Thursday, November 26, 2009
Happy Thanksgiving!
Today is Thanksgiving Day in the US and I'd like to wish you all a happy one. A year ago my older son was serving with the Navy Seals in Afghanistan and it is sure a relief to know that he is home this year. Our holiday has been good. We actually have had two Thanksgiving dinners, today at Pat's daughter's home and last Monday at my younger son's home. M & his family decided to do it on Monday as M has to work today. We enjoyed them both and thank our kids for the opportunity to enjoy the holiday with them.
Yesterday dawned with kind of an overcast, but since we tend to get up early I was looking out the kitchen window to the east shortly before the sun rose and saw that we were going to have a beautiful sunrise. I got my camera and proceeded to take some photos and I'll post a few of them here.
This first one is looking to the east and a bit south. The sun will come up in that area where the bright spot is behind the house across the street from us, but the sky was lit all along the horizon from far north to the south behind Little Mountain. You can just see the beginning of Little Mountain rising at the far right side of this photo.
This view is also to the east but looking almost north. The base of Mt. Baker is just visible at the horizon if you look at it over the back end of our Prius. This photo shows what I meant about the horizon being lit all the way from the far north to the south. The pink clouds are low but there is a full cloud cover above them and we didn't actually see the sun as the view of it was totally blocked by clouds.
In moving around to get different views of the sunrise I happened to look to the west between our house and the one to the south of ours. This is what I saw. Those are also low level clouds with the sunlight just breaking across them. Again, that is not blue sky above but the full cloud cover. This was amazing to me in that there was actually almost more exciting light in the sky to the west than there was to the east!
I went out into our back yard beside the sunroom and this was the view from there. The lighting is changing very rapidly. Our fence is across the bottom of the photo with the fronds and blooms of the pampas grass rising to the right side of the photo. Across the common ground behind the house is our neighbor's home and beyond it, across the street and the other houses that cannot be seen from here, is the background of fir trees. But look at the way those clouds are lit by the sun rising on the opposite side of the sky!
This view is close to the last one- see the pampas grass blooms, but here the camera is looking a bit farther to the north. You can see the arbor that rises above our back gate that goes out to the common yard.
I do not particularly like winter but we occasionally get some pretty phenomenal sunrises during this season and yesterday sure was a good example. I sent these photos to our morning DJ, Joe Flood, on our local Oldies radio station, KBRC, and will hop from here to their web site to see if he posted them there. Joe lives a bit to the east of us up in Eaglemont but he was already at work when this painting in the sky occurred. I still don't understand just how that light to the west happens, but I'll enjoy looking at it whenever it does.
Yesterday dawned with kind of an overcast, but since we tend to get up early I was looking out the kitchen window to the east shortly before the sun rose and saw that we were going to have a beautiful sunrise. I got my camera and proceeded to take some photos and I'll post a few of them here.
This first one is looking to the east and a bit south. The sun will come up in that area where the bright spot is behind the house across the street from us, but the sky was lit all along the horizon from far north to the south behind Little Mountain. You can just see the beginning of Little Mountain rising at the far right side of this photo.
This view is also to the east but looking almost north. The base of Mt. Baker is just visible at the horizon if you look at it over the back end of our Prius. This photo shows what I meant about the horizon being lit all the way from the far north to the south. The pink clouds are low but there is a full cloud cover above them and we didn't actually see the sun as the view of it was totally blocked by clouds.
In moving around to get different views of the sunrise I happened to look to the west between our house and the one to the south of ours. This is what I saw. Those are also low level clouds with the sunlight just breaking across them. Again, that is not blue sky above but the full cloud cover. This was amazing to me in that there was actually almost more exciting light in the sky to the west than there was to the east!
I went out into our back yard beside the sunroom and this was the view from there. The lighting is changing very rapidly. Our fence is across the bottom of the photo with the fronds and blooms of the pampas grass rising to the right side of the photo. Across the common ground behind the house is our neighbor's home and beyond it, across the street and the other houses that cannot be seen from here, is the background of fir trees. But look at the way those clouds are lit by the sun rising on the opposite side of the sky!
This view is close to the last one- see the pampas grass blooms, but here the camera is looking a bit farther to the north. You can see the arbor that rises above our back gate that goes out to the common yard.
I do not particularly like winter but we occasionally get some pretty phenomenal sunrises during this season and yesterday sure was a good example. I sent these photos to our morning DJ, Joe Flood, on our local Oldies radio station, KBRC, and will hop from here to their web site to see if he posted them there. Joe lives a bit to the east of us up in Eaglemont but he was already at work when this painting in the sky occurred. I still don't understand just how that light to the west happens, but I'll enjoy looking at it whenever it does.
Labels: Family, Holidays, Photos, Sunrises and Sunsets
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Warm sunlight, cold snow
Pat noticed the way the very warm setting sun was kissing the trees to the east of our park with light yesterday afternoon, and called me to come see. I tried taking a few photos of the scene and will post three of them here. The sunlight looks warm but the temperature was right about freezing level so the warmth is just an illusion.
This first photo is what Pat noticed while wrapping gifts at our kitchen table, looking to the east. The house is our neighbors across the street, the trees are on the hill behind our park up where the condominiums are located near the golf course. I doubt there is much golf being played now- we have something like 16 inches of snow.
This is Little Mountain, just to the south of our park. It is a telephoto shot so the distances have been compressed- it is not really this close. If you look carefully you can see the RVs that are on the storage lot in the right lower corner of the photo. Ours is one of those lumps of snow.
