January 29, 2012 – Bee and Flower
Posted by Dave in - Best of Dave's POTD -, Animals, Flowers, Macro, Picture of the Day on January 29, 2012
Bee and Flower
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Umm. Wow. Been awhile, huh? Well, here’s one to hold you over until I decide to start blogging again.
Subscribe to the Picture of the Day via: Popularity: 9%
September 13, 2011 – Snoqualmie Pass
Posted by Dave in Mountains, Picture of the Day, Washington State, Winter/Snow on September 13, 2011
Snoqualmie Pass
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Wow. I’ve been pretty terrible about updating this site lately. Only one post in all of August, and we’re halfway through September and I’m just getting around to making my first post. Sigh. And the bad news is, things probably aren’t going to change anytime soon. So, I hope you like this picture, is what I’m saying. Like, *really* like it. Hmm.
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel XT, 18-55mm kit lens. 1/1600s, f/7.1, ISO 100. Focal length: 55mm.
Popularity: 29%
August 24, 2011 – Luci!
Posted by Dave in Picture of the Day on August 24, 2011
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Hello everyone! Sorry for the several week delay there for post number 401. First off though, I gotta say, you all are *terrible* at following directions. Seriously. Like, awful.
Second, I had another kid! That’s what caused most of the delay. Basically, I’ve got other stuff going on right now, that quite frankly is more important than you. 
So, here’s Luci.
As you know, I’m normally not into the whole “pictures of people” thing, so next time I post I’ll be back to the nature and flowers and bugs theme that I usually go with. So, until then, look at my daughter.
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 lens. 1/400s, f/2.8, ISO 100. Focal length: 43mm.
Popularity: 12%
July 27, 2011 – Point Reyes National Seashore
Posted by Dave in - Best of Dave's POTD -, Picture of the Day on July 27, 2011
Point Reyes National Seashore
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Today’s picture is the 400th post to the Picture of the Day!! Congratulate me, dangit!
Right, good, now that I’ve got that out there… Here’s another shot from Point Reyes National Seashore, just north of San Francisco. I mentioned I had several photos from my recent visit that turned out pretty well, so here’s one of them. The area that’s called the “National Seashore” is kind of a spit of land that’s mostly separated from the main coastline and juts out a bit into the ocean. It mostly consists of small rolling hills covered with grass, and some low marshy/swampy tidelands. I had a lot of fun taking a bunch of shots of the late afternoon sun playing around on the grass, especially when the odd cloud would pass by, which did some cool stuff with textures of lighting. Using a polarizer was a must, as it cut through a lot of the haze and made for some nice cobalt-blue skies. The only downside was that it was right about when I took this picture that I remembered that I’ve got a fairly strong allergy to grass, and that’s why I had been sneezing and blowing my nose and generally feeling pretty miserable the whole day. But, it’s all worth it when you get a decent shot or two.
Okay, see you tomorrow for post number 401!
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 lens. 1/250s, f/10.0, ISO 400. Focal length: 21mm.
Popularity: 13%
July 26, 2011 – Sunset Surfing in Turtle Bay
Posted by Dave in Picture of the Day, Tropical/Beaches on July 26, 2011
Sunset Surfing in Turtle Bay, Oahu
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
So I went backpacking this weekend. And I took a few pictures. I’m hoping to get at least one of those up here at some point this week. Also, I’ve got more pictures from Point Reyes. Maybe you’ll see one of those too. But in the meantime, here’s another shot of some dude surfing at sunset. This was in Turtle Bay, at the northern tip of Oahu, in Hawaii.
Have a great rest of the day, and try to stay cool out there, unless you’re in the southern hemisphere or Seattle, in which case, grab a coat.
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Canon 55-250mm IS lens. 1/250s, f/8.0, ISO 400. Focal length: 235mm.
