A few short notes

by | Jan 20, 2026 | Uncategorized

Changes

Good day, everyone! First, I want you to know about something before I do it. As I hope you remember, I have recently moved this site from wordpress.com to a new server. When I did that, lots of stuff I took for granted changed. Things like automatically sending you a notification when I write a new post, or a place to comment that disappeared for most users, and I needed to get a new e-mail address (jim@jimbellomo.com). I will still be using my old one as well. I now have seven, I think ?.

At any rate, one of the big things I found out is that my "theme" is no longer being supported by WordPress. It is a VERY old theme, so I need to update it. When I do this, you are really going to notice it. It will look like a complete redesign. I have about three weeks to get a new design before it stops working altogether. (FYI: A theme is what makes this website look the way it does.) So watch for that here in just a few short weeks...I hope.

Random thoughts

A couple of things I have seen in the past few weeks. Here's the first one. It comes from an article in the Seattle Times, and it both cracked me up and saddened me. It was in an article about the lack of WiFi on the Washington State ferry system. They used to offer somewhat decent WiFi, which you could buy from a company called Boingo. But about three or four years ago, they went out of business and since then, no WiFi. Here's the last couple of paragraphs of that article that just killed me. I highlighted the part I want you to see.

OMG! People might actually have to..." be bored, have to read, look out a window or (heaven forbid) talk to strangers." Does that just say it all about the state of people today? And it's not like there is nothing to look at. If you have ever been on a Washington State ferry, you don't go to ugly places. There is ALWAYS something interesting to look at out every window. But heaven forbid you might have to actually read something (instead of scrolling through videos). Or talk to a stranger. 99% of my friends were strangers when I first met them. Okay, old man rant is over now. You may return to your regularly scheduled programming.

Television

I am not sure I have ever mentioned it, but we are TV people. We just like a lot of great shows. We especially love British television. We often exchange ideas about what to watch with friends. I just want to tell you about a superb show we just finished watching, the first season of, and another we just started.

The first is a wonderful British mystery series, now available on PBS, called Bookish. It stars Mark Gatis, who created it. You might know him from the Benedict Cumberbatch show Sherlock, where he played Sherlock's brother Mycroft. The best thing I can say about this show is that it reads like a script written by both Arthur Conan Doyle and Noel Coward. The mysteries (six shows, each story is two episodes) are excellent, and the writing is as witty as I have heard in years. Give it a try if you love British shows as we do.

The other show is on Britbox. It is so good, it is almost worth subscribing to Britbox just to see it. It's called Riot Women. It's about a group of middle-aged women who are going through a lot and decide to form an all-female punk rock band. It is hilarious, poignant, and so much more. We have seen the first two episodes, and we can't wait to see the rest. If you watch a lot of British TV, you will recognize many of the people in this show. It's outstanding! Oops, I forgot to mention that it is filmed in Yorkshire, where our good friends Paul and Gail live and that we have visited twice. This part of Great Britain is absolutely beautiful. And Paul and Gail were the first to tell us about this show—thanks, guys.

That's about it. Watch for changes coming soon, and if you get an announcement from me that doesn't have my caricature smiling and waving at you, it's just a mistake. Sorry.

If we don't change, we don't grow. If we don't grow, we aren't really living. - Gail Sheehy

 

Keely’s Gotcha Day

Keely’s Gotcha Day

by | Jan 11, 2026 | Uncategorized

Just a quick note. This is the first post I have made from my new server. I need to test it out. I hope you get the e-mail to announce this post. And if you could, please help me find out if the comments work. So if you get this post, either comment or send me a quick e-mail or text and let me know you got the notification and that you could see the post...

Now on to the reason for celebration today. Today is Keeley's Gotcha Day. If you don't know what that is, (I didn't until about two months ago) that is the day we Got her or in the case of talking to her, it's her Gotcha Day.

A year ago today we woke up expecting to rehome this wonderful dog. But that almost didn't happen. We woke up fully expecting to pick her up at 2:00 that afternoon. Around noon, while we were eating lunch, my phone rang. We knew it was bad news. It was her original owner, calling to say that they had thought it over and they just couldn't part with her. We were crushed. We had met her earlier in the week and fallen in love at first sight.

We sat and were sad for about 20 minutes and then the phone rang again. It was her owner. He said, "Please come and get her. We want to keep her but we just can't and we know she will have a wonderful home with you. But please get her fast before we change our mind again." We have never driven so fast to North Seattle as we did that day. We grabbed her and all her stuff and she has been ours ever since. I took the photo above on that day when we got her home and took her out to run in the backyard.

