by Jim Bellomo | Nov 16, 2025 | 365
And here they are. Getting closer to the end every day. Can’t believe the year is almost over, and I still haven’t missed a day. Came as close as I could to missing one this week, but remembered at the last minute. I think my favorite this week was the outdoor shot on the only beautiful day we had this week.
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Here they are—the last leaves of the season. Red and yellow, almost ready to fall from the tree. If I had taken this exact photo a week ago, you wouldn’t have been able to see the sky in the background. Autumn is turning to winter, and the leaves are nearly gone.
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I don’t think I’ve shared this particular spot on Redmond Ridge before. It’s on one of my six-mile routes, and I’d say I pass it once or twice a month. It offers a long view down some wetlands that probably stretch about three-quarters of a mile. When I first took a photo of this years ago, I sent it to my buddy in Canada, and he once asked me, “Where’s the moose?” I had to agree with him that the pond in the foreground looks like a perfect place for a moose to feed. Now, whenever I think of this spot, I always look for the moose. Still not there. But I did put a red poppy in the scene because it’s Remembrance Day in Canada and I want to remember my good friend who served his country.
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I know. We have an Alexa. Actually, we have five Alexa devices. We use them to control a bunch of things, mostly to turn lights on and off, set timers for food, and find out how old someone famous is. Today, Amazon offered us an upgrade to Alexa+, their new AI-powered digital assistant. So far, the only change I’ve noticed is that she now has eight new voices — most of which I don’t like. Four masculine, four feminine, all young. I realize that we are over the hill, but we’re still pretty tech-savvy, so why not a voice that sounds older than 30? All this to say, tonight, here’s a photo of our bedroom Alexa. She speaks in a feminine voice.
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Sorry about posting two small photos in two days, but the weather has been horrible. Lots of—no, tons of—rain. Build-an-ark kind of rain. Just constant for a couple of days. But we handle it well, so that’s okay. One of the few problems with this string of outdoor lights is that sometimes they leak, and water gets inside the glass. Then it trips the outdoor circuit that controls our plug, and these lights go out.
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Another very rainy day. Keeley and I went out for a long walk when we thought it would be clear for a short time, and we got about a mile away before it started pouring. Needless to say, we returned soaking wet. But this afternoon, I did go out to Trilogy’s club to work out. We have a walking track on the second floor that I use when it’s raining. The view from the track looks down into our club’s swimming pool. Most days around 3:00 pm, we hold a two-hour family swim. Grandparents can bring their kids and grandkids to swim in a very warm and safe pool. The deepest point in the pool is 3 feet 6 inches. Mason and Maylee used to come and swim before they got too big to spend time with grandpa—too busy dating, playing in the band, and doing all the other things teenagers do. But family swim today was quite popular.
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Long day today. Spent half of it in Urgent Care. Everything is fine, but they had to run a lot of tests to find out. Always an adventure. Tonight, Kathleen and I were watching TV when I suddenly remembered I hadn’t taken a photo yet. So, that became the weekly Keeley shot because she’s always available as a model. But this is a great photo because it shows one of her quirkiest traits—she can sleep with her eyes open. Seriously.
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Thought I would show you the final dish.
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Haven’t done a food shot in a while, so here’s what we had for dinner. It’s called Spiced Seared Eggplant with Pearl Couscous, and it’s one of my favorites. If you leave off the finishing yogurt, it’s vegan, so it’s rather healthy for you. Leaving it with the yogurt (which is damned good) still makes it vegetarian.
In photography, there is a reality so subtle that it becomes more real than reality. —Irving Penn
by Jim Bellomo | Nov 9, 2025 | 365
Here we are on Sunday again with our usual group of landscapes, close-ups and a weekly Keeley. I keep trying to come up with something new for you, and this week I at least got you a duck's butt. It's not my favorite, though, as that Trilogy Lake is one of my favorite things to shoot around here.
