photography | Jim & Kathleen Travel

Three Weeks Out

by Jim Bellomo | Dec 21, 2025 | 365

Being only three weeks away from finishing this project is quite a relief. If you are one of my few readers who are not yet retired, just know that if you think that once you retire, you will have a lot of “spare time,” that’s a fallacy. At least I don’t. When I started this project, my thought was, “I’m retired, I will have plenty of time.” But to be honest, I have never been so busy. I am constantly asking myself how I managed to do this project the other three times and run a business. I still don’t know.

Here’s this week’s batch of photos. I think the last sunny day was my favorite of this week. We’re about to experience a whole week of rain, which they’re now calling an atmospheric river. You know those. It used to be just a storm, but now it moves so slowly and dumps so much water, it’s like a river.

: Yesterday, we decorated the inside of the house. We have quite a collection of Santas that we’ve gathered over the years. This guy is one of my favorites just because he’s a little quirky—and he makes me smile. I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for Santa, having played him numerous times over the years. I even used to own my own suit.

: Here’s a landscape for you. I went out for my long walk today (6.7 miles), and this was the best view I saw. It’s not way out in the country; it’s across the street from a very busy elementary school. It was a great day, but it was cold and foggy in the morning, finally clearing up in the afternoon.

: Saw this “monster” tree in Bellevue today. Took some other shots, but Kathleen and I decided this one was the most interesting. If you look at it for a while, you’ll see all kinds of funny stuff. Maybe the one on top looks like a monkey? Not sure, but I like it.

A good photograph is knowing where to stand. – Ansel Adams

One Month to Go!

by Jim Bellomo | Nov 30, 2025 | 365

December is finally here. And I have 31 photos to go!!! These last seven aren’t bad. Just not amazing. It seems I only get those kinds of shots when I am traveling, and since we aren’t traveling again until we go to NYC in April, it’s going to be a long spring. Currently, I am NOT planning on continuing the 365 for 2026. I am considering a 7/52. That’s where, instead of taking one photo every day, I can take seven photos in a week. Here are this week’s photos. My favorite is probably the one from my mid-week walk with Keeley. The light was just about perfect.

: A food shot today of a new recipe I tried for the first time—Chermoula Potato and Fish Stew. It had a wonderful blend of spices, herbs, and harissa on top. It turned out amazing. As soon as I saw it, I knew Kathleen would like it because it includes potatoes, one of her favorite foods.

: This picture I took tonight of a little house that sits in our living room isn’t the problem. I mentioned earlier in the week that I had to take my Nikon to my local camera shop for cleaning. The sensor had dust on it, which caused dots on my photos. I had to remove those in Photoshop before I could post them. I got the camera back two days ago, but today was the first time I shot with my macro lens. It turns out that when they clean the camera, they reset all the settings back to factory defaults. So, when I processed this photo tonight, I found that it was saved by my camera as a JPEG. It should have been in Camera RAW format, which allows me to do much more with it since RAW creates a digital negative. Oh, well, I guess I have to reset everything.

: A little abstract for you tonight. Shot a piece of glass we had in the house with a great pattern. Stuck it in front of a nice light source and got some pretty colors.

: I am sure you know what happened here. I forgot to take any other photos yesterday besides this one, and I almost didn’t take this one either. I spent the entire day cooking something—actually, I spent three days cooking, or at least prepping for cooking. And I had an AWESOME time doing it. Since retiring, I love cooking so much more because now I have the time. Before I retired, I would do everything on Thanksgiving Day itself. Now I do all my chopping, cutting, and mixing a day or two before, and on the day, I just assemble and cook. If anything, yesterday was too easy. I kept thinking, “There must be something I am forgetting.” But there wasn’t.

: A glorious afternoon walk with Keeley gave me this shot. This is the entrance to a nearby trail that I have taken many photos of. This is just the way in. We had a wonderful walk, much better than I expected. It was a beautiful fall day.