Since that day it has been one of the best experiences of our lives. We had both always been dog people but somehow, at our age, it is different. We have more time with her because we are home all the time. It has been tough finding a dog sitter and we were lucky enough that our daughters were willing to take her when we went to Africa and later on our Columbia River cruise. Other than that, we have been with her every day.

She is quite the dog. Kathleen ran her DNA and found that she is about 30% pit bull terrier, 20% Chow, 20% American eskimo. The rest is what they call "super mutt." We don't care what she is, we just love her. She was briefly trained to be an emotional support dog and we can see the results of that. If there is ever any tension in the house (me getting mad at my computer, etc.) she is right there in my face to give me kisses and calm me down. She even has four unprintable words you can say to her at any time that will get her to jump into your lap and comfort you.

She has developed a wonderful daily routine. She gets up with me at 4:30, sleeps on the couch while I ride my bike, helps me wake up her "mommy" and then it's breakfast, playing, lunch, naps. walk, treats, dinner and finally bedtime snack before jumping up on my bed for a good night talk. Then she is off to her own bed for a good night's sleep.

Just for fun, I ran up a Photos movie of all the videos and pics we have taken of her this year. One of those videos that Apple's Photos app, just creates. And here it is, just for you. You might have to watch it on YouTube until I can figure out why it won't show up here. Just click the link below or here.

https://youtu.be/h-ojZmOJx_k?si=BmjMHcny4TMpDaW3

There is nothing like owning a dog. They are the best.

A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than he loves himself.  - Josh Billings

My Top Ten Photos of 2025

by | Jan 4, 2026 | 365

Having just finished a 365 project, I had more than my usual number of photos to choose from this year. Usually, I end up choosing only from my travel photos. That's when I take my camera with me. But this year, between my project to take a photo a day, family pictures, our trips to Southern Africa, up the Columbia River and a few other random shots, I think I had more than 2,000 photos to choose from.

I am going to start with my eight honorable mentions and then count down from 10 to 1—my best shot of the year...in my estimation. But I would love to hear what you think of my choices in the comments.

Don't forget: if you click the first shot, you can scroll through using your arrow keys or by swiping. And PLEASE... don't look at my photography on a phone. Please...

Number 10—Dawn on the Chobe River

I took this one while out in a small boat with just myself and the amazing Gibson who insisted on taking me out on a pre-dawn bird watching cruise even though I was the only one who had gotten up and been ready. A number of the photos you are about to see in this top ten came from that two hour cruise on the Chobe between Botswana and Namibia. I took a lot of sunrise and sunset photos in Africa. They are almost always great. This was my best because I had the boat (which is kind of a river taxi starting it's run) as a focal point.

Number 9—Hippos in the Chobe

There were two major wildlife highlights of our Africa trip. First, we spent five days on the Chobe River, then four days in the Kruger Park area of South Africa. Many of the folks we were traveling with preferred the Kruger part of the trip to the Chobe part. I (as a photographer) liked the Chobe better. This is a great illustration of why. Almost all of my Kruger-area photos are monochrome, basically brown on brown. On the Chobe, we saw that brown along the river's shores and in Chobe National Park, but there was also the blue of the river and the green of the grass on the islands that dotted it. This shot of four hippos surfacing behind our boat just worked for me. And I learned something about hippos during our days at Chobe. Did you know they don’t swim? They walk on the bottom. They are also very dangerous. Gibson did not want to be too close to them, because they could easily slip down and up under the boat we were in.

Number 8—A dark street in Bellingham

We had gone north to Bellingham, Washington, to meet our friends Jayesh and Lisa and see an anniversary presentation of mine and Jayesh's favorite movie, "The Princess Bride." There was even a live question-and-answer period with one of the stars, Cary Elwes. We stayed at an excellent Airbnb on a very dark street in Bellingham, and when I went out to walk Keeley, I saw this shot. So I ran back in to get my Nikon and came out and got this shot. This is a really good example of a shot I never could have gotten with my phone. It takes a manual setting to be able to get this kind of photo.

Number 7—Birds in the trees on the Chobe

This is another shot from my pre-dawn cruise up the Chobe with Gibson on our last day on the river. He took me near Victoria Falls (just on the other side of these trees) and asked me where I would like to be. He was just awesome and got me right to wear I could get this shot—so many birds.

Number 6—My best product shot ever

I know some of you will wonder why I included this photo of my phone, watch, and AirPods. I have taken hundreds of product photos over the years for business. I have never been able to get the lighting the way I wanted, and on this one, I think it’s perfect. It was kind of a fluke because I had forgotten to take a photo that day and got this at the last minute. If Apple needs a new photographer, I am available ?.

