Not quite 40 days and 40 nights

So, last week, while I was in Olympia, my dear sweet home town was receiving a ton of rain. I had heard stories from my sister that the roads out of town in several directions were flooded... a quick google search later (stillaguamish flood january 2009) and I have a Seattle Times story & video to prove it.

I ran up to a little place off the Espe road today then swung by a local park to check out last week's wrath. When I compared the pics below to the one published in the Seattle Times, I noticed that the river has already receded quite a bit. The river is still high and dangerous though, and the park is littered with branches and tons (tons!) of mud.




Just for fun
This was my second trip to the park in the past year. Last time I was there, I was surprised to see that the same toys that I enjoyed as a kid were still in use (they at least looked like the toys I used to play on...). They caught my eye again today, and I chose this happy little blue seal as my subject du jour (du jour means ...).

It was a drizzly day, so I didn't want to change lenses and risk getting moisture inside the body of my camera, so I tried something new! I zoomed out to 55mm and set my f-stop in the 5something range. Awesome Bokah... just what I was hoping for! I never think to use my zoom lens this way; usually I reserve it for far away objects (and then get annoyed when the 55mm doesn't zoom out far enough). I tried a few more views of this fun little piece of my history, but my CF card was full, the drizzle was turning into rain, AND I don't think I was actually supposed to be in the park (the parking lot gate was locked), so I just headed out. I do have a new interest, though... using the 18-55mm like my bff the 50mm. fun.

Thanks for checking out my pictures. My thoughts and prayers are with those who were troubled by the recent flooding.