Day 153 - Comfort

This is a nice, comfortable down comforter.  I know it's still August, but it's the last day.  Besides, it's cold here.  We've got our wood stove blazing already!

This is just an attempt at capturing the "pillows" of the comforter in low, directional light.  Nothing more.

Day 152 - Burned Beyond Belief

I couldn't believe how far gone these spark plugs were when I took them out of my little ol' Plymouth Neon.  They were literally missing about 1/32'' of the center electrode (if that means anything to you).  That's a lot of erosion!  I guess what it translated into is: I was lucky the car ran at all.

I set the plugs out on a paper towel in natural light--Not sunny, but fairly bright.  I used our Canon 100mm macro lens for this one.

Day 151 - Droopy and Stubby

Just a couple of household carvings that are kicking around the house.  I called the one on the left Droopy for his ears obviously, and poor ol' Stubby--Well, at one time I'm sure he had more of a tail than he has now.

These two were taken with our 100mm macro lens.  Not much else to say other than a little cropping.

Day 150 - Boat Masts in Des Moines

It was a beautiful sky today.  It didn't start out that way, but by the time we decided to go out driving and ended up in the city of Des Moines, the sky was opening up.  The marina was hosting a "farmer's market", and after we perused that (taking pictures of course) we ended up down on the water amongst the boats moored there.

I ended up with a lot of good boat pictures but they were all just boat pictures.  This one grabbed my attention because of the wild contrast between the sky, the clouds, and the boat masts reaching toward them.  Thank the polarizing filter--Those things are worth their weight in gold sometimes!

Day 149 - New and Old

We were walking around downtown Enumclaw this evening after finishing a giant plate of "Macho Nachos" at a restaurant when I shot this bench.  The bench itself was very new, very shiny, and very much in contrast with the cracked and peeling wall it was sitting in front of.

I felt it projected a lot more feeling in black & white.  I'm starting to have a lot of fun with monochromatic pictures like black & white.  It's amazing how much a picture can change when you lose the distractions of color and crank the contrast a bit.

Day 148 - Peacock Feathers

Peacocks have to be one of the most beautiful varieties of bird feathers in the rural American world.  I'm just saying that from a naive, rural American's point of view obviously.  I know nothing about how pretty the feathers of Birds of Paradise and other exotic species look.  Peacock feathers however, are entirely within my grasp.

Suzie found these when she was out at a local farm with her grandkids today and brought em home.  Don't they look like a couple of eyes staring at you?

Day 147 - Catholic Church in Monochrome

I like brick buildings from a photography standpoint.  I guess that's why I want to go shooting in Tacoma some day.  Anyway, this is a Catholic church in downtown Kent that I passed on the way home.  I walked around taking a bunch of pictures.  I hoped to go inside and get some shots of stained glass windows, but it was locked.

When I took this shot (and a few just like it) it looked odd because the sky was a little blown out.  I guess because I shot them from the shaded side on a hot, sunny day.  No matter what I tried I had limited success.  That is until I took away the color in Adobe Lightroom (I used cyanotype for a filter) I was pleasantly surprised by what I got:

Day 146 - Plowing Under the Sun

I know, I know--It seems like I have a "thing" for tractors.  There have been a few posts of mine.  Truth is, we live in a rural area.  I drive past fields every day on the way to work or on the way home.  The year is getting into harvest time, and there is always tractor activity in the fields.

(Sue chose this picture--She thought the guy looked hot... I guess you have to be female and view it full size to come to that conclusion though.)

Day 145 - Harley Beer, Baby!

I have to hand the credit for these artifacts to my brother, Denis.  I think he appropriated these from a garage sale next door to his house--I'm not sure.  At any rate, I like them.

I had trouble with the colors.  Partly because Harley-Davidson is always orange and black.  If you add the fact that a couple of them are slightly faded, then add the fact that incandescent light makes everything look yellow... I couldn't get these things to come out in their true colors.  I finally gave up and went B&W.  I think it looks pretty good this way.

Day 144 - Rhodie Wheels

This Rhododendron was so wanting to take a ride in the little red wagon... How could I refuse?  Okay, actually Rachyl and Tony yanked it out from in front of their new house and Sue decided she wanted to plant it out back of our house.  Lucky they're just across the street and down one house because that made transporting it pretty easy. Other than the weight of that root ball anyway...

It looked pretty funny going down the street like this!

Day 143 - Browns Point

We found ourselves chasing a firewood purchase this morning that I found on Craigslist. The owner of the wood was right next to the Browns Point Lighthouse, so obviously we had to wander over to the park and check out the waterfront after we loaded up the firewood. For those of you that don't know, Browns Point is near Federal Way but faces Tacoma across the waterway.

I guess this guy's kids were hanging out and waiting for him to catch lunch or whatever.