: Today, the weekly Keeley is the subject of the photo I took this evening of my project for the day—putting up our outdoor Christmas lights. I took a photo of the lights, actually about 10, and I hated every one of them. I used to have no trouble shooting holiday lights, but somehow these just didn’t work. I’ll try again another night. Meanwhile, here’s Keeley looking her best. We’ve been posting her pictures on Reddit, and she received more than 800 upvotes on r/sonarears. We also post her on r/fluffypits, where she is quite popular.

: Well, I tried once more to take a photo of our holiday lights. This time, a string (that’s right in the middle of everything) decided to go out just before I took the shot, so I skipped capturing the overall scene and instead focused on some zoom special effects. It’s a line of lights shot with a slow shutter speed and a high f-stop. Then you click the shutter and zoom your lens. This is what you get.

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

Thankful this is almost done…

by Jim Bellomo | Nov 23, 2025 | 365

This 365 project has been fun, but I am ready for it to be over. I am thankful that I have been able to hold up my end of the deal and haven’t missed a day. This week photos bring me up to 328 straight days of taking and posting. I think my shot of the wetlands from Saturday is my favorite. It really shows how we change seasons here in Western Washington.

: We have had an amazing summer and a beautiful autumn, but it is definitely nearly winter now. This is the last blue hydrangea I know of. It’s in front of our branch library, a place I often visit. You can’t go there to read books; we just order them online and then pick them up there. It’s small, about the size of our living room, with nothing but shelves and a computer for self-checkout. But it’s a great setup, and we can order almost any book or video you want.

: The sun returned! It didn’t rain! I was able to walk 6.5 miles! It was fantastic.

: It’s interesting that despite all the tariffs on Canada, their Air Force still stops here whenever they feel like it. My Canadian friend and I always joke about two things—the exchange rate ($100 Canadian is 45¢ US ?) and the Canadian Air Force. Of course, if they are floating in a lake or pond, they instantly become the Canadian Navy ?.

: Here’s your weekly update on Keeley. She loves every other Thursday—that’s the day our housekeepers come for a couple of hours and make our house look great. That means we leave while they’re here and go run errands that we’ve saved up until then. But first, we take Keeley to the local dog park to play for about half an hour because she LOVES our every other Thursday outings. Today, we dropped off my Nikon for cleaning. After Africa, it developed spots on my photos that I had to spend time removing in Photoshop, so I just went ahead and dropped it off today.

: Yesterday was an incredibly busy day, and this was my view for most of it. I believe I drove about four hours total, but covered less than 25 miles. First, I did the Thanksgiving grocery shopping (15 miles), then took a good friend to her radiation appointment (another 15 miles), went to pick up my Nikon from cleaning (30 miles), got my injection in Bellevue, and finally picked up dinner at Ooba and drove home (12 miles)… whew! I have to tell you, it was a VERY LONG DAY! But I got everything done. And no, I didn’t take this while driving. I shot it while sitting in my car, waiting for our friend to finish her week of radiation treatments.

: One of my favorite things about living here in the Northwest is that we experience all four seasons. Growing up in Palm Springs, CA, we only had two—nice and hell. Some people who only have two or three seasons don’t realize how much things change when you actually get an autumn. It’s not just the colors (those are gone now), but once the leaves fall, you can see so much more. This wetland area is a perfect example. As Keeley and I walked today, we noticed so many things we couldn’t see just a month ago. I really do love my seasons.

: Long walk again today, heading in a different direction. This shot is along the Tolt Pipeline, a water pipeline that supplies a significant part of Seattle’s water. It runs from the Tolt River, east of us, to Lake Forest Park, north of Seattle. It’s a nice 5.8-mile walk from our house.

The pictures are there, and you just take them. – Robert Capa

Another Week, Another Seven Photos

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.

: 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.

: 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.

: 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.

: 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.

: 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.

: 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.

: Thought I would show you the final dish.

: 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

Another Week—Seven More in the Bag

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.

: 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.

: 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.

: 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.

: 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.

: 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.

: 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.

: 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

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