I’m not here.

Hours and hours of yard work have kept us close to home this weekend and last but I wanted to get in a short hike, no matter how short. At my reading group I was told about a beach access trail I hadn’t traveled so my daughter and I set out on Saturday morning to check it out.

The trail starts down Skinner Road just west of Battle Point Park. There’s no parking along the road so if you’re driving park at Battle Point. Walk along Skinner Road until you can just see the fences in the distance.

This is silly. If I lived on either side I’d probably do the same but nonetheless this walk felt weird.

The views weren’t very good because of the low clouds (it rained both days this weekend). I suspect on a clear day the Olympics are pretty visible. Expect to see some sunset photos posted in the near future if this turns out to be true. The rock wall to the North stands as yet another fence — if that wasn’t enough the sign was posted on both sides.

Despite the extremely narrow park we had a good time because we found this little yellow shore crab nestled under a rock my daughter upturned. It looked right up at us and then scurried away with my daughter in pursuit. We let it go — but it was another entry in the budding naturalists’ log.

I encouraged my daughter to run all the way back along the mulched trail then I carried her back to Battle Point where we played on the freshly painted equipment and watched the red-tailed hawks, osprey and Canada geese fly about — another day on Beautiful Bainbridge Island.

I’ve watched many a Chicago Air and Water Show and Friday enjoyed my first Seafair from a boat on Lake Washington.

Jockeying for the best position seems to be as much of the experience as the show with the likes of steamboats, cruise boats and powerboats forcing each other around — then the show begins.

To the cheers of the crowd, the Blue Angels fly over in formation.

The flybys were the highlight of the day. First high:

… then low:

That plane is barely clearing the boats and trees! As you’d expect, the sound was nearly deafening. Following the fast moving planes while standing on a boat on a lake with chop is not my normal photographic experience.

A couple more passes and the show ends.

I was curious about fuel consumption so I did some googling. A rough estimate for the weight of jet fuel is 7lbs/gallon and according to the Blue Angel web site each Boeing F/A 18 Hornet carries 11K lbs of fuel. If I’m reading this table correctly, the cost of jet fuel is about $3.76/gallon (seems low). This, I believe, works out to be almost $6K worth of fuel per plane.

Note: I did the math backwards the first time, shocker.

Somewhat surprisingly the budding naturalists had yet to visit the Bloedel Reserve — so visiting we went.

We were greeted with a gorgeous meadow.

A walk past the bird refuge and through the woods opens to an impressive pond in front of the visitor center, originally the Bloedel residence.

The views from the back yard are stunning. We saw an adult Bald Eagle perched on a tree and moments later a juvenile flew from nest to perch.

From the visitor center, we viewed the waterfall …

… made our way to the Japanese garden …

… and walked through the moss and reflection gardens.

During our visit we were unfortunately surrounded by loud-talking-brochure-reading biddies which spoiled the experience a bit — reflecting back the Reserve is really amazing — I’m excited for fall.

Series: Sunset > Sunrise > Heather Park

After an early morning of shooting the sunrise I wanted to get up into the mountains and chose the Heather Park Trail as my access point because I needed something near the campsite and so I could get up, down and home for dinner.

The trail starts through the typical NW forest though this one was both younger and lacking the undergrowth typical of the woods with which I’m most familiar.

A short way up the trail I found this slime mold whose color was quite striking among the dappled light coming through the trees.

Not too far from the slime mold I saw some candystick and pinesap poking through the forest floor. These are wildflowers but they lack chlorophyll and get their nutrients from the rich humus. I was beginning to feel like I was in some enchanted forest.

About two miles into the hike I started encountering blow-down, none of which was too difficult to traverse but presented an obstacle nonetheless.

After the forest and onto the higher slopes, you start to see a really excellent wild-flower display, including one of my favorites, red columbine.

I found one of the cool parts of the hike to be these tiny little flowers growing among the rock. The heat from the sun was really intense when fully exposed and these plants were basking in it.

I stopped here to have a light lunch because the views of Mt Baker, to my left, were phenomenal and, to my right, I could hear and see a waterfall.

After lunch I started further up the trail to Heather Park, encountering my first snow pack.

