by Jim Bellomo | May 11, 2025 | Photography
This week, the 20th of 2025, was a good one. Took lots of photos, got some good ones and some that surprised me (how much I liked them), but I am happy with them all. The car photo surprised me because I like it a lot more than I thought I would. My best is probably the eagles, but my favorite is my amazing wife and her wonderful daughter.
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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Yesterday, you received the weekly Keeley. You thought we only had one pet, but in reality, we have four more. This is our bedroom menagerie. Each of them holds special meaning for us. From right to left, we have… Take Care, Teddy Bear. He was given to Kathleen by our grandkids when she had her hip replaced quite a few years ago. The white guy in the front row is a Hallmark talking dog (at least he used to talk when he had good batteries). I gave him to Kathleen on one of our first Valentine’s Days together. On top of him is our new coo. We got him last June when we were in Scotland. We love coos. Lastly, there is his royal highness Clarence, who is supposed to be one of Queen Elizabeth’s corgis. We bought him when we toured the Royal Yacht Britannia in Edinburgh on our second trip there. So each of them holds special meaning, and no, we are not ashamed to be in our early 70s and still have stuffed animals.
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With the sunny days we’ve had, Mother Nature has been providing me with a source of color I just can’t ignore. The first two are totally colorful, followed by a green-on-green plant. All are from our yard, which grows more vibrant every day.
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Took Keeley for a longer walk today while the sky was cloudy and found a Trilogy trail I had never walked on before. It wasn’t far from our house. Keeley likes the shade (she gets really hot), and since I don’t usually walk the trails but stick to the streets, I had never run into this one before, with the looming clouds in the background.
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You are receiving the weekly Keeley a few days early this week. We had to be out of the house for a little while, so we took her to the dog park to chase her ball—something that she loves to do. She had a great time, and it gave me a chance to capture some real action before we head to Africa in July. Until then, she is the closest thing to a gazelle that I have to shoot.
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Looking for something to shoot, I stopped at Duck Lake. I had previously taken photos there back in January when it was almost frozen over. I captured about 30 photos, but as I walked back to our car, I thought, “Wow, the way the car is sitting there, framed by the trees, it’s almost like a car ad.” So I took that shot as well. And here it is: my car advert. We drive a Hyundai Ioniq 5 EV (Electric Vehicle), and I have to say, it is by far the best car I have ever owned. It drives as smoothly as silk, is one of the fastest cars on the road from 0-60 when in Sport Mode (I NEVER drive it in Sport Mode ?), and is a true luxury vehicle on the inside. Plus, I think it looks pretty damn cool as well.
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Since today is Mother’s Day, we ventured north to the kingdom of Bothell, where a sumptuous feast prepared by Kathleen’s wonderful daughter, Michelle, commemorated Kathleen’s motherhood. We do this pretty much every year unless we are out of town, and I think it’s been a couple of years since I took a mom-daughter photo, so here you have it.
Photography can be a way into worlds and memories that words sometimes fail to convey. —Stacy Martin
by Jim Bellomo | May 4, 2025 | 365
It’s hard to believe that a third of the year is already gone. However, I now have 123 photos posted, and some of them I really like. So, for those who aren’t checking my daily posts on the 365 page, here’s the weekly update. I also want to express how much I appreciate you looking them over and letting me know which ones you like and which ones you don’t.
I don’t think this is my strongest week, but I do like my photo of our friend Mike at the Travel Club meeting on Thursday. This was a real week for people photos.
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Driving in Kirkland today, I saw two amazing signs of spring. The first is a gorgeous pink dogwood. We have a dogwood that is just waiting to bloom, but sadly, it’s white. It is truly beautiful and one of the first things we loved about this house, but the pink is more spectacular.
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The other is the largest and most beautiful azalea bush we have seen, topped by a red rhododendron. The colors are stunning. Hope your spring is beautiful.
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Tonight was our monthly Supper Club at the Trilogy Clubhouse. Our chef, Andrew (who you can almost see on the left), prepares amazing food, and every month he features dishes from a different country. Tonight’s cuisine was Jamaican. We enjoyed some great jerk-spiced prawns, a delicious chicken dish, Jamaican callaloo greens, Caribbean confetti rice, and a Hearts of Palm salad for which he gave me the recipe a year ago, and I have made numerous times since then. He topped it all off with a wonderful mango-coconut pudding. Everything was delightful, and you can tell from the looks on the faces of those in the buffet line that they can’t wait to dig in.