To learn more about the photo, simply click on it and you will be able to read the caption. Enjoy.
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Drove through Kirkland tonight on my way home from Bellevue. Stopped by one of Kirkland’s three beachside parks. I shot about 30 photos, but this one was one of my top four. I couldn’t decide, so Kathleen helped me pick one, and we both think this shot is of either a penguin or a duck with its head underwater. You choose.
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Your weekly Keeley shows you that our adorable puppy is a little thief. As you can see here, she has stolen her mommy’s chair. This is one of the few places she usually sits. This is Kathleen’s chair, and Keeley often sits there, but almost always in Kathleen’s lap. Right now, she’s doing it again because Kathleen is out getting a pedicure. So, missing her, Keeley is sitting next to me in Kathleen’s chair.
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Took Keeley for a long walk yesterday, and we ended up on the far side of Trilogy along the Sunrise Loop Trail. There’s a walkway and bridge you cross over, and this is the scene from that bridge. I’ve taken other photos there in different seasons, and it’s one of my favorite places in Trilogy. It’s not really a lake, more like a bog with plenty of water. Still, it’s a place I love to walk.
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Tonight was our monthly Trilogy Travel Club meeting for November, and we introduced a trip to India for March 2027. We had a bunch of people, and I used my time pre-meeting to shoot some crowd shots of people conversing. The gentleman on the right is one of my favorite people in Trilogy, Kit Mohan, and he and his bride, Shoba, are the ones who brought us this wonderful trip. They wanted to share a little of their home country with their friends and neighbors. We even had our tour company owner speaking to us via Zoom from India. It was awesome.
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Working out today, I saw this scene. The thing about it is that, rarely when I am there, are all the treadmills full. At least, all of them in a row. There are four or five others just to the right of these in the Center for Well Being here at Trilogy. I felt OK taking the photo because no one should be recognizable from this angle.
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One of the most remarkable things about living on Redmond Ridge is the abundance of trails, many of which pass through wetlands. When those wetlands are quite large, water is almost everywhere. Fortunately, the county parks department does nice things like building this footbridge that spans a wide area of bog. The truly amazing part is that less than a quarter mile from where I took this photo, there’s a large shopping center, and I am only about 2.5 miles from our house. Keeley and I try to go for a walk every day when it’s not raining. We call it dodging the drops.
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With bad weather and nothing I really wanted to shoot, I decided to do some product photography today. I intentionally used a macro lens so that only the final product was in focus, while the rest of the box was slightly out of focus.
Photography is the story I fail to put into words. —Destin Sparks
by Jim Bellomo | Nov 3, 2025 | 365
Yes, it’s kind of true that this whole 365 thing has become a chore. But with only two months left, I will finish it. Some days I forget to post the photo, but so far I have taken one every day this year. I think part of my problem is that I don’t go anywhere unless we are traveling. Now that we’re done until next April, I feel aimless. My fellow photographers around the world on this 365 trip are doing great work because they’re going out and finding things to shoot. I, on the other hand, am just not into spending every day driving around doing that. It makes me realize how little I go anywhere since I retired. But that’s okay because I love my life, so this project mostly consists of Keeley shots punctuated by bouts of travel.
But here are my shots for this last week. And there is NO DOUBT that the one I took on Thursday afternoon at the kid’s place in Olympia of the setting sun is not only my favorite but the best.
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Another walk shot because, honestly, I pretty much spent the day cooking. I know I should be practicing my food photography, but I get so busy cooking that I forget to grab the camera. This was an iPhone pano from my walk with Keeley yesterday. Since it had rained pretty much nonstop for about 36 hours, everyone was out walking their dogs. On a usual three-mile walk, Keeley and I might see three or four dogs, but yesterday we ran into 15. She did great, though, and only pulled my arm off once.
