Archive for June, 2009
June 30, 2009 – Lightning over Colorado Springs
Posted by Dave in Colorado, Picture of the Day on June 30, 2009
Lightning over Colorado Springs
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=67
As promised, here’s another lightning storm from a ridiculously active storm that I was watching from the deck at my parents’ house.
I’ll keep the comments short because I’m stupid-busy at work today, and I’ve already said most of what I’d say in the post about the previous lightning picture, way back when. Go look for that one if you want to know more.
As I mentioned before, usually with lightning pictures, you have to keep a somewhat wide frame, since otherwise you’ll miss all of the strikes. But this storm was so amazingly active and CLOSE that I was able to get away with slapping on the huge telephoto lens. And, as you can see, on this shot, I got TWO strikes that were right across the valley from me. (You know how when lightning is really close, there’s no gap between the lightning and the thunder? Yeah, both of these.)
The other amazing thing about this shot is that it was taken with my old 35 mm camera. Which means a couple things: 1) I had no idea if I had even gotten any strikes in my pictures. I just held the shutter open for 45 seconds at a time and hoped. It wasn’t until several days later when I got the pictures back that I saw the results. 2) I was using film. Which meant I only had 24 chances per roll to get it right.
If I had been using digital, I would have not only been able to see if I was exposing it right before the storm ran it’s course, I would also have as many chances as I wanted to nail it. So I’m pretty happy that I was able to get both of these shots during just that one storm. And, actually, it was shortly after taking this picture that I just started getting a little too freaked out. Keep in mind that I was standing out on a deck in the rain next to a tripod while these strikes were hitting less than a mile away. Oh, did I mention that my parents’ house is on top of a hill? And that there’s a system of lightning rods on the top of the house because we get lots of lightning up there? Hmm. Yeah, I got my tail inside.
That’s it for today. I can’t think of a good way to wrap up this entry.
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June 29, 2009 – Skagit Valley Tulip Festival
Posted by Dave in Flowers, Picture of the Day, Washington State on June 29, 2009
Skagit Valley Tulip Festival, La Connor, Washington
Monday, June 29, 2009
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=893
Before I talk about today’s picture, there’s something I wanted to tell all of you:
I worked hard over the weekend to get the new “official” home of my Picture of the Day all caught up and ready for general consumption. It’s at http://davefry.net/potd . Go check it out. For the forseeable future I’m going to be cross-posting in both places, so if reading the entries here works for you, no need to change. But Facebook tweaks the pictures when I upload them, it resizes them smaller and at a lower quality level, so they get a bit blurry and chunky. Not a huge deal unless you look really closely (which I do), but I find it annoying. So the pictures on davefry.net, while still shrunk from original full size, are definitely higher quality than you’ll see here on FB. Okay, enough about that, now on to today’s entry…
This is another picture from the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival near La Connor. Julie and I actually didn’t make it up there this year, so this is another picture from last year. There’s a few I want to post eventually from there/then, so I figure I should space them out because that’s what the rules say I need to do. You know, the rules.
The field we were hanging out in had pinks, reds, and some dark purple/maroons. Sadly, I totally failed in all of my attempts at getting good pictures involving the dark purples, because they totally tripped up the light meter, they just wouldn’t turn out right. But the reds and especially the pinks made for great shots.
With huge fields full of nearly identical brightly-colored flowers like these, there’s lots of different themes you can play around with. Depending on your vantage point, you can emphasize the endless fields of color, you can go after the repetitive patterns of the rows, you can focus on the detail of one or two flowers in particular, you can play the detail off against all of the above, etc, etc, etc. Lots of fun stuff. One of the biggest challenges is trying to get pictures without getting any of the hundreds of other people walking around in the frame. Which is a lot harder than it sounds. Also, one of my pet peeves is an otherwise really beautiful scene that gets rudely pulled back to reality by the presense of, say, an ordinary car, or a stupidly dressed person, that kind of thing. I tend to really dislike “ordinary” things getting into my pictures, because I guess I try to make my pictures as escapist as possible, if that even makes any sense.
I think tomorrow I’m going to post another lightning picture, because several weeks ago I said I was going to, but then I never did. So now you have something to look forward to.
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel XT, Tamron 28-300 mm VC lens. 1/200s, f/8.0, ISO 100. Focal length: 154mm.