Day 142 - Rural Look at Mt. Rainier

One of our favorite areas to view our favorite mountain, Mount Rainier, is fortunately not far from us here.  When the sun dropped tonight and I still needed a picture, I opted for the pastures near Enumclaw.

It seldom disappoints.

Day 141 - Playing Taps

We were at Applebee's tonight... Helping Tony and Rachyl celebrate the closing and paper-signing of their new house.

I took this shot of their row of beer taps with Suzie's camera, and she let me have it back when we got home.  Wasn't that nice? (Well, after all--She was after a particular theme, and beer taps was not it.)  Anyway, I love the mohawk guy in this lineup:

Day 140 - Workin' Man

Okay, okay... For this shot I was pretending to work.  Before I paused to take the picture I was working.  Really.  As you probably guessed, it's kind of noisy there.  It's not always noisy, but lately there has been a nasty hissing (really loud!) every time a particular press cycles.  It drives me crazy.

With two kinds of light on me this was a tricky shot to make look halfway decent.  The natural light from the giant roll-up door was bathing the area behind me in bright light, and the the fluorescent tubes above me tried to turn my skin to a ghostly greenish like those kinds of light tend to do.  It didn't come out too bad...

Day 139 - The Cow Clan

I first really noticed this group several months ago--Probably late winter.  The momma had just had two new calves, and I kept thinking to myself, "Self, you should go down there and get a shot of those newborns."  Well, one thing led to another and it never happened.

Now the calves are almost full grown.  Momma is the one on the right, and daddy is the one at the back.  You can tell daddy by his impressive set of, uh... Well, they're almost draggin' the ground.  They were wary of me, but even so the two calves were curious and wanted to advance (I have that power over critters).  Mom, however, wasn't having any of that.  Every time they started towards me she would sling her head around a block them.

A pretty tight family for sure.  (click the picture to see it full size)

Day 138 - Curves and Lines

This is my favorite way to go to and from work.  Going along the Green River between Auburn and Kent, it snakes its way past blackberry bushes, pastures, and clumps of woods and undergrowth.  On certain days the aroma of earth and vegetation is pretty powerful.  When you ride a motorcycle, you appreciate roads like this--Swoopy, curvy, and non-boring.

Like the beginning of the song The Road by The Cardigans says... "The road is my friend..."

Day 137 - Weyerhaeuser Headquarters

This is the Weyerhaeuser (yes, the lumber barons) company HQ building near Federal Way.  It's quite the amazing building.  It's been there a while now, but when it was first built it was state-of-the-art.  Notice you can see all the way through it?  I believe that sort of thing was almost unheard of before this was built.

Anyway, today was a sunny day, and when we drove by it the place looked pretty striking.  This time it was my turn to yell stop!

Day 136 - Facing the Morning

We had a busy day today. We saw a parade nearby us in Auburn, and later attended a Renaissance Faire locally. The common denominator of the day: The temperature. It was in the upper 90's everywhere this afternoon. Although we took pictures at both events, neither of them provided me with anything I liked.

The Ren Faire was so hot that nobody seemed to be having fun. It was strained and uncomfortable for all involved no matter what kind of brave face was put on. There were, as usual, fantastic costumes and amazing stuff to see, but it just wasn't working. The temperature was overriding the event no matter how hard people were trying.  We left after not too long.

Instead of a picture from either of those events, I opted for this picture. It's coffee time early this morning, and the bright beginnings of the day was reflected in my coffee cup.

Day 135 - Spewing Art

This is one of approximately a million items that are in my parents' back yard.  Some things hang on walls, some sit in garden dirt, some have thing growing creatively out of them, and some things "do" things.  This is a fountain that spews water into a small concrete pond that they have.

I'm pretty sure that the reason they put goldfish in their pond is so the local raccoons won't starve...

Day 134 - Forgotten Workhorse

Yeah, "Nothin' runs like a Deere" but they look good sitting still too.  This one sits still in an empty lot.  It probably gets used occasionally, but for what I don't know--There's no field to plow where it's sitting.

While it's not a very good picture, I thought it was somewhat worthy.  I felt a little guilty though because I shot it while sitting in our work truck today at a stop light in Kent.  (Yes, my camera goes most everywhere with me.) Just a little minor cropping and brightness adjust was all I did here.

Day 133 - Bee Fuzz

As much as it's like I'm copying my wife's 365 post from a few days ago (see this post), it was just coincidence.  Hers is much better.  No, I was taking pictures of these flowers and got a couple of killer ones, and while I was inside checking them out on the computer Suzie came in the door and said something about bees out on the same flowers.  I hustled on out there and took a couple more shots.

This was one of them.  Pretty cool stuff!  Oh, make sure you click it to see it full size--It deserves it.

