Down the Rabbit Hole

A little bit of Alice in Wonderland right in the back yard.
(f/5.6, 1/160, 200mm, post-processing swirl)

Frozen Fish Ladder

Fish ladder with ice, Deschutes River. (f/25, 6 sec.)

Ice Is Stranger Than Fiction (part 1)

Detail of ice at Tumwater Falls on the Deschutes River in Olympia, USA
For part 2 (an overview of Tumwater Falls half frozen) click here.

Winter is an alien world

A section of the Deschutes River swirls around islands of ice following unseasonably cold weather in Olympia, Washington. (f/22, 8/10 second, 200mm, on tripod)

Eagle Watches Mt. Rainier Sunrise

Eagle perches on post watching sun rise behind Mount Rainier (Tahoma) in Olympia, Washington.

Flight

Lone crow takes flight over gold-tinged waters of a Budd Inlet dawn in Olympia, Washington.

The Shadow

A shadow trying to hid between a fence and a tree. Unsuccessfully.

Another Hungry Mouth...

Seedpods found by my sweetie - the were closed when she brought them inside, then opened up like hungry mouths. Anyone know what they are? She said there was no tree nearby with similar seeds.

The World-Reflecting Mosque

Masjid-i Jahān-Numā (aka Jama Masjid) - the famous mosque in Old Delhi, India. February 2009.

Secure enough

Not everyone needs a high-tech security system...

Fall, falling

Japanese maple leaves.

psychedelic cleanser

I recently discovered soap bubbles as a macro photography subject, and I'm astounded at their colorful little world. This is ordinary dish soap doing its thing. What, you've been taking soap for granted all this time?

Things Are Looking Up

An image from drier days in Olympia.

I Want a Pony!

On second thought, maybe this requires too much care and feeding.

Fire at the Dome

Autumn in Olympia: the curious mix of gray skies and brilliant colors.

What, me scary?

Nisqually River Delta & Wildlife Refuge, under cloud

Nisqually Wildlife Reserve where the Nisqually River empties into Puget Sound -- with a touch of HDR processing. One of the few natural river deltas left in Washington State.

Skeleton Family Watches the Big Game

A little experiment with lighting and depth of field during the U-20 World Cup final (Viva Ghana!) and the first of several expected October appearances of members of the Skeleton family.

Crowsong

Sculpture, sunset, song.

Orange Dawn

Capitol Lake reflects sunrise-illuminated steam from the Washington state capitol's steam plant.

Nature, abstracted

This may help explain my somewhat skewed view of the world. This is an unretouched photo of a tree taken through the upstairs window of my 86-year-old home. The windows are old, warbly single-pane glass, but I didn't realize they were this bad! Actually, the effect is emphasized by the zoom lens, with a rather interesting, almost impressionistic effect. Which I like.

Morning Macro

Garden visitor on the morning of Sunday 4 October.

Sliding with the Bhattacharyas

Debashish Bhattacharya (slide ukulele) and Subhashis Bhattacharya (tabla) performing at Jazz Alley, Seattle 30 September 2009 -- a magical performance of traditional and not-so-traditional Indian music.

Winners!

I received some nice recognition/publicity this week that I'm excited to share with you. The photo of Delhi 2 Dublin that I recently shared here was selected as a winner of the Bumbershoot photo contest (see results here).

Also, this photo of the historic marker and the old state capitol building in Olympia, Washington, appears as part of an article by Deborah Stephens in the fall edition of Columbia: The Magazine of Northwest History. Some parts of the magazine are available online. So I just want to thank you all for your encouraging messages and comments about my photos. I'm pleased that they are reaching an ever-wider audience!

Bowl of Sunlight

Finished breakfast, noticed marvelous shadows of my cereal bowl on the wall, took photo.

Licorice Ferns

Clinging to the trunk of a Big Leaf Maple near McLane Creek in West Olympia.

Western Colors

View north from Olympia over Puget Sound as the summer sun sets behind the Olympic Mountains.

Watching the Sun Rise

She's either enjoying the sunrise, or trying to tell me to clean the windows. But I love how the golden early light outlines her and the window frame.

Sometimes you just get lucky

Bumbershoot 2009 - The Canada-based Indo-Celtic group Delhi 2 Dublin is on stage and the crowd is bouncing with wild abandon. Tabla player and electronics guru Tarun jumps off the stage, bounces up onto the security wall where he sings for a bit, then leaps into the seething mass.
They caught him. And I did too, holding my camera above my head and hoping it was aimed in the right direction. Sometimes, you just get lucky.

Eartip

some of Autumn's bounty...

Tug Twilight

A mirror-like Budd Inlet reflects the Wallace Foss, one of many tugboats gathered in Olympia for the annual Harbor Days festival.

Source of Red Tide?

Water tower in Roy, Washington -- selective color, dramatic clouds

The History of Birds

Tracks at low tide, Westport, Washington.

Miniature Sun

It's still summer, right?

Roy Community Church

Roy Community Church, Roy Washington

Not-so-fresh fruit

The most interesting things to photography are not always the newest, freshest, and shiniest...

Caught!

Seen sneaking around at Point Defiance Park, Tacoma Washington.

Antique Marina

Awoke this morning to a most enticing layer of fog. I followed it around town and down to the marina, where these flowers on Percival Landing stood in vivid contrast to the gloomy sky. For some reason, it seemed appropriate to give the photo an antique feel. A postcard image from the past?

Sneak Attack

I'm delighted to let you know that a number of new photo greeting cards -- including this image -- are now available at Childhood's End Gallery in downtown Olympia. They're at 222 West 4th Avenue -- please drop by and have a look at my photos and the rest of the work on display at this great local gallery!

Stillness

Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) near the shore of Captiol Lake in downtown Olympia, Washington, USA

...would smell as sweet

Rose macro - organically grown and photographed.

Stormy skies over the capitol

State Capitol dome and Capitol Lake, Olympia WA USA.

Stream of Consciousness

Ebb tide / sunrise / Budd Inlet.

Salish Sea Sunset

Sunset over Budd Inlet (aka the Salish Sea) in Olympia WA.
Panoramic shot stitched from several separate images.

Oly Love

Downtown mural under stormy skies. Available as a card or print here.

Trash Dragon

The kids at a local art center provided the found-objects dragon sculpture; nature provided the dramatic sky that made for a perfect nightmarish image. At least, it's not a creature I'd like to meet unexpectedly...

Budd Bay

Thick, moody fog is relatively rare in south Puget Sound. So this eerie morning was a perfect time to capture some of the pilings left from bygone shipping enterprises -- and the birds and plants that now find refuge atop their rotting remains.

Hornblower

One of the formidable guards at the cemetery of Saint Martin's University, Lacey, Washington, USA

Golden Sunset

Puget Sound, Washington State

Olympia Mud Race

One of the stranger photo-ops of the year, the annual Olympia Mud Race pits all clothing-optional comers in a dramatic, sloppy low-tide slog across Mud Bay's mudflats. The race is traditionally held just before The Evergreen State College's graduation. And the winner gets, well, the same thing as everyone else...muddy! See a slideshow here.