Popularity: 8%
June 26, 2009 – Butterfly
Posted by Dave in Animals, Flowers, Macro, Picture of the Day on June 26, 2009
Butterfly
Friday, June 26, 2009
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=575
I’ve got a ton of pictures of this little guy. I saw him on some hike I was on a long time ago, and he was hanging out on the flowers near me for awhile, so I wasted a good 10 minutes or so just snapping away. It’s pretty likely that you’ll see him again, especially if I keep this Picture of the Day thing going long enough that I end up using all of the pictures that I think are pretty good, and have to start digging through the archives. (Not there yet, but someday…)
I assume that’s a wild daisy, but I’m really not so good at identifying flowers, so it could be anything really.
One thing that I never knew about butterflies until I looked at these pictures full size was that their eyes are really unusual. They look like robin eggs. (The candy, not the, you know, real thing. Although presumably the candy was named “robin eggs” because they look like robin eggs, but again, not something I know about.) Weird, but cool.
Man, another week gone by. Amazing how quick that happens. Have a great weekend!
(ps I’m slowly copying these Picture of the Day entries over to an actual hosted blog, at http://davefry.net/potd … so if using an RSS reader or just not using Facebook is more your style, have at it. I’ve still got a bunch of them to take care of still though. And the near-term plan is to just cross-post each day’s picture in both places, so if reading them on Facebook works for you, just pretend I didn’t say anything. Long-term plan? Who knows.)
Update: Hmm, I forgot that this was one of the pictures where you can’t really see the eyeballs. Whoops. If you wanted to see what I’m talking about, check this one out too: http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=586
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel XT, Tamron 28-300 mm lens. 1/400s, f/6.3, ISO 100. Focal length: 259mm.
Popularity: 5%
June 25, 2009 – Multnomah Falls
Posted by Dave in Picture of the Day, Waterfalls on June 25, 2009
Multnomah Falls
June 25, 2009
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=886
That’s a big ole’ waterfall.
Multnomah Falls, in northern Oregon. Actually, it’s right on the Oregon/Washington border. It’s right along I-84, which goes right along the southern shore of the Columbia River (which at that point serves as the border.) If you’re driving in the area, it’s definitely worth checking out. I mean, the parking lot is literally between the eastbound and westbound lanes of the highway, so if it sucks, how much time did you really lose?
I was there on the 2nd or 3rd of January this year. A bunch of us had driven down to Mt. Bachelor for New Year’s, and we decided to take the somewhat longer but much less snowy route that goes straight up to the Columbia River, then follows that down to Portland, then straight up I-5 to Seattle. (One of the problems with Mt. Bachelor is that it’s on the eastern side of the Cascades, so to get there, you have to cross the mountains at some point. Usually that means going past Mt. Hood. Alternatively, you can cross at Snoqualmie Pass in Washington (which is only at 3,000 feet). Both of those can get REALLY nasty if there’s a storm rolling through though (which there was when we were driving home), so this route stays relatively low the whole time, although it adds a couple hours to the drive.
One of the things I have the most trouble with when I take pictures is not tilting the camera. In most cases, when you’re taking pictures of mountains and such, it doesn’t matter if the image is tilted a few degrees to one side. But when there’s straight things, like buildings, trees, or in this case, bridges, if the camera is tilted, it can totally ruin an otherwise great image (in my opinion.) Granted, you can use software tools to straighten an image (and occasionally I do that), but that can subtly degrade an image (it’s a mathematical transformation that involves calculating new values for pixels based on averaging other pixels), so I try to just get it right the first time. This time, I nailed it. If you don’t believe me, drag another window that you have open on your computer along the bridge. Look at the upper edge of the window. You’ll see that the bridge is FLAT! F’ YES, it’s FLAT!
As you can tell, I got pretty excited about that. Whatever it takes, right?
Map: http://bit.ly/zUx8n
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel XT, Tamron 28-300 mm VC lens. 1/15s, f/8.0, ISO 400. Focal lenth: 50mm.
Popularity: 15%
June 24, 2009 – The Matterhorn
Posted by Dave in Europe, Mountains, Picture of the Day on June 24, 2009
The Matterhorn, seen from Zermatt, Switzerland
June 24, 2009
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=833
As long as I’m on the theme of famous mountains.. This is, of course, the Matterhorn (or, Cervino to the Italians). It straddles the border between Italy and Switzerland. In fact, there’s a ski resort on either side (Zermatt in Switzerland, Cervinia in Italy) . I’ve heard that there’s lifts on each side that will take you up to the ridge, so you can ski between the resorts. Which is somewhat ironic considering that it would take basically a whole day of driving to get from one or the other. I know this because that’s basically what we did.
