In Our Neighbor's Yards

Around the corner from us, a few blocks away, is a large planting of St. John's Wort of a variety different from the one we have in our yard. Even though it is lacking the dramatic reds and purples of ours, it is still a handsome plant with the same sort of showy flowers.

Flowers from Afar

As I mentioned yesterday, with the telephoto lens on the extension tubes, I can reach plants farther from the sidewalk and add a few new things to the repertoire.

A Different Look at Some Favorites

In an effort to bring a little interest to what is, by now, an old subject, I tried something a bit different. I put my extension tubes on my 100-400mm lens to see what I could see. What I get is, of course, a smaller magnification and a longer working distance. The combination of these mean that you see more than just the small details and a few new flowers that were farther away in someone front yard.

Rosario Beach, Fidalgo Island

We had a stop of sunshine the other day, so we headed out for a ride. After a stop in La Conner just to have a look about (not much open there), we drove over to Fidalgo Island for a look about. We stopped at Rosario Beach and found a delightful place to spend some time.

Trying to Find New Flowers with Mixed Success

Down the street I found some stonecrop in full bloom. It is quite tiny flower, but it is a very nice one.

Flowers Mostly in Our Front Yard

I keep bringing you photos of the St. John's Wort out front because I really like the colors.

Louisa Boren Viewpoint

North of Capitol Hill, where all the action in Seattle these days seems to be, is the Louisa Boren Viewpoint. It is about a block from the aptly named Lake View Cemetery. We intended to visit the cemetery but it is closed because of the virus. I'd have thought that those inside are immune, but what do I know?

The image above is a panorama composed of 12 images to show the sweep of the view available. I think if you click on the image, you can enlarge it and then scroll back and forth to see the whole thing.

B&W Retrospective - Another Attempt at "Fine Art"

Although several of these images are onces you've seen recently, one of which you've already seen in B&W, all are recently converted to B&W or had their editing adjusted just for this post.

It seems like time to try out a little more of the "fine art" stuff one you. The image above is one if find appealing. The blossoms are in a diagonal line, leading you eye across the image. The shallow depth of field means that only a few of the blooms are sharp so there is a softness to the image that works for this composition.

London, 2014

Just wanted to take a moment to remind everyone what the world used to be like and, perhaps, will be again one day.

This is the Russell Square Tube Station in Bloomsbury, London. It is one of the closer stations to the British Museum. It is served by the Central Line. While we rode in from the house in East Finchley via the Tottenham Court Road Station on the Northern Line during our stay there in 2014, I often found myself walking to this station for a daily outing. While it is smaller and much less busy than the one at Tottenham Court Road, access is by way of an elevator or a torturous set of spiral stairs with something like 80-100 steps. So, you choices are slow or painful. If you've got time or this is the best connection, it is good option.

We miss our visits to London. We were there last about 12 years ago (at least it feels that way) in January of this year.

"Why, Sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford."
— Samuel Johnson

When do we leave?

A Walk Between Showers

Our next door neighbors have a different variety of St. John's Wort growing in their yard than we do. Theirs has larger blossoms and greens leaves rather than the smaller flowers and purple leaves that we have.

What you see above is the result of rain beating the stamen down. Since they are growing in a ring around the central part of the blossom and are mostly all the same length, what you get is a bright red ring where the tips land. This, combined with the five petals give it an appearance of a star all aglow in the night.

Evergreen-Washella Cemetery - 2

In addition to the military section, there were sections for many different persuasions and backgrounds. We found a section for the jew and at least two different areas for Orthodox christians. One was apparently for the Russians and the other for everyone else. There is also a section for the Japanese. But, most of the place seemed to be filled with protestants for various sorts.

Evergreen-Washelli Cemetery

With the restrictions lifting and a spot of sunshine, we headed out to investigate one the major cemeteries in Seattle. This is the Evergreen-Washelli Cemetery in north Seattle, just across the road from the hospital where Seamus was born.

Wet Flowers - 2

Down the street is a bed a Lamb's Ear that is producing flowers. These are spiky affairs. This view from above shows off the tiny bits of color in these otherwise light green and white plants.

Wet Flowers - 1

Think of these endless photos of flowers and plants as an exercise in learning to look at common things a new way. I'm certainly learning to see things in a new way and I hope you are as well.