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I try to walk almost every day, usually more than 3 miles. When I walk, I typically take a single photo with my iPhone. I don’t often post that photo because I prefer to share pictures from my Nikon. The main reason I take that photo is to send it to my buddy Bob. I text it to him with a simple message: “Walk Today.” Since it was pouring rain today, I walked indoors at the Trilogy gym. We have a great second-floor oval track I walk around—21 laps equal a mile. It takes me just over an hour to walk four miles. Since I was walking indoors, I sent Bob this photo, which I now share with you.
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Your weekly Keeley is…Keeley the protector. On Halloween night, we are very thankful we live in Trilogy. You see, when you live in a 55+ community, you get a certain number of trick-or-treaters. You get ZERO! Not a one. This means no one knocks on our door, and that means no major barking. I can’t imagine Halloween in a regular neighborhood with this wonderful but reactive dog.
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We are in Olympia tonight for our granddaughter’s fall band concert. It was great seeing her play, and I really wanted to post a photo of her, but she plays the clarinet and the flutist sitting in front of her was blocking my shot from the bleacher seats. I managed ten shots of parts of her head peeking out from behind the flutist. But that’s OK because before we went to the concert, this amazing sunset happened right in front of their place. They live in a pretty rural area with barns and fences, which really made the shot for me.
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Last week, I took a photo similar to this of a trail here in Trilogy. If you go back and look at that one, most of the color was in the green trees. Today, when Keeley and I went walking, we found this beautiful carpet of yellow and green leaves left after the big storms.
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Anyone who knows me well knows that Halloween isn’t my favorite holiday. In fact (I have to say this quietly because I promised Kathleen I would be “positive”), I FREAKIN’ HATE HALLOWEEN. The biggest thing I dislike about it is that it takes over everything. Restaurants serve “scary” food. TV shows have Halloween episodes. Movies and trailers are all about horror films. It just floods our lives for the entire month. But we do have one piece of Halloween decoration—Edna. She’s a wonderful addition to our family, showing up once a year to delight us with her lights and diodes. We named her after one of our (now gone) entertainers, Dame Edna.
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Last week, it was leaves and color. This week, it’s skies. Today, the skies were magnificent—truly superb. Here are four photos to prove it.
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I believe photographers should shoot what they want, not shoot what they get. – Roberto Valenzuela
by Jim Bellomo | Oct 22, 2025 | 365
I lost track of the days and forgot to post last week’s photos. Too busy finishing up the last post on our Columbia River Trip. So here they are. Better late than never. Don’t forget: if you click the first shot, you can scroll through using your arrow keys or by swiping.
This week, I don’t think I know which one I like. I am SURE what photo I love. It’s the panorama of the river behind our ship.
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We visited Pendleton, Oregon today, a very Western town. Our tour guide was excellent, and she told us a lot about the city before we even arrived, especially the character of the people we would meet. While walking around after lunch, I saw an older gentleman whom everyone seemed to know, as they spoke to him when passing on the street. He simply called me ‘old cowboy.’ What a great face.
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Woke up this morning moored on the Snake River. Opened our curtains and saw something that looked like this canyon. I grabbed my Nikon, ran to the sliding door, and went to shoot the photo, but my viewfinder said, “Shutter is locked. Please recharge your battery.” So I grabbed a battery, but by the time I put in the new one, the canyon was gone. Then, just like that, another came along about 10 seconds later. And then another, and another, and another. Just canyon after canyon, and they all looked like this. The Snake (at least that part of it) is not the most varied or interesting river.
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And one of my best panoramic ever. I LOVE this shot. Make sure and click on it to enlarge it so you can see what I mean.
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Thought this shot I took from the deck of American Cruise Line’s Harmony was worthy of shot of the day. We are sailing on the Columbia River between The Dalles and Hood River, Oregon. In the morning light, Mt. Hood poked its top out, and I just liked the amount I got to see. I had a bunch of others where you could see more of the mountain, but this one did it for me.
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In Astoria, Oregon today, I took a photo walk along the waterfront and through their downtown. There are a lot of great old buildings downtown, but I especially loved this old movie house, which is now an arts center with live performances, some movies, and other arts events.
