Discovery Discovered

The pics from this post were taken on Thursday, the 14th. It has been a busy weekend, so it took awhile to catch up...

On Wednesday evening, I heard a bit on the radio that tomorrow (Thursday) would be the first of the five hottest days of the year. It has bittersweet ring to it, doesn't it? On one hand it is awesome to have five straight days of glorious summer weather, yet, at the same time, it signals the ending of summer; another summer...gone.

With the promise of nice weather, it was certainly tough to stay indoors Thursday! The view from my office is of a big, gray building. Ugh. When the weather is crummy the gray building blends in with the sky. I am not kidding; sometimes it is hard to see where on begins and the other ends. However, on Thursday, it was gorgous out, and the bright blue sky was a welcome contrast against the boring gray slab.

I still had Cole's f1.8 50mm and was dying to take some more pics! I figured I would try my luck and see if Del was interested in heading out on a photo shoot. It is blitz time for him, and usually that kid is a GHOST during blitz - either because of multiple functions, traveling, or just plain-ol' peopled out. Anyway, lucky me, he needed a break! We soon found ourselves being guided through the streets of Seattle via google maps. After a minor detour through Ballard, we made it to Discovery Park. We have been there before, but hadn't had much luck getting to the lighthouse. This time, we were on a mission.

Ok, at this point, I realize that I have given a horribly long introduction to this set of pictures. I will save you from the great stories of how we got down to the lighthouse (hmm, this way or that way?), how we got out of there (darkness!), and the virtues of women's restrooms (they are stocked with necessities, unlike the men's).

Let's take a look at the pics, shall we?

"Seinfeld"

I called this one "Seinfeld" because it was taken from the point where we had stopped during our trek last summer. I hadn't eaten enough that day, and felt woozy-weird, so we stopped there for a minute. Guess what - del's phone worked there & we watched a bit of Seinfeld. Random, I know. We stopped here again on Thursday because of the great view.

"Rock"

Since Cole's lens is a fixed lens, I was not able to zoom in closer to the lighthouse. No problem! I found a rock nearby that had no problem posing for a portrait.

"Wheat"

This picture was taken just as we approached the beach. I was still too far away to have a nice lighthouse picture, so I set a low aperature (around f1.8 or maybe f2.5) and focused on the wheaty plants in front of me instead. You can see the ranger's house in the background.

"Rocks"

Ah, sad. This is an example of how quickly the light can change. As I approached the lighthouse, I noticed the sunlight reflecting on the rocks at the base of the lighthouse. I spent so much time getting set up & figuring out my tripod that I missed the best light. Even though the pick is crummy, I still remember how beautiful it was and figured I would share it with you in case you want to take a moment and imagine the rocks with warm, golden light reflecting of the wet rocks. aaaaa, nice huh?

"Lighthouse 1"

There it is, the place we have been seeking. The place that we have had on our list of places to visit. Nice, huh? Nice and crooked, too, huh? I am not good friends with my tripod yet.

"Lighthouse DMA"

This one is a lot nicer, isn't it? The composition is better & it is in focus more, too, eh? .... Del took this one with my camera.

"Rawness"

And here I am. I figured that since Cole's lens is intended for portraits I should at least have a portrait pic. After a couple of "Oh hey"s, del figured out the right settings and took this one of me. I tried the 'ol set the self-timer and run in front of the camera routine to get one of both of us, but the lighting wasn't in our favor (and I was a dork and left the polarizer on. Photoshop can probably fix it..) p.s. I named this one rawness because I had *just* adjusted my camera to shoot in raw... I had to convert the raw file into a jpeg to post, so I called it "rawness." enjoy.

"Sky"

Ok, this one is no where near as cool as Del's (I can't even believe we were in the same location) but I'll post it anyway. I am using this blog to show my progression as a photographer, so, I gotta post the crummy ones too. The sky is pretty cool though.

And now, we can officially cross Discovery Park off the list. Thank you for checking out this group of pics :)