In today’s installment of piecing together the itinerary from when Julie and I were in Italy, I’ll mention that we spent a night and most of a day in Zermatt. Which is in Switzerland. After we had spent a couple nights in the national park in Italy, we drove over St. Bernard pass (yeah, where the dogs come from) into Switzerland, and got into Zermatt in the early evening. We stayed in a small hotel in the town of Randa, which is one town down from Tasch, which is where you catch the train into Zermatt. (You can’t drive there.)
The next morning, we parked in Tasch, and took the train into Zermatt. While there, we took the Gornergrat Bahn which takes you way up onto the mountain. That’s where I took this. (And a bunch of other pictures which you may or may not ever see.)
I think that’s all I wanted to say about this picture. That’s definitely all that I’m *going* to say about it. See you all tomorrow!
Map: http://bit.ly/15ED5Y
Nice shadow from the Matterhorn there.
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel XT, Tamron 28-300 mm lens. 1/200s, f/8.0, ISO 100. Focal length: 71mm.
Popularity: 9%
June 23, 2009 – Mt. St. Helens
Posted by Dave in - Best of Dave's POTD -, Mountains, Picture of the Day, Washington State on June 23, 2009
Mt. St. Helens
June 23, 2009
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=487
This is Mt. St. Helens, in southern Washington State. This is indeed the big volcano that blew up back in 1980. Since then, the area has started to recover a bit (there are little bushes and flowers growing in many spots), but as you can see, it’s got a ways to go. Hiking around there is pretty eery, because in many spots all of the blown down trees are still there. It’s pretty amazing to think that, even miles away, the force was strong enough to knock over HUGE trees, just like they were twigs. Incredible.
Outside of the immediate blast area, there’s been a bunch of trees planted (I’m pretty sure Weyerhaeuser played a big part in that) to help things get back on their feet. I’m pretty sure they essentially dropped a bunch of seeds from airplanes. Which is also kind of weird, because there are now these huge tracts of forest where ALL of the trees are EXACTLY the same size. It seems odd, although until you realize what’s going on, it’s hard to put your finger on exactly why.
Mt. St. Helens was of course in the news again a few years ago, because there was renewed activity around the crater, and the rate at which the little cone in the middle of the crater is growing increased dramatically. In fact, in some of the other pictures I took on this particular day, you can see the stream of steam and gases coming up out of the crater. Good stuff.
Mt. St. Helens is about a 4 hour drive from Seattle, so if you’re in the area, it’s definitely worth the trip to check it out.
Map: http://bit.ly/W8sPu
You should TOTALLY check this one out. Mt. St. Helens looks AWESOME on the satellite photo. Zoom in and look around too, they’ve got really high quality imagery for that area.
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel XT, 18-55 mm kit lens. 1/320s, f/8.0, ISO 100. Focal length: 27mm.
Popularity: 4%
June 22, 2009 – Ingalls Creek
Posted by Dave in Fall Color, Picture of the Day, Washington State on June 22, 2009
Ingalls Creek
June 22, 2009
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=307
You’re looking at Ingalls Creek, which is on the eastern slope of the Cascades, near Blewett Pass. If you’re reading closely, you might notice that this was taken very near to where Friday’s picture was taken. That’s not unusual – I’ve got a fair number of pictures from that trail. It’s right near my friend Colleen’s cabin, which is where we camp out on many 3-day weekends. (Friday’s picture was taken over Memorial Day weekend 2008, this was from Leavenworth Oktoberfest in, I don’t know, 2004 or something.)
Also potentially interesting for those who actually read these writeups is that this is another picture that I took with a little pocket camera, instead of a digital SLR. This one was a Canon S500, which was my pocket camera of choice 2 or 3 cameras ago.
This trail is a great place to go to see fall color. It follows the creek for a few miles, and most of the vegetation along the creek is deciduous. (As opposed to the evergreen trees further up the slope on either side…) So you get lots of yellows, reds and oranges every fall. I’ve used it a couple times when I had a nice weekend day that I wanted to use to get outside, but accidentally woke up really late, and just needed somewhere to go where I knew it would be pretty. Actually, that’s a pretty common theme with me: waking up late, and just wanting to get outside for a couple hours before it gets dark. Granted, this trail is about two hours from Seattle, but it still works. Plus, since as I mentioned it’s on the eastern slope, if the western slope is socked in with clouds, sometimes coming over here can get you away into the sunshine. (Although not on the day that I took this picture, apparently.)