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There was no photo taken at 6:30 pm, and I was feeling down. We were supposed to be with our good friends, my brother, and his wife at a restaurant in Walla Walla. We had to cut our vacation short due to illness and a recent injury flaring up. So, since I was feeling down, I decided to take a close-up photo of something blue.
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It’s been two weeks since Keeley’s last shot because we have been out of town for almost that long. When we had to cut our trip short due to a medical emergency, the only bright spot was coming home to this amazing girl. Nothing could be a better welcome home than the one she gave us when we walked through the front door. She went absolutely wild, even though Kathleen’s daughter Michelle did a great job of taking care of our girl, she was still so happy to see us. But this is her “I’m ticked at you for leaving me,” look.
A good photograph is knowing where to stand. – Ansel Adams
by Jim Bellomo | Oct 5, 2025 | 365
Not a bad week. Some fun stuff. But upcoming are some travel pics, and you know how I love to take those. More about that tomorrow as we leave for Portland, Oregon, just after noon. I think the three wooden people grab me the most this week. How about you?
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Tonight was our monthly Supper Club here at Trilogy. Eighty people came in hungry for our awesome chef Andrew’s cooking. This month featured German food, and it did not disappoint. It was just delicious. And it gave me a chance to do some crowd photography. I realize that for some, living in a 55+ community might seem like a cliché, but we love it. We’ve made so many friends here and have so much fun. Just like these people are.
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Today was a really busy day, so I forgot to take a photo. Pretty ridiculous since I have been up since 1:30 am. So, as we were sitting here starting to watch Slow Horses (a great show), I suddenly realized I hadn’t taken a photo today. I went out to the car to get my camera, where I had left it, thinking I might find something to shoot while I was out. As I grabbed it, I saw the front of our garage freezer, covered with more than 100 magnets. It’s one of the things we collect on our travels. Since our kitchen refrigerator is stainless steel, the magnets won’t stick to it, so they are in the garage. This is just a small number of what we have — little reminders of all the great places we’ve been.
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Way back on January 1, when I started this 365 project, I took a photo of Welcome Lake in the Lake of the Woods development about two miles from our house. I went back on April 1, July 1, and now October 1. I had hoped that the view would change with the seasons, but it pretty much looks the same in every photo. It would have looked different if I had gotten snow in the winter or colorful leaves today in autumn, but no luck. Most of the trees around the lake are evergreens. But I decided to take it four times, and here it is. If it snows before December 31, I will get another one.
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You get the weekly Keeley early this week because we are about to leave for SeaTac to pick up my brother and sister-in-law, who are here for four days before we head to Portland on Monday. I want to send this now because I’ll be very busy over the next few days. I love this one because she has that big grin on her face.
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I admit it. I forgot to post a photo yesterday. My excuse is that I took many photos; I just forgot to share one. My brother and sister-in-law arrived Thursday afternoon, and since then, I’ve been doing one of the things I enjoy most in the world—cooking for company. I have more to do today, but I wanted to get this online. We took them to the brand-new Seattle Waterfront. We hadn’t been there ourselves since they completed what must have been a billion-dollar redo. It’s gorgeous—a truly beautiful job. I captured a couple of street shots, an airplane flying among the downtown buildings, a very cool wooden carving sculpture of a family, and the Big Wheel.
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The Big Wheel
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Airplane
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Street shot
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Today was all about cooking. We started the day at Saturday Market, picking up vegetables for the dish you’re looking at. It’s an absolutely delicious dish you make with grilled veggies and cured meats. It’s called the Grilled Antipasto Vegetable Platter. I spent so much time on it that I had to photograph it for today.
