June 30

 So we've had two beautiful sunsets in a row here. I liked the waves a little better tonight. This was taken from the National Lakeshore beach in Portage. Last night we were at Beverly Shores (about 10 miles north of this point) and the sun set on the other side of Chicago. The seagull was hanging around us all night. I really liked this photo with him in it.

f/9, 1/100, ISO200

June 29

 A Michigan lily blooming at the State Park. I didn't pack my small tripod and I couldn't get my big tripod set up under this flower (and I shot up, thus the sky in the background), so this is handheld. I tried a couple times and this was the clearest shot. I think the colors are pretty and I like the negative space between the petals.

f/5, 1/25, ISO100, 40mm

June 28

 View from our flight today. I liked it because of the layers in the photo...ground, lower clouds, plane wing, and wispy upper clouds. This was east of the Cascades, maybe around Wenatchee.

f/3.8, 1/1250, ISO100

June 26

 So I wanted a full moon photo last month but it was too overcast. Also I never shot the moon during nighttime photography week in my class because it was overcast when I was out too. So this is my first attempt. I can't remember how long I should have exposed, and all my papers are packed. This was 20 seconds, and it's too long because the moon moved during the shot and it's sort of oblong. It's overlooking Percival Landing from West Bay Road. I think the reflections are nice.  This was a nice ending to a REALLY long week.  We had movers at our house all week and spent the whole day today cleaning.  I really hoped we'd be done long before the moon rose!

f/7.1, 20sec., ISO100, WB sunny

June 18

Foxglove. It's all over the sides of country roads around here right now. This particular location is on a steep embankment, and I thought it would be a good photo place, because the flowers point downward on the stem and they're most interesting on the underside, and because I wanted the sky in the background. So this way I could take the photo without needing to get down on the ground. But it was way trickier than I thought, because they're on a gravel embankment and I could hardly keep my footing. I had to drive home and get my tennis shoes and even then it was precarious. I wanted a wide angle again. This has been pretty common for me lately. So I'm pretty close to these flowers. I didn't really want them centered, but just to the right is a school bus up on the hill, and just to the left is a treeline, so this was really my only angle. Actually I'm glad I had to run home because the light is really great in this shot, and much better than in my first attempt.  f/22, 1/50, 18mm

June 17

This is the view from the Fourth Street Bridge looking north. If it were sunny you could see the Olympic Mountains in the distance. The old tracks and any of the posts in the water on the west side of the bay are left over from old logging days. Now all the logging is Weyerhauser, and it's loaded from the two cranes at the Port of Olympia in the upper right corner. This little pond on the left drains completely at low tide. The harbor seals hang out in here and come out into the center of the inlet to feed as the tide goes out. You can almost see one of them in the reflection of the tree on the left. I think it dove under just before I took the picture, and just the ripples are left. (Click twice on the photo to zoom). I probably could have taken this photo in better weather, but as far as overcast shots go, this one is pretty nice, and it does show a few sunbreaks too. Guess I'm getting nostalgic as the move gets closer, trying to capture all the Olympia scenes before we go.

f/22, 1/15, 18mm

June 12

This is such an awesome view coming in to Olympia on the west side of town. I took this photo from a pretty low vantage point, but it was the clearest place to photograph. As you drive in on Harrison, several tiers higher than this, you can see all of Mount Rainier (when it's out!) including the foothills, and it takes up such a big space on the skyline it takes your breath away everytime you see it. It looks like it's just over the hill, but it takes almost 2 hours to drive there! This was taken after 7pm. I tried this photo last week but I was just a little too late and the sun was off the mountain. Today I think I was a little too early. I wish the sky were a darker blue.

f/22, 1/30, 120mm

June 11

So I've been lying low all week with a sinus infection and today was my first day all week that I even brought my camera along with me. It was liberating, actually. Not having to post each day felt good after doing this for two months straight. So I think leading into the move, this will be a new section of the blog where I won't be posting everyday just because it's getting so busy.

As for this photo, it's another heron, if you can tell. We went downtown at high tide (around 7:30pm tonight). We saw an osprey too, but not close enough to photograph with my lens. This probably wasn't my best heron photo, but I thought it was interesting...especially the wing feathers.
f/5.6, 1/20, 200mm

June 5

 So this is the classic old growth forest canopy photo. These trees are probably all hemlock, although there were a few cedars in this forest too. We were at Millersylvania State Park. Later on in the hike I tried this shot with a higher f-stop and a tripod. I wish I'd done that here. I like the positioning of the trees best in this shot though.
f/5.6, 1/125, 18mm

June 4

I thought these were wild poppies growing on the side of the road. Orange isn't a color I have much opportunity to photograph, so I was excited to try this shot. I don't think they're poppies though; they have an orange center. As an overall picture I'm happy with this composition. I had the hardest time figuring out where to put the flowers, especially with all the tall grass around. This is a wide angle view, so I'm only about 6 inches from the flowers. That blue sky in the background is what's known around here as a "sunbreak". They usually happen around dinner time, it seems, and that's not a good photography time for me. Today we got a nice one in the late morning. About five minutes after I took this photo it started raining! f/4, 1/640, 18mm

June 3

I didn't intend to get another heron photo today. Andrew and I went to the Fifth St. Bridge at high tide to watch a pod of seals feeding. At first I thought they were whales because they sort of jump out of the water when they dive. But it turns out that's really hard to photograph! And there was a heron perched on the edge of a sea wall feeding there too. I had my choice of fish in the beak photos, and decided on this one because it's a nice profile, even though it's a little blurry as it's trying to gulp the fish down. It doesn't even leave its spot as it's feeding; it just dives its head into the water and comes up with a fish!
f/5.6, 1/60, 175mm

June 2

So the weather article I read today said that our May was in the top 10 for rainy and cold. It also said that the sunny summer season officially begins on June 10th, a date I'm really looking forward to now that I'm doing this blog. This is 5th street looking west mid-morning. I tried a couple different shots from different directions. I liked this one best because the trees made a tunnel effect which leads you into the photo and down the rainy street. I tried focusing on the windshield not the street, and I did use vivid, because I've decided it helps for water photos with no polarizer.  f/4, 1/640, ISO400, 18mm, vivid.

June 1

The great blue heron is my favorite bird to watch. There are several spots on Budd Inlet where I can find them; this is the pier at West Bay. The tide had just started going out which is the best time to spot wildlife. I think this heron had staked out his fishing spot and was waiting on the tide. I really wanted this photo to be about the heron, but I couldn't get a better angle than this, and it really bothered me that he was sort of lost in the shot with the pier behind him. I did crop this so the heron would be more of the focus, otherwise it would be the piers that always end up in my West Bay shots (April 28th, May 17th and 18th). I think the light is nice, and the focus is pretty good. I think I used the timer on this shot.
f/5.6, 1/60, 200mm