I’ll leave you with another dirty little secret: I took this picture from the parking lot.
Map: http://bit.ly/mLAln
Not surprisingly, Friday’s pushpin is there too.
Notes: Canon Powershot S500 (Point and Shoot). Details unavailable.
Popularity: 3%
June 19, 2009 – Wildflowers near Ingalls Creek
Posted by Dave in Flowers, Macro, Picture of the Day on June 19, 2009
Wildflowers Along Ingalls Creek
June 19, 2009
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=916
I realize that yesterday, I wrote the wrong date at the top of the post. I would correct it, but I’m afraid that would make it reappear on everyone’s news feed, and I’m already self-conscious enough about how each time I post a picture it tends to drop a bomb on whatever was there before. So I won’t.
I’m pretty busy at work today, so I’ll end the week the way I started it – with a picture of flowers. Not much to say about flowers. They’re pretty. Actually, I was originally planning on using a flower picture that I took with a point-and-shoot (a 3 megapixel one from back in the day in fact), just to continue the point I was trying to make yesterday about being able to take great pictures with them, but for whatever reason I decided against it. Maybe I’ll use that one some day next week.
Have a great weekend!
Map: http://tinyurl.com/lcvz44
What’s marked as “Ingalls Creek Rd” is actually a trail. Just sayin’.
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel XT, Tamron 28-300 mm VC Lens. 1/160s, f/7.1, ISO 100. Focal length: 92mm.
Popularity: 4%
June 18, 2009 – Blackcomb Mountain
Posted by Dave in British Columbia, Picture of the Day, Winter/Snow on June 18, 2009
Blackcomb Mountain
June 17, 2009
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=707
Awww, what a cute, scrawny little tree.
I saw this little guy one fine day when I was skiing on Blackcomb Mountain, which is part of Whistler-Blackcomb Ski Resort in British Columbia. (This was coming down from the Glacier Express chair, for those who are familiar with the mountain.)
Here’s something interesting about this picture: I took it using my little pocket camera, which at the time was a Canon SD700 IS. (It’s since been replaced with a newer one). Maybe you think this picture is a good example, maybe not, but I’ve always said that there’s no reason you can’t get great pictures even with a simple, cheap camera. Granted, there *are* pictures you can take with a big huge SLR that you can’t take with a pocket camera, but there are PLENTY of amazing things you can do with a point-and-shoot. (In fact, of the pictures I’ve used so far for Picture of the Day – 22 total including today – 4 of them were taken with a pocket camera, and 2 of them were with my super-old 35mm SLR. Just sayin’)
So, no matter what kind of camera it is you’ve got, just go out and take a bunch of pictures. The only way to get better is with practice!
Map: http://tinyurl.com/maqhs3
Notes: Canon PowerShot SD700 IS. 1/800s, f/5.5.
Popularity: 4%
June 17, 2009 – Mt. Shuksan and Picture Lake
Posted by Dave in - Best of Dave's POTD -, Mountains, Picture of the Day, Washington State on June 17, 2009
Mt. Shuksan and Picture Lake
June 17, 2009
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=617
I’ve been meaning to get this one out of the way for quite awhile. This is Mt. Shuksan and (the very appropriately named) Picture Lake. It’s up near Mt. Baker, in the Heather Meadows Recreation Area, which sits on the boundary of North Cascades National Park. The parking lot(s) for the Mt. Baker ski area are very close by, if that means anything to you.
Similarly to how the view of the Maroon Bells and Maroon Lake outside of Aspen is *the* prototypical Colorado view, this is *the* view for Washington State. (Well, maybe that’s a bit of a stretch – the real Washington State view is probably the view of the Seattle skyline from Kerry Park, or something involving Mt. Rainier or the Pike Place Market. But that makes this Picture Of The Day entry less interesting, so shut up.)
Heather Meadows is a great place to go hiking or even just to drive in to visit, since you can drive very high up, basically to the top of the ridge between Mt. Shuksan and Mt. Baker, so the views even from the road are jaw-dropping incredible. However, it takes a LONG time for the snow to melt. (Mt. Baker Ski Area holds the *world record* for snowfall in one season – not just among ski areas, but among any location where snowfall is measured – 1.140 inches, or 95 feet. So it’s usually well into August before the hiking trails are clear. (And of course, by October it starts building right back up.)