Day 132 - Equine Indifference

I drive by this particular pasture almost every day on the way home. There are three horses that share the space, and sometimes they're visible and sometimes not. One day I drove by and the owner lady was training one of them--Having him going around a circle and obeying her commands. My mind screamed "Cool!" and I went just past the farm and stopped out of sight. I walked over the rise that kept me hidden from view and instantly the horse snapped his head around towards me (as did the owner/trainer). I felt like a total fool. Needless to say, I left.

Today all three horses were out on there own, right near the road. They were munching away on the fresh green stuff growing everywhere. When I started taking pictures I got a little bit of attention from the horses but not much. I made my way closer to them. All of a sudden this one started walking over and came right up to me. I wished that I had a carrot in my pocket like Mr. GreenJeans always did.  Once he was over there for a few seconds, he quickly lost interest in me.

Or maybe he heard someone else sneaking up...

Day 131 - Colors in Alleys

Wandering around Auburn today brought me quite a few good pictures.  Funny though--I look at them and they don't "grab" me.  This one didn't grab me until I went back and forth a few times.  I like the colors and the "feel" of it.  It's both garbage and clean... Yin and Yang.

Alleys:  Another example of the road less traveled.

Day 130 - Cart Herding

I was sitting outside one of our local Fred Meyer stores with my camera on my lap.  Me and my long lens were looking for something... Anything.

I don't know this guy, but he's apparently pretty good at doing what he does because he's been doing it for quite a while.  That's usually a sign that you're doing a good job.  The slackers get the axe...

Like Sue said, this one has good perspective.

Day 129 - Park Floor Colors

We went up to Seattle today to catch a couple of specific shots that Sue wanted for her 365 blog.  During the course of that expedition we found ourselves at a smallish park called Edwin T. Pratt Park (named after a civil rights activist slain in 1969).  It had some interesting artsy stuff in it, and these little plaque-looking things caught my eye.  There were several of them, all different.  I liked the way they looked against the bright orange of the rubberized play area.

The yellow "road turtles" add quite a bright edge to it also.

Day 128 - The Side Seldom Seen

We stopped at a local "Pea Patch" (first mentioned in this blog last month) again tonight.  The sun was getting low and we had this yearning for sunflowers.  Actually, Suz and Sarah are both following a theme this month, and today's theme is "looking up".  I mentioned the sunflowers I saw on the way home from work and Suzie suggested the Pea Patch that we had visited before.

I got a lot of pretty good shots, but this one was one of those "by accident" shots.  I wasn't considering the effect of the waning sun on the underside of the leaves, but that's what I got.

A fairly pleasant surprise.

Day 127 - Tug O' War

This is Sam.  He belongs to the lady that lives two doors down.  Although we do actually know her name (but I can't remember it) we call her Gladys in honor of the neighbor from Bewitched.  I was down the street visiting with Mark and was on my way back when I looked over.  Gladys was yakking with some gal (visitor I guess) and there was her dog... Playing tug of war with the hose.  It was so cute!  He was really yanking on it too.

Lucky for me I had my camera already hanging on my shoulder and managed to get a couple of quick shots!

Day 126 - Cattails

My camera goes everywhere with me these days it seems.  Short delivery/pickup jaunts in company vehicles while I'm at work are no exception.  Today I found myself at a vendor's place with about 10 minutes to waste while an order was readied for pickup.  I looked around and noticed a little "mini-marsh" at the edge of their parking lot with cattails in it.  Perfect!

Believe it or not, I had to reduce the saturation on this as I tweaked the picture.  I just made some small adjustments to brightness and contrast, and every time I did the color just bolted off the screen!  For the sake of viewer safety, I toned down the color saturation a little.

This is two vertical pictures in a row--Kind of unusual for me.  I don't generally do too many of those...

Day 125 - The Wooden Kittycat

I've had my eye on this for some time now.  Suzie brought this home way back when--Before we were married I'm pretty sure--And I've always liked it.

This was shot with natural light from the window, enhanced a little by light from my computer monitor (it was taken on my computer desk).  I had it sitting on a plain ol' sheet of printer paper.  A little vignette and a crop to get rid of the edge and viola!

Day 124 - Putting the Green in Green

This is the brightest-painted building I've seen in quite a while--Especially when you consider that it's basically only two colors.  When you put green against white, it really looks green!

This building belongs to Servpro, and it's a building that I drive by often on the way home from work.  I've had my eye on it for some time now, but today it hit me again and I circled the block and parked.

Can you say contrast?

Day 123 - Roofin' Fo' A Livin'

There's a pretty good sized house across the street, and it's in the process of getting a new toupee' put on it.  At the risk of sounding, uh, "prejudiced" or whatever, I guess I'm happy to see that it's being done by good ol' American white trash instead of cheap Mexican labor.  I know it's white trash because one of the guys (he's not visible in this picture) had his pants hanging halfway off his ass butt.

From a photography standpoint, there's not much going on here.  The lighting was good, the composition is fairly interesting, but aside from that--Nada.  It's basically "snapshot" quality.