botanical marvel

On Friday, I headed to the Ballard Locks. The weather was beautiful, and I was happy to leave the heavy weight of responsibility on my desk at work. I've been to the locks a bajillion times, but as I was driving there on Friday, I wondered "who in the heck would want to live waaay out here?"

A few breaths of refreshing salty air, a stroll through some beautiful gardens & I found myself *almost* wanting to call Ballard my home.

My goal for this lesson (I've labeled my significant photo shoots "lessons" since I brought home the xti in August... I am up to lesson 52!), where was I.. oh yeah, my lesson for today was to practice focusing. I wanted to be more comfortable with the D80's focus points. I recently discovered the option to display the focus point on the View NX software, and found that my focal points were all of the place. I found an abundance of pretty spring blossoms that proved to be excellent subjects for my lesson!

I noticed the old equipment and took this pic through the window...

Earlier in the day, I came across the work of Joe Clark
and found a few places in Ballard that seemed to echo his abstract style.

I am a big fan of public art, and dropped quite a few frames at Paul Storey's Salmon Waves piece. It was magic hour, so the lighting was fabulous all around the locks, and I really like the way the light was playing off these metallic waves. The first pic was taken without the flash, and the lower one was taken with the flash.

And just when I was calling it quits, I snapped this last look photo....

As always, thank you for checking out my pictures! I hope that you are having a lovely day & are able to enjoy the beautiful spring weather!