Heather Park was covered in both snow and wildflowers, including these American globeflowers, but not much heather.

If you’re considering this hike be prepared for an intense workout because it’s quite steep, especially coming through the woods.

Series: Sunset > Sunrise > Heather Park

We patiently await the arrival of the sun to summit Mt Baker.

Mt Baker with the sun minutes from cresting its flanks.

Early morning light rolling through the Olympic Mountains.

I think this is perhaps my favorite photo of the set for the lighting and the concerns of the grouse as it contemplates another day — and also because I shot this from the driver’s seat.

The deer are everywhere and not at all timid among the visitors. I like how the ears of the deer are mirrored by the trees in the background.

 

The photo of the tree on the right is one of my biggest disappointments because I was too lazy to use the tripod so the shot is anything but crisp though fortunately the colors work if the image is small enough.

The wildflowers at Hurricane Hill were really incredible and I enjoyed them more in the morning than the previous evening.

Sunlight brings another beautiful clear day to the Olympics. While the rest of the Mountaineers head back for naps to rest up for the night shot I’m off to Heather Park and then home.

More photos from the morning shoot are available here. The last of the series will be from my hike to Heather Park.

Series: Sunset > Sunrise > Heather Park

This will be the first in a short series of posts displaying some of the photos I took on a recent camping and hiking overnight to Olympic National Park. I went with a loose group of Mountaineers to capture the abundant wildflowers in bloom and marvel at the sun’s dramatic visual displays on the mountains.

The first evening we headed up to Hurricane Ridge and Hurricane Hill to shoot the sunset. The sun was really bright and strong in the early evening as the first couple of photos easily demonstrate but gradually gave way to pink and orange.

While everyone else was shooting the deer I focused on the small stuff because I had the 105mm lens along. (I really enjoy shooting with this lens but my opinion hasn’t changed: it’s too expensive for me right now, bummer. Oh, and another thing, if you do own this lens, turn off VR on a tripod for sharper images — it took awhile to find this out.) This grasshopper on the lupine would have been a better photograph it the sun wasn’t so harsh.

I love the lines, less the light.

I’m a sucker for a thistle.

A classic photographic composition — shoot the odd man out — in this case a red indian paintbrush among the purple-blue lupine …

… and another with a tiger lily among the lupine.

We were fortunate to have the moon because there were few clouds to capture and highlight the sunlight.

Pretty.

Also pretty.

This shoot was a fantastic learning experience for me and looking back over these photographs I see lots of mistakes, some gems and tremendous room for improvement — my Trash is pretty is full ;)

I think the better set of photographs are from the early morning set so be sure to stay tuned.

There are more photos available here.

Sunday, another gloomy day this spring/summer, found us in Seattle checking out the Hiram M. Chittenden (Ballard) locks and the neighboring Carl S. English, Jr botanic gardens.

The docks were originally built so coal and timber could be easily transported by boat but today salmon, seals and pleasure boating dominate the landscape.

A few boats were loaded into the locks while we watched, a couple apparently doing it for the first time given the general confusion around what to do. We started to watch the water rise but having risen in locks while kayaking, we knew the proceedings and left early to check out the botanic garden …

which I found more interesting.

After we spent some time chasing squirrels and running through the lawns we went to the Ballard Market and Clover Toys, the kind of toy store we love with lots of European-imported toys and almost no plastic crap (though we did walk out with a new rubber duck named “Ben”). The owner of the store introduced us to Froebel Gifts which we had to buy because I loved them so, my daughter taking to them (Gift 1) as much as I.

I love farmers’ markets. In Chicago I would shop three days a week in the summer and arrive at work loaded down with bags of currants, blueberries, bread, … whatever was seasonal. The BI market is great but the Ballard Market is really my kind of affair, reminding me a little of the markets in Paris with a full complement of products on display.

For as often as we attend a farmers’ market I rarely take photos even though I feel it’s a wonderful display of color and textures — I rushed these photos not wanting to look like that-guy-with-the-camera. I can’t wait to go back and fortunately it doesn’t conflict with our local market.

Back home in the garden we have our own peonies opening slowly.