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This shot (taken with my 60mm macro lens) is part of my Ted Lasso collection. If you have no idea who Ted Lasso is, it is a TV show on Apple TV+. Wait, not just a TV show but the best TV show in the history of television. This show changed my life. It makes me want to be a better person. I’ve watched every episode (34 shows) at least eight times, and some even more. Whenever I have a bad day, I turn on an episode or two of Ted. I wish I were you because I would love to experience it for the first time every time I watch it. Even though I have seen it so many times, I still notice new things each time I watch it again. Once you start watching, you’ll want to see every episode—right now! What’s in the foreground is my talking Ted Christmas ornament, and in the background is a metal, license plate-sized Believe sign. You have to watch the show to find out what that means.
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One of my favorite people here at Trilogy is the guy in the middle of this photo. Mike and his wonderful wife, Kay, were two of the three people we knew before we moved in. They are amazing individuals, and the world would be a lesser place without them. Mike sends me inspirational quotes every morning, along with some great humor from time to time. You know how much I enjoy photographing people. The Travel Club meetings are always a good time for that.
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Driving through Trilogy today, I saw these two words. It was a very quiet yet significant statement, and I couldn’t agree with it more. I had to add it to my photo journey for this year. Ten years from now, when I look back at this 365 project, I will have this photo to remind me of what we are experiencing right now. Enough said.
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If you look at my Thursday shot, you will see our good friend Mike right in the middle of it. That one was from the Travel Club meeting. Yesterday’s pic (yes, I know I didn’t get it posted until today…but I took it yesterday) also features Mike and his wonderful better half, Kay, at Mike’s 80th birthday party yesterday afternoon. These two are among the best people we know, and we were honored to be invited to Mike’s celebration. But between that and having our forever neighbors, Jayesh and Lisa, over for Cinco de Mayo (a couple of days early), we were busy all day. Thus, you get two photos today, and one I haven’t even taken yet.
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Time for the weekly Keeley. We were walking on Kari’s Bog Trail, and she was being VERY good, so I told her to stop, sit, and stay, and I got this shot. I love this part of the trail with all the different light surrounding it. And yes, I took this one with my iPhone.
Photography must be integrated with the story. —James Wong Howe
by Jim Bellomo | Apr 27, 2025 | Photography
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
by Jim Bellomo | Apr 20, 2025 | Photography
We had a gorgeous week weather-wise and that let me get some gardening done and some outdoor photos. The rain is back today but that was OK because I got my daily Keeley. But my favorite shot this week has to be the bunny. I just love the incredible detail on the fur on the rabbit.
Thanks for still coming around to see my pics. For those of you who are travel photo buffs, we are only slightly more than two months before we leave for Africa, so stick with us.
That’s about it for this week. 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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This is the second shot of the year I have taken with my iPhone. Lately, I have been doing a lot of reading about the capabilities of the iPhone and how it is almost as good as my camera. I don’t believe it, but today I thought I would try out the RAW feature on the phone. RAW is the format I use with my Nikon. You probably shoot JPEGs, while I shoot RAW. It is a huge file that gives me the equivalent of a digital negative. That means I can adjust things like exposure, white balance, and a lot more. I’m not impressed with Apple’s version of RAW. When I go to edit it, I get a JPEG, which is not what I was after. I am going to have to do a little more learning before I am willing to use my phone instead of my Nikon. In the meantime, we had a gorgeous day here on Redmond Ridge, and I took a hike and passed one of our many ponds.
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I bought some coleus at Costco yesterday and liked the color. Here’s a pic; hope you like it too! Our days have been so beautiful, but I haven’t taken my Nikon out in three days. There’s too much gardening to do and too many walks to enjoy.
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Went out to take a photo of our front yard tonight. There were too many shadows and the light was very harsh. However, this glass bird outside our door had a great shadow, so here it is. Our yards are improving every day. Mother Nature has given us five days of sun in a row, which means I am working hard to get our landscaping looking perfect. If you had told me three years ago that I would be enjoying gardening, I would have said you were nuts. But I kind of am.
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We are enjoying an amazing stretch of weather here in the Puget Sound. If I am not mistaken, the last rain we had was four days ago, and no more is expected until Saturday. All this incredible sunshine has led to a full-blown blossoming of most of Trilogy’s trees. These two are right on the way into the main section of the development and were so beautiful that I had to get out of my car and walk around for a while in the middle of the traffic circle (also called a roundabout or rotary, depending on where you are from) to take this shot. We have a gorgeous flowering dogwood in our front yard, but it is a very late bloomer this year. It has buds, but my guess is the flowers are about two weeks away. Needless to say, you will get a photo one day around that time.