Popularity: 16%
July 22, 2011 – Monte Cristo Peaks
Posted by Dave in Mountains, Picture of the Day, Washington State, Winter/Snow on July 22, 2011
Monte Cristo Peaks, seen from Spada Lake
Friday, July 22, 2011
Just a quick post today to round out your Friday (or start off your Monday, if that’s when you’re seeing it.) This view was from the shore of Spada Lake, which is just a bit north of Highway 2 in the Startup/Gold Bar area. I wasn’t sure which peaks those were at the time, but I have since looked at a map. I’m fairly sure they are big peaks right next to the former-town of Monte Cristo (yes, the one along the Mountain Loop.) That is to say, Foggy Peak, Monte Cristo Peak, Kyes Peak, and Columbia Peak. I was kind of surprised to see that on the map, as I guess I just hadn’t really thought that closely about where exactly I was at the time. So, there you go. Have a great weekend!
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Unknown lens (but probably the Quantaray 70-300.) 1/1000s, f/11.0, ISO 200. Focal length: 70mm.
Popularity: 24%
July 20, 2011 – Chair Peak from International Bowl
Posted by Dave in Mountains, Picture of the Day, Washington State, Winter/Snow on July 20, 2011
Chair Peak from International Bowl, Alpental Ski Area
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
I know, I know, another winter picture. Hey, it’s what I had handy. This is a view from in-bounds at Alpental (a ski area near Seattle), looking into the backcounty. That’s chair peak, and I was standing in International Bowl when I took the shot. I know I’ve said this before, but this is, more often than not, the kind of weather we get at our ski resorts. Lots of great snow, just not a whole lot of blue sky. Sometimes you’re skiing in the fog, sometimes the fog lifts a bit, but it’s generally pretty grey.
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 lens. 1/200s, f/13.0, ISO 100. Focal length: 50mm.
Popularity: 29%
July 18, 2011 – Yellow Rose
Posted by Dave in - Best of Dave's POTD -, Flowers, Macro, Picture of the Day on July 18, 2011
Yellow Rose
Monday, July 18, 2011
Man, I really thought I had already posted this picture before, but my rudimentary method for keeping track of this stuff suggests that I haven’t. So, maybe it’s a re-post, maybe not. Doesn’t really matter, I’m sure even if it is, you don’t remember it from last time. In fact, I could probably replay the first 250 pictures that I posted and nobody would say a thing. Perhaps I’ll do that someday. But not today. No sir, this is not that day.
This is a rose. It’s yellow. Thus, the title of the post. I took it on a cloudy day last year, in the rose garden at Woodland Park. I’ve found that cloudy days work a lot better for rose pictures than sunny days, because you get a truer representation of the color than when you’ve got bright sunshine everywhere. It can be a bit challenging because of the lack of light, but it can make for some nice shots.
This one was taken with my Minolta-mount Kiron 105 macro that I found on eBay. If you’re the kind of person that likes to scour eBay for old lenses, I *highly* recommend trying to track one of these guys down. I’m always amazed at how nice the shots come out of this guy. It’s been awhile since I’ve busted it out, probably since around the time I took this picture. Man, I gotta get on that.
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Kiron 105mm macro (Minolta mount). 1/160s, ISO 200. Aperture unknown.
Popularity: 18%
July 15, 2011 – Dawn in Central Washington
Posted by Dave in Picture of the Day, Washington State on July 15, 2011
Pre-dawn haze, central Washington
Friday, July 15, 2011
Today’s picture goes back to that big long drive I took a little while ago in search of northern lights. As you may remember, I never did find any, but I still had a nice drive. And I took a couple reasonable interesting pictures. Such as this one. I found this shot while driving through some ranch lands in sort of the central part of Washington state, somewhat close (45 mins away?) to the Grand Coulee Dam. Nice views, stuff that you normally don’t see, especially if you’re the kind of person that a) lives in the city and b) rarely gets up before 9am. So, it was a nice experience for me.
I think I mentioned this before, but I was pretty shocked at how early I started seeing the sky light up. In fact, when I finally got out of the canyon I was using to cut northeast on my drive, and I saw just a little bit of glow on the horizon, I briefly mistook it for the northern lights I was looking for. At the time, it was just past 3 am. This picture in particular was I believe taken just after 4 am. I mean, sure, I’m pretty far north, and we get a lot of daylight around this time of year. But still, 4 am?! Wacky. Anyway, there it is.
