This week of my 365 project has been my busiest yet in terms of the number of photos taken. Most of the 300 photos I took this week were either from our Thursday trip to the Skagit Valley tulip fields or during today’s photo drive around Seattle with a fellow 365er, Richard (https://www.instagram.com/richardjrock/) Rock. We had a great time and drove all over Seattle on a Sunday before he started a week of work here in the Puget Sound region.
So below are my photos from this week. My best is pretty obvious to me…the bumble bee over the tulip. It doesn’t get much better than that.
Don’t forget: if you click on the first shot, you can scroll through using your arrow keys or by swiping. Also, while you are looking at the individual photos, click the small i at the bottom of the page to read the full caption and see my photographic metadata.
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- At this time of year in the Northwest, rhododendrons begin to bloom. They feature the most beautiful flowers, but I have always viewed them as a worthless shrub, at least for 11 months out of the year. You see, these flowers hardly last more than a month, and the shrub itself is just a large green mass for the rest of the year. However, they are quite pretty when they bloom.
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- On my walk today, I saw this deer. I only had my iPhone with me, but I think it turned out OK. I do wish I had my Nikon. The wall in the photo is about five feet high. The deer jumped up there with barely a hop. It was a very handsome deer. Usually, the ones I see around here are mangy and losing hair. This one was in great health and looked clean.
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- Had some time this afternoon, so I took a drive on a road I seldom use. I got a bunch of shots, but this one is the one we (Kathleen chimes in when I can’t decide) liked the best. It’s an old, abandoned gate post. There were two of them, but the other was covered by chain link since someone had knocked down the gate and tossed it on top of this one’s partner. The fact that it is old and uncared for makes it more interesting for me to shoot.
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- Tulips
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- They never end
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- Still more tulips
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- Just north of us (about 90 minutes away) is Skagit County, Washington, home of the annual Skagit Valley Tulip Festival. Throughout the valley, there are tulip farms that are open to the public, allowing visitors to take photos of the tulips. Now, I am not a huge flower photographer, but they are always extremely colorful, so we packed up Keeley and headed north. I have photographed the tulip festival twice in the past, and back then, you could just pull up and take pictures to your heart’s content- usually from almost any corner. That was then…now you have to pay to get anywhere near being able to photograph the tulips. We paid $35 for entry into a tulip field and walked around for about 20 minutes while I took around 100 photos. Don’t get me wrong, I love the photos, and we had an awesome outing; even Keeley loved the tulips. However, the tulip farmers walling off the tulips so you have to pay to see them seems ridiculous. And the crowds! For a weekday, the place was packed. I am going to post seven photos. The first one is the best of the bunch and was the result of shooting at a high shutter speed and multiple exposures.
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- Inside a tulip
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- More tulips
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- Still more tulips
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- Tulips
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- I even got Kathleen and Keeley in some of them and included this one for you.
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- The weekly Keeley shot is early this week because this morning she did something that is both in character and a bit out of character for her…she stole my chair. Kathleen and I love routine. We pretty much do the same thing every morning when we are home. One part of our routine is me sitting in that chair after breakfast and her sitting in another next to it. Then we do two of the NYTimes games together, and we each do a bunch on our own. It takes us about 15 minutes. I ALWAYS sit in that chair. Today, while I was still having breakfast, Keeley jumped up and took my chair. When I asked her what she thought she was doing, she just gave me this look that kind of says, “Suck it daddy.”
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- Was out walking in Trilogy today and just loved this shot I got with my iPhone 16. I should have shot it in Apple’s version of RAW, but I didn’t. Shame on me. I promise that had I taken it with my Nikon, it would be an entirely different photo. But I am exhausted, not going out again, and I will shoot a bunch tomorrow. So here’s one of the miles of trails in Trilogy. We have great trails, and on a warm day like today, it’s wonderful to be able to walk in the shade most everywhere I go.
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- Today was interesting. As many of you know, I have been doing a 365 project (one picture per day for 365 days) with a few people from across the country. One of them is Richard Rock (https://www.instagram.com/richardjrock/). A few weeks ago, he DMed me on Instagram and asked what places were must-see to take photos in Seattle (he lives near Denver). He was coming here on business and decided to arrive a day early to take photos around town. Rather than just tell him, I offered to pick him up at the airport, and we would go out and shoot together for a day. I haven’t done that in ages, and it was a great experience. He gave me some very good ideas that I know I will use, and we had a wonderful time. I ended up taking more than 300 photos, and I know he took more than I did. Here are my favorite shots with a few notes. This first one is the plane Richard flew in on. I took if from a plane spotting place at the end of the SEA-TAC runway.
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- Richard, shooting on the beach at Alki.
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- A seagull at Alki Beach
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- The locks at Alki Beach
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- Union Station on a cloudy day.
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- I think he saw me.
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- The station from above.
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- Inside the station.
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- Union Station Pano
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- Seattle from Kerry Park.
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- A corgi-Australian Collie mix at Kerry Park
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- The Space Needle from Kerry Park.
I treat the photograph as a work of great complexity in which you can find drama. Add to that a careful composition of landscapes, live photography, the right music and interviews with people, and it becomes a style. —Ken Burns
Great shots!
Thanks! I think I had a good week.
Busy busy. The tulips win the week…..