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This one is a trail heading into the Redmond Watershed Preserve. We have this amazing preserve just to the west of us, with more than 7 miles of trails like this one. On days like this, it is an incredibly beautiful place.
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Another beautiful day in paradise! I had some free time this afternoon and walked a trail that’s about a block from our house. I took around 100 photos during my walk, and these are my two favorites. First is the rabbit that crossed my path and just sat there. My camera does such a great job with detail! I chose this as my favorite because I can almost see every hair on that hare ?.
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I call this photo, “My Week,” because with all the great weather we’ve had this week, I spent most of it working in this yard- well, this yard and our backyard. We had a professional landscaper do our yard last year. They removed our lawn and several hedges, as well as a very large but very ugly tree. Then we replaced it with plants that require much less water, installed drip irrigation, and added the faux stream bed. We were very pleased with it.
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Time for the weekly Keeley. Today, I stood in the living room while Keeley sat on the end of one of our recliners, in what we call her vulture stance. I grabbed my camera and started taking pictures of her, making silly noises and faces. She gave me my favorite look, turning her head from side to side as if to say, “What the hell are you doing?”
Photography acts as a teaser, suggesting we can know something that we can never know. And the more we can’t obtain it, the more we want it. —Alison Jackson
by Jim Bellomo | Apr 13, 2025 | Photography
On Friday, I reached 100 days of this 365 project, and I have to say I am really enjoying it. One of the things that has made it so great is finding four other photographers from around the world to join me. When I started, I posted on the Photography subReddit that I was going to do a 365. We had 12 people (including me) start, and now there are five of us left. However, the photos from the other four are all outstanding.
I wanted to share the other people’s shots with you. First, meet Richard. He is from Colorado, and he gets some amazing shots. You can see his photos by clicking here.
Move south from there to see superb photography from Troy in Austin, Texas. I believe Troy is the only one of the group making a living taking pictures. You can see his photography by clicking here.
Then north and east to Lewis in the Windy City. He really gets his city and I love the work he posts. Just beautiful. See his shots by clicking here.
Lastly (besides me) is Dennis from Down Under in Brisbane, Australia. Dennis is doing a 7/52 (7 photos a week for 52 weeks) but we excuse him for that because he gives us such a different viewpoint. You can see his 7/52 by clicking here.
That’s about it for this week. 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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This old man is in our backyard. We have had him for quite a few years, and he is heavier than he appears. He is somewhat mossy, which gives him a lovely green tint. Today was very cloudy and rainy, and I suspect he became even greener.
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Today used to be my least favorite day of the year. It wasn’t April 8th exactly, but the day I did my income taxes each year. When I was in business before I retired, tax day felt more like tax week. Now, according to the software I use, it took me 1 hour and 28 minutes. It’s done and filed, and I feel so accomplished. Regarding the photo, I wanted to set up a scene that showed I had been working on it. The hardest part of the setup was ensuring all our important numbers were covered up.
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I was headed up to take a photo of a pond I had seen a few weeks ago when I noticed a couple walking up the road ahead of me. It captured a beautiful photo of true love- two people who obviously care about each other, taking a walk on one of our few days of Spring sunshine.
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We had to be out of the house today while some work was done, so we went north to our favorite nursery, where Kathleen spotted this camellia in all its red glory. It just screamed spring and flowers to us. Now we have to plant all the things we got today, but that will have to wait until tomorrow since it started raining when we got home.
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I had a few minutes before my weekly injection, so I took a quick photo walk on a bridge over the Sammamish River (slough). I captured about 40 photos, but this one stood out to me because of the reflection and the clouds. I loved both of them. We have large clouds forecasted for the entire next week, so I will have many of them to add to my cloud library.
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It’s spring, and flowers bloom everywhere. The blossoms are red, and I particularly enjoy red flowers, especially tulips. This photo, taken about a mile from our house, brings me joy. Plus, after a long day of gardening and working out, I needed a simple photo.
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Since I hadn’t taken my weekly Keeley shot, I knew I would get it sometime today. However, the morning light on our deck was so good that I had to ask her to pose for me. It turned out she is a fantastic model. All it took was a sit, a stay, and a treat as a reward, and she gave me this beautiful haloed photo that I really like. Plus, now I am done for the day…YEAH!
Have a wonderful week. Spring is here, and I guess I am now a gardener. Who knew? Oops, I forgot to pick a favorite for the week. I have two I really love…the people walking up the hill and the Sammamish River.
Photography is a major force in explaining man to man. —Edward Steichen