Some Flowers in the Sunshine - 2

Yes, in spite of the frequent rain, when the sun comes out it will often dry enough for things like dandelions to produce their seeds.

Some Flowers in the Sunshine - 1

While I'm sure you are getting tired of seeing photos of the same plants over and over, there is something fascinating about the St. John's Wort growing in our front yard. The range of colors and textures makes a nice image.

B&W Retrospective: Raindrops on Plants

As is often the case in life, one must stop sometimes and reflect on the past to determine how best to proceed with the business of living. The same is true in photography. Today we will look back into the recent past to gather some images for collective inspection. This retrospective considers that "into each life, some rain must fall." With luck, it can also be pleasing to the eye.

Fields and Mountains

Not far from home, along the south shore of the Snohomish River is a field full of those plastic wrapped hay bales so common everywhere. I thought this made a nice panorama. Today, we are in between rainy days and we have a sky full of interesting clouds and expanses of blue, so it all worked reasonably well.

As you can see in the tall grass alongside the road, there is lots of the reddish color from the seed heads of the plants. This you see everywhere since there's been no roadside trimming for several months.

Marina Beach Park, Edmonds

There are two things you can always count on when going to the beach in Washington: a rocky beach and trees that have washed ashore. Certainly, the Marina Beach Park in Edmonds is no exception to this rule I just made up. No point in having a rule if the first thing you do is break it, is there? Of course not.

Flowers Because I Can't Find Anything Else

The Lady's Mantle in the front yard is always a favorite when there are bead s of rain water on the leaves. This one is fuzzy, hydrophobic, and presents an artistically sculpted line across the image all at the same time.

Flowers for Fun

The hardest part about having an endless parade of blog entries about flowers is thinking up titles for the posts. My apologies for being so thoroughly uninspired with that task.

The flower above was a faded pink color and since the color really didn't add anything to the image, I went for monochrome. I find the shards and textures are more pleasing this way.

More Flowers for Your Enjoyment

As summer is (finally) coming on here in the PNW, there are different sorts of flowers to photograph. Geez! this stuff never gets old...there is always something new blooming to find! So, hopefully, you will not get too bored with todays selection. The image above is the St. John's Wort in our front yard that is finally produced blossoms.

Mountains and Poppies

Went out to try to get some photos of the Cascades and found that the weather made for some pretty bad seeing. I had hoped that the clouds would lift a little and I could get some interesting cloud bits over the peaks, but no such luck.

Interesting Railcars

Sitting on a siding here in Snohomish for some time are these two cars. One appears to be a crane for handling train issues. You can tell I was more interested in the graffitti than the car itself.

Nearby Barn

When you cross to the south side of the Snohomish river, you enter the floodplain of the river. Lots of flat land that is only used for farming. Out here we find this interesting barn.

I net a really nice fellow named Nathan who allowed me to come on his property and make a few photos. The one above of the barn, looking more or less back toward the Harvey Airport, was taken from his yard.

A Couple Buildings Near Us

I went out for a ride today with the express intent of photographing the mountains. But, alas, it was too cloudy/foggy to see anything.

I next went to Lord Hill Park to see what there was but the parking lot was really full of cars and I decided that I wasn't up to risking infection for a few images.

Macro Photo Walkabout - 2

The curves of flowers are very compelling. This blue one has a symmetry that adds to this sensuousness and makes an image that I like.

Macro Photo Walkabout - 1

I decided, based on the initial trials you saw yesterday, to back off the magnification a bit. For the images you will see today and tomorrow, the magnification if 0.6. Still plenty I think with the advantage that there is a bit more depth of field.

A New Look at Macro Images

Up until now, all the close-up images I've presented have been done with the GFX camera using a 45 mm extension tube on the 100-200 mm lens. This get a magnification suitable for shooting flowers and such. However, for looking at smaller details at greater magnification, new toys are required.

Thus, I purchased an inexpensive pair of extension tubes for the smaller XF camera for use with the 35 mm lens I have for that camera. The images here are taken with 26 mm of extension that gets me a magnification of 0.88.

A Short Ride in Snohomish Country

Once you get out of the city of SNohomish into the surrounding Snohomish County, things get rural very quickly. The area seems to be well populated with horse, cattle, and sheep farms. On this day, my wanderings took me to horse country.