Number 5—A sentimental favorite portrait

Every other Thursday morning, we have to leave the house while our housekeeping service comes in to clean. We could stay, but then we would have to pen Keeley up in our guest room, and she barks the entire time. So we go out and run around. Keeley loves to go for rides. For this shot (which I took on our 26th wedding anniversary), we were in the library parking lot, and I had just come back from grabbing a book when I saw this scene. The love of my life and my furry girl. My favorite portrait of the year.

Number 4—My best lighting

This shot of my granddaughter’s school play is one of the things I love about photography—light. Real photography is all about light. There is a great quote from (I believe) Ansel Adams that says, “New photographers obsess about gear—what lens to use, what camera to buy. Once you have a little more experience, you start talking about composition, color, and clarity. But a true photographer only cares about one thing…light.” This light blew me away.

Number 3—Cheetah

It’s kind of funny that my last three photos are all of animals. We start with this shot, which I was worried about cropping so tightly. But it’s the cheetah’s eyes that make this shot better than any of the rest of the wildlife photos I took in Africa (except one). Just in case you are wondering, I was about 10 feet from this guy when I took this shot.

Number 2—Our Girl

This was the day we got her, and it’s the best action shot I took in 2025 I keep coming back to it again and again, making it my favorite shot of her all year. She changed our lives. She made them so much better. We can’t imagine not having her.

Number 1—The mighty buffalo

On that early morning bird-watching cruise with Gibson, where I shot photos seven and ten, I got this photo. We were cruising back to the Zambezi Queen when we saw this gigantic water buffalo. He was standing on the bank of the Chobe, and Gibson turned the boat and put it right in front of him. Gibson told me the guides consider these majestic animals the most dangerous in Africa, not because they are so big but because they are so erratic. Lions, elephants, and hippos might be stronger or more fearsome, but the guides know what they will do. If they are eating on the side of the river, they will keep eating, but a water buffalo will attack you at the drop of a hat. This guy moved, and we moved away pretty damn quick. But what a shot. Pure power.

The single most important component of a camera is the twelve inches behind it! – Ansel Adams.

And That’s a Wrap

by | Jan 1, 2026 | 365

Here it is. The last post of my 365 project in 2025. I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to not taking a photo today. Not a single one ?. But you know I will probably be taking some in the not-too-distant future. I love photography. For all of you who have been following along faithfully, all I can say is thank you for your words of encouragement. I will be back to do another 365 in 2035. See you then...or the next time I travel.

Actually, there will be a post tomorrow. I always end a year and start a new one with my top 10 photos from that year. So far, I have it narrowed down to 18. So you might get eight honorable mentions and the top ten.

Big News for this website

One more piece of big news (that I hope you never actually see happen) is that I am moving this blog to a new server. I have been with WordPress.com since I started it in December 2018, but they recently raised their prices. I also host other URLs I own with the web hosting company Bluehost. I have now moved the entire blog over to Bluehost. That means that right now, as you are reading this on WordPress.com, there is a duplicate version on Bluehost. All I have to do, sometime between now and January 14, is click a switch, and it will move my URLs over to the new service. You shouldn’t have to do a thing, and I hope all my current subscribers will still receive their notifications. More about this just before it happens. If we somehow lose you, go to www.jimbellomo.com

So, here's my final three photos for 2025. My favorite of these is last night's dinner when we were joined by our forever neighbors, Jayesh and Lisa, to resume our annual New Year's Eve tradition.

You don't make a photograph just with a camera. You bring to the act of photography all the pictures you have seen, the books you have read, the music you have heard, the people you have loved.   ? Ansel Adams

And Then There Were Three

by | Jan 1, 2026 | Uncategorized

Just three photos left. I can’t believe it. This has been a fun week (except maybe Christmas Day). Kathleen woke up sick after our rich Christmas Eve meal and didn’t make the trip with me to Olympia to see my daughter and her incredible family. My grandkids are awesome, my son-in-law is awesome, and I loved being there, but it was a lot of driving all by myself. The rest of the week was great. I am very happy that on Wednesday, I will take my last shot of the year, having done the entire 365 without missing a day.

I told Kathleen this morning that I have decided to do another 365 project ?. The last one I did was in 2015, so here we are in 2025, and I think I will start my next one in 2035. Of course, I will be 83 then, but I hope to still be taking pictures.

Here’s the group from this week. If you want to see all the Halloween costumes mentioned in the Christmas Day caption, go to the 365 page (in the menu above) and scroll down to the slideshow for December 25. I think the shot of Keeley is my favorite.

Creativity is a wild mind and a disciplined eye  – Dorothy Parker