April 24

I've counted over 30 baby goslings at our neighborhood pond.  This particular family has 11 babies, which is really amazing to me because typically a family has about 4-6.  In this case, I was waiting for them to swim into the sunshine and just as they did, one parent went to the left and the other to the right.  10 goslings followed to the right, but one shot off after the other parent, so it's not a complete family photo, but still pretty impressive.

April 13

My new hobby...sock-knitting :)

I had a rough time composing this photo!  This isn't how I envisioned it looking at all.  Just how it goes sometimes...

April 4

So this is my attempt at "panning" to capture bike movement on campus here.  I've got this idea to capture the bike scene between classes, but I found out that I needed my shutter speed to be about 1/20 sec. and in order to do that I had to find a somewhat shady location to not bring in too much light, because all the main thoroughfares were too sunny.  But my idea is to capture a lot of bikes all at once.  If I try this again, it will be on a somewhat cloudy day or much later in the day.  I'd like to keep the slow shutter speed but capture a busier location.

March 11

How cute is this little guy?  He was preening, and I'm not sure why he stretched his leg out like that, but it really was cute.  It looks like bird yoga!  I think he's maybe a juvenile merganser.  Lots of turtles around too.  The pond is pretty high right now, so they were all sunning on this log.  I converted this one to black and white (and cropped) because I really liked how the water looks like wood grain here.

March 9

The otters showed up again today!  Finally! I was starting to think they weren't coming back!  This is out at the Yolo Basin Wildlife Area, and the pond gets stocked with trout for a festival in February.  After the festival the otters show up for dinner.  There were four of them there today.  Many good shots to choose from, but overall I really liked this one.  The expression comes with a snort.  They're curious and come up kind of close, then they stick their heads way out of the water and snort at you.  I like that the tail is out too so it gives an idea of their size.  Plus the reflection is just how I like it.  Happy day!

February 24

At higher elevations we were getting some snow.  This was the final morning of the trip (scroll down to February 19th to see the beginning).  And this photo brings the vacation full circle, because this is the creek in Ashland, Oregon where the first photo was taken.  We don't pass through here without stopping in Ashland.  It's a great little town.  Southern Oregon U. is here as well as the Shakespeare Festival.  Plus we know right where the Starbuck's is when we're passing through =D

February 23

I don't know about this one.  It's obviously much more of a "snapshot" but the theme was road trip and the fact is, the drive is pretty amazing at times.  This was taken somewhere around Grants Pass, Oregon.  I considered cropping the dashboard and windshield wiper out, but decided not to because I think it's a good frame of reference.  Plus half the photo glare is coming from the windshield. 

February 22

Couldn't visit Washington without stopping at one of my favorite wildlife places, Nisqually!  This was just before sunset, and not much activity, but the reflection was nice. 

February 21

We're at the Suzzallo Library at the University of Washington during the really terrific tour Eric gave us.  It's a beautiful campus.  I just picked this photo for artistic reasons.

February 20

Woke up today in Portland, Oregon.  This first photo was taken just before the moon set this morning.  I had to run to the car to retrieve a toothbrush for someone, and this beautiful full moon was my reward.  I wanted all the fences and power lines cropped out, but that wasn't possible.  I still think it's pretty good considering this was a hotel parking lot!

The bird photo was taken much later in the day at the Woodland Zoo in Seattle.  Sorry I don't know what type of bird this is.  Also don't know why my ISO was set to 1000 either, but the ISO setting makes this photo very grainy.

February 19

From the first day of our trip.  We stopped for lunch in Ashland, Oregon, and I took this photo along a creek that ran through town.  It's not the sharpest focus when I zoom in (no tripod), but I like the almost monochromatic color tones.

February 14

It's a party! 

My favorite is the one in the middle with all the splashing.  I also think the top one is really cool with the bird flying out of the photo. 

February 10

I almost hate to post this photo, because it bumps the golden pond photo, and I'm still really in love with that one.  I took this out at the Yolo Basin this morning.  The otters showed up there a few days ago.  I saw them yesterday but didn't have my camera, so of course when I went back today with my camera I didn't find them!  This means many trips out there in future days because I really want a photo of them.  I do like today's photo though.  The light was really nice, and I like all the shades on the foreground tule.  This was the best angle I got for a red-winged blackbird.  Interesting that they don't have a yellow stripe here.  Also that there call is different from what I was hearing last year in Washington.

One issue I have with this photo is the extent to which the background is blurred.  That in combination with the lighting on the foreground makes the photo look a little too 3D...like I'm looking at it through cheap 3D glasses.  Usually I like a blurred background on a photo like this, but not so much here.

February 3

So this is the location I've mostly been photographing at this past month.  Turns out it's called the West Davis Pond.  Walking Clover today it occurred to me that it might have a nice reflection at sunset, so I went back tonight just before dinner to try some photos.  I've upped the in-camera saturation to "vivid" but somehow was expecting more color.  Still it's a beautiful gold.

February 2