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These are our surprise flowers. Earlier this year, we had a perennial in our front yard that died. Mainly because the landscaper we hired planted it in the shade. When it seemed to be completely gone, I checked and found out it needed full sun. We have absolutely nowhere in our yards, front or back, that gets full sun for more than six hours a day. So that one didn’t make it. I went out to a nursery we liked and asked for something that would grow in partial sun and mostly shade. This is what they recommended: a Japanese anemone. When we got it, it was a small green plant, but in the last two weeks, just as fall was setting in, it blossomed like crazy, as you can see. Truly beautiful white blossoms.
When you acquire an understanding of the science behind light and what governs it, then you can predict its behavior and control the lighting in photographs. – Roberto Valenzuela
by Jim Bellomo | Sep 1, 2025 | 365, Photography
The year is two-thirds over, and I am still here taking photos. My personal take on my photos is that this week was a bit weak. I really like the two shots I took at Marymoor on Friday—the ones of the kids getting ready for their final ride at bike camp and the parents all waiting with cameras and phones in hand. And I can tell you that yesterday’s bread tasted as good as it looked. Oh, and I got a pretty darned good sunrise last Monday morning. But my sentimental favorite has to be my two girls in our car that I took on our 26th wedding anniversary. Happy Labor Day.
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Tonight, our “older” kids are coming over for dinner, and I plan to make an African meal. I’ve been putting this off since we got back because I was waiting a month for one of my ingredients to arrive. It finally did, so tonight’s the night. I don’t have a truly African starch to add, so I decided to make some sourdough bread. I started baking sourdough about two years before the pandemic, when everyone suddenly became obsessed with it. I don’t bake bread as often as I should because it doesn’t always turn out like this. This is one of my best loaves. I can’t wait to try it with some good Irish butter at dinner, along with the bobotie, Steelworks cocktail, and hearts of palm salad.
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I was at the Saturday Market again this morning (it runs until the last Saturday of October), and they had a woodwind quintet performing. Now, I don’t think a French horn is a woodwind instrument, but according to the signs advertising this group, it is. I took photos of all of them, but this young woman with the French horn was my favorite.
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I went to Bellevue today to get my weekly injection and had some time on my way home to stop by Marymoor Park and take some photos. I parked in one of their 10 lots, and luckily, I found the right one. There were all kinds of things to shoot. I took pics of a Microsoft team-building exercise, a mom taking pics of her toddler, or an architectural shot of the climbing structures, but in the end, I chose these two shots from the final day of Bike Camp. In the first photo, the little ones are all grouped together before they go on their final bike parade. For the second, I turned my camera to the parents waiting to cheer them on and take photos. I couldn’t decide which one I liked more, so you get both.
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The weekly Keeley is earlier this week because I wanted to take a picture with my incredible wife. Today is our 26th wedding anniversary, and we are as happy as we could possibly be. Over the past year, Keeley has only added to our happiness.
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Early this evening, we attended what Trilogy calls Canapé Collective. It’s a fun food class that our chef Andrew hosts once a month. Usually, he shows people how to make appetizers, which explains the Canapé in the title. We had never been before, but this month, we decided to give it a try because Andrew was doing a cocktail class. I took my camera along because I hadn’t taken a photo for today yet and got this shot of Andrew’s bar setup.
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I’m not sure if I mentioned this before, but Trilogy (the 55+ community where I live) has a golf course running through it. In fact, the golf course is only within Trilogy, but fortunately, Trilogy neither owns nor operates it. That means we often see lots of carts crossing our streets and plenty of golfers around every corner. Today, I saw two guys, braving the heat, finishing up on a hole I pass at least three times a day. I thought it might make a nice photo.
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It’s another hot day here in the paradise of Trilogy Redmond Ridge, so I decided to go out early and walk my six miles. I’m so glad I did because Mother Nature provided a GORGEOUS sunrise, giving me a chance to share this shot with you. I really love the power lines silhouetted against the sunrise; they give the photo a strong focal point.
Taking pictures is like tiptoeing into the kitchen late at night and stealing Oreo cookies. – Diane Arbus