out to the car to start packing for the day's trip to the in-laws and was greeted with this sky. 

The image below was taken Christmas eve day.  It's of a barn just down the road from my parent's house.  I've photographed it many times, but never in the winter.  In the center of the image 4 whitetail deer can bee seen foraging for food. 

Winter is Coming

PHOTOS:

Christmas Morning - This is a 9 exposure High Dynamic Range photo processed in HDRSoft's Photomatix software.  The Primary Exposure was taken at 18mm 1SO 100  F4.0 with a 1/20 second shutter speed  with my Nikon D300 and a Tamron AF18-270mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II VC LD Aspherical (IF) Macro lens 

Winter is Coming - Also a 9 exposure High Dynamic Range photo processed in HDRSoft's Photomatix software.  The Primary Exposure was taken at 65mm 1SO 100  F5.0 with a 1/500 second shutter speed  with my Nikon D300 and a Tamron AF18-270mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II VC LD Aspherical (IF) Macro lens

1.2.2012 - "I KNOW"

 

Princess Leia:  "I love you."
Han Solo:  "I Know."

For all my people...you know who you are.   I Know. 

PHOTO:  9 exposure High Dynamic Range (HDR) image processed in HDRSoft's Photomatix 4.  The Primary Exposure was taken at 100mm 1SO 100  F5.6 with a .7 second shutter speed  with my Nikon D300 and a Tamron AF18-270mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II VC LD Aspherical (IF) Macro lens

1.1.2012 - "8-BIT"

Happy New Year and welcome!  This is the first of a planned 365 (at least) daily posts featuring a photo that I have taken that day.  Inspired by Picaboo.com's 365 Project on their Facebook page, I decided to not only take at least one good photo a day and post it, but do a short blog post about the photo.  Each Photo will be posted on my website as well in  the Portfolio folder titled 2012. 

This photo was taken at the Sonhomish County Martha Lake Airfield Park.  It's a piece of art in the park that I've wanted to photograph for a while as it's "8-bit graphic" form pulls at the gamer geek in me.  As much as I love today's gorgeous looking video games, there's something about the cubic style of the early video games like space invaders and Galaxian that will always speak to the child in me and remind me most of time spent with my brother.  It's 2012 Tim, and I still think of you every day. 

PHOTO:  This is a 9 exposure High Dynamic Range photo processed in HDRSoft's Photomatix software.  The Primary Exposure was taken at 30mm 1SO 100  F4.0 with a 1/180 second shutter speed  with my Nikon D300 and a Tamron AF18-270mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II VC LD Aspherical (IF) Macro lens