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Canon 55-250mm IS lens. 1/2s, f/8.0, ISO 100. Focal length: 131mm.
Popularity: 22%
July 13, 2011 – Point Reyes National Seashore
Posted by Dave in - Best of Dave's POTD -, Picture of the Day on July 13, 2011
Point Reyes National Seashore
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Hey everyone! Last week I mentioned that I wouldn’t be posting anything on Monday. Apparently I used that as an excuse to also not post anything on Tuesday. But, now that it’s Wednesday, let’s get back to it.
I had to fly down to San Francisco for work on Monday, so I took the opportunity to fly out early Sunday morning and rent a car for the day. I didn’t really have a specific plan of where to go, but I figured I’d shoot for the coast north of the city. Thus, I ended up spending most of my day farting around Point Reyes National Seashore. That’s a reasonably interesting place, if you’re in the area and have some time to kill. There are some nice beaches (nice as in pretty, not nice as in let’s-lay-out-a-towel-and-get-some-sun), some interesting geography, and some wicked nasty wind. But, that makes for some big waves, which are also pretty cool.
I realize that it’s somewhat ironic that a picture captioned “Point Reyes National Seashore” would not contain a beach, or a shoreline, or anything even water related. But that’s where we are. Point Reyes is a triangular wedge of land that juts out from the mainland, and it contains, among other things, a bunch of historic ranches that are still operational. This one was along the main road in the park, after I had pulled away from the water a bit.
It’s interesting to note that I made *very* minimal adjustments to the image. Meaning, I tweaked the brightness slightly, and added a touch of sharpening, but other than that, this is what came off the camera. As in, I didn’t tweak the colors at all. Often these days you see pics from Instragram and other apps like it where people make it look all yellow-y and old-time looking, but none of that funny business happened here. It actually did look like this, it was pretty incredible. All of the wind meant that the air was thick with haze and mist from crashing waves, so the entire sky to the west was glowing. Cool stuff. Oh, I just remembered that my statement before about how I adjusted the image wasn’t quite true – there was a spot of lens flare that I removed with Picasa. So, I’m basically saying that I totally cheated. But I’m okay with that.
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Canon 55-250mm IS lens. 1/160s, f/13.0, ISO 100. Focal length: 74mm.
Popularity: 14%
July 8, 2011 – Larches at Heather Pass
Posted by Dave in Fall Color, Picture of the Day, Washington State on July 8, 2011
Larches at Heather Pass
Friday, July 8, 2011
Well, three posts in one week. Not my worst ever performance, so I’ll take it. This is a view from just below Heather Pass in North Cascades National Park. And, those are larches. I’ve talked about them a bunch of times, but for review: they are pine trees that change color in the fall. They are awesome. I have run out of interesting things to say.
I’m not going to post anything Monday, I’m warning you ahead of time, so plan accordingly.
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 lens. 1/400s, f/5.6, ISO 400. Focal length: 11mm.
Popularity: 40%
July 6, 2011 – Hawaiian Fire Dancer
Posted by Dave in Picture of the Day, Tropical/Beaches on July 6, 2011
Hawaiian Fire Dancer
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Hey look, it’s the same picture that everyone who has ever been to Hawaii has already taken! That’s right folks, I was a tourist just like everyone else while I was there, and I went to a luau at some hotel, and I took long-exposure pictures of the guys doing the fire dancing. I wish I was original, but I so totally am not.
In other news, I decided today to stop posting links to Rate Dave’s Photos. Because it’s dumb, and ugly, and I wouldn’t want anybody to go there anyway. I don’t even have a good reason for why I was putting those links there this whole time. So, I stopped. You probably don’t even know what I’m talking about, which is good, because it’s dumb. Right, good, let’s get on with the rest of our day.
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Canon 55-250mm IS lens. 1/10s, f/5.6, ISO 400. Focal length: 200mm.
Popularity: 12%