This picture was taken in the late afternoon, probably 5 pm or so, in early September. Right around then is when the lake calms down enough to allow the mirror-smooth reflection, and the sun is shining right on the mountain, bringing out all the detail. It’s fairly predictable, actually, and I’ve got almost this same exact picture from about 5 years earlier that I took with my previous-generation camera. (Now that I have my “new” (at the time, it’s since been replaced) digital SLR, I went back to take it again.) But, it’s a fantastic view, and you see it pop up here and there in interesting places.
One such interesting place, as it turns out, was on a t-shirt in a gift shop in FRISCO, COLORADO!! Here’s a picture of it:
http://www.davefry.net/journal/2006-12/12-31/12-31-39-tshirtclose.jpg
(Apparently, Colorado is the only state that’s licensed to have mountains, so any mountain scene must therefore be contained somewhere within.)
So, if you find yourself in the Seattle area, and have an afternoon to kill with a super-nice drive, I’d say head up to Heather Meadows. Well worth the time.
Map: http://tinyurl.com/nnloon
It’s worth panning around the map to look at Mt. Shuksan and Mt. Baker.
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel XT, 18-55 mm kit lens. 1/200s, f/5.6, ISO 100. Focal length: 18mm.
Popularity: 10%
June 16, 2009 – Manarola
Posted by Dave in - Best of Dave's POTD -, Europe, Picture of the Day, Tropical/Beaches on June 16, 2009
Manarola, Cinque Terre, Italy
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=744
This is Manarola, it’s a small village in northwestern Italy. It’s part of Cinque Terre (which translates into something like “5 villages”) which is a national-park-y type thing along the Mediterranean coast. All 5 are little old-style villages made up of colorful buildings crammed together among the cliffs. 4 out of the 5 are right on the water, and the 5th is up on the hill a little ways. You can drive to most of them, but not *in* to any of them.
Julie and I were there a couple years back for Trevor and Heather’s wedding. They got married in Vernazza, so that’s where we stayed. We were in Cinque Terre for 4 days or so, and it was AMAZING. This picture was I think taken on the day of the actual wedding. Trevor and I had some time to kill before the ceremony, so we hopped on the train and visited a couple of the towns. As hinted at a few days ago, I think the midday lighting hurts the picture, but if that’s the only time you can be somewhere, you take what you get.
Several weeks ago I posted a picture of hiking in the national park. That was the week after we were here. In between, we visited Monte Carlo for a couple nights, then headed up to Torino. More on that later…
Map: http://tinyurl.com/lumopg
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel XT, Tamron 28-300 mm lens. 1/200s, f/7.1, ISO 200. Focal length: 28mm.
Popularity: 100%
June 15, 2009 – Pollination
Posted by Dave in - Best of Dave's POTD -, Animals, Flowers, Macro, Picture of the Day on June 15, 2009
Pollination
June 15, 2009
http://davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=922
Here’s a brand new one, taken Saturday morning (with my new camera, for whoever is keeping score.) This exotic-looking locale is actually right out front of my neighbor’s house. They’ve got a bunch of orange poppies (those are poppies, right?) that I keep telling myself I should take pictures of. So, on Saturday morning, I did.
While I was there, I saw a bee floating around the flowers, stopping every now and then to gather some pollen or do whatever it is they do. Taking pictures of bees is actually kind of hard, as it turns out. Those suckers are FAST. I mean, they sit on the flower for a little while, so if you want to get a picture of them just hanging out, not so hard. But to get them in flight is tough, because if you’re zoomed in at all, the time between them taking off and them being out of the camera frame is, at least in my case, less than my reaction time from seeing it take off and pressing the shutter button.
On top of that, you need to use a REALLY fast shutter speed to make them not blurry. (around 1/1000th of a second is probably good.) Which in this case also meant cranking up the ISO. Now, one of the reasons I got the new camera was it’s much better high ISO performance than my previous camera (a lot less noise), so even at ISO 800 the images look fantastic, and at 1600 it’s still pretty decent.
This isn’t the only bee-and-flower shot I’ve got, so sometime in the next few weeks, expect to see at least one more, maybe a couple, and not all of them are from this weekend either. Also, this just may become my new favorite obsession, so we’ll see how that goes.
Map: http://tinyurl.com/mvxk9x
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Tamron 28-300 mm VC lens. 1/640s, f/6.3, ISO 100. Focal length: 77mm.
Popularity: 6%