Here is the view to the north with the foothills in the distance. The poplar trees are bare of leaves but their branches are dense enough that they reflect this very warm sunlight. The snow on the evergreens almost looks warm. It isn't.
The light you find from just before sunrise to an hour or so after and in the hour before sunset to just after is almost magic. The challenge with a camera is trying to keep that magic in the light. I think it will be a lifelong learning experience for me but I do enjoy it. I just wish this snow would go away and we'd get back to our more normal weather pattern!
This first photo is what Pat noticed while wrapping gifts at our kitchen table, looking to the east. The house is our neighbors across the street, the trees are on the hill behind our park up where the condominiums are located near the golf course. I doubt there is much golf being played now- we have something like 16 inches of snow.
This is Little Mountain, just to the south of our park. It is a telephoto shot so the distances have been compressed- it is not really this close. If you look carefully you can see the RVs that are on the storage lot in the right lower corner of the photo. Ours is one of those lumps of snow.
Here is the view to the north with the foothills in the distance. The poplar trees are bare of leaves but their branches are dense enough that they reflect this very warm sunlight. The snow on the evergreens almost looks warm. It isn't.
The light you find from just before sunrise to an hour or so after and in the hour before sunset to just after is almost magic. The challenge with a camera is trying to keep that magic in the light. I think it will be a lifelong learning experience for me but I do enjoy it. I just wish this snow would go away and we'd get back to our more normal weather pattern!
Labels: Photos, Sunrises and Sunsets, Weather
Monday, August 25, 2008
Another sunset over the Pacific
I have been playing in Photoshop and came up with this sunset photo from last October. It is the same Pacific Ocean as the previous ones have been but about 2600 or so miles away, to the south and west. This was taken on the Hawaiian island of Maui, a few miles south of the town of Lahaina while Pat & I were visiting there last October. I think sunsets are nice regardless of where they are from. And Hawaii is a pretty nice place to visit.
Maui sunset.
Maui sunset.
Labels: Hawaii, Photos, Sunrises and Sunsets
Friday, March 14, 2008
Last day in Hawaii
I'll go ahead and post the last of our Hawaii trip. Getting these posts finished has drug out quite awhile, since the trip was the last week of October but there have been other things going on and I did have a lot of photos I wanted to post. Both Pat and I were taking them and I've mixed them up here in the posts about the trip. Between us we took well over a thousand photos on the trip. These photos cover a bit about our last full day on Maui and a couple from the trip home to Seatac Airport in Seattle, WA. We didn't get "home" until the next day as our plane arrived too late to take the last shuttle bus trip home so we stayed overnight in a hotel near the airport, coming home the next morning.
While there we ate out for almost all of our meals and always at a different place. This restaurant was related to another where we ate dinner early in our trip. Both were good. We ate breakfast at this one which was near the post office in Kehei. There are a lot of interesting signs posted here and one that caught my interest was this one-
I tried to talk Pat into taking these lessons but she said "No."
Here is another of the Koi fish in the pool at the garden near our Bad Ass Coffee shop and the open air shopping beside it. This was a nice, shady place to sit and drink a mocha while people watching or fish watching. Or both.
We did a lot of looking around that day but have already covered part of it in photos. In the late afternoon, just before sunset, we got into our swim suits and walked across the street to Kamaoli Park 3. Pat's grand daughter is quite a good volley ball player and there were some boys there playing a version of volley ball with a ball that was about 2 feet in diameter, so she took some photos of them. I took a photo of her taking photos of them. I like to look at her better than I'd like to look at them.
Then we went down to the actual beach where there already were quite a few people gathering to wait to watch the sunset. While there, Pat took a photo of me taking photos of the sunset-
It did seem a little darker than these photos make it look but that is because the camera exposure system is trying to make it look like a normally lighted photo. The one of Pat did still have some of the late day very warm toned sunshine on her.
This is looking down the beach to the north. The clouds above the West Maui Mountain Range are catching the rays of the setting sun so are contrasting nicely with the deeper blue of the sky.
Here is a closer shot of Pat & I with the sunset in the background. I set the camera and asked a passerby who was taking photos with his own camera to take a few with mine. The camera's flash unit was set to provide a bit of fill light so that we wouldn't just appear as black silhouettes against the brighter sky, but to keep a good exposure of the sky. He did a good job.
Here's another of Pat's where she exposed for the sunset, letting the foreground go darker. Photoshop has brought back a bit of detail in the foreground but you can see how dramatic the sky was. The light on the beach was actually somewhat in between what is seen here and the lighter beach scenes.
We were getting ready to leave the condo the next morning. Pat had been out on the deck taking photos and came walking back inside as I was taking some last photos of the inside of the condo. This one shows a good example of that mirror wall that we finally got used to but it sure seemed odd at first. It made the place look larger than it really was but in a kind of confusing way. Notice the post office mailing box on the chair, ready to mail home. We bought two more bags to check on the airline to carry things we bought home and still ended up mailing two of those post office boxes with things we couldn't get in anywhere else. A lesson for our next trip - take at least one extra empty suitcase over with us.
Pat had the window seat on our flight back and took some photos at the airport, including this one of another plane like the one we flew on. Hawaiian Airlines uses very colorful tail paint on their aircraft!
This is someplace mid-Pacific Ocean as the sun set. There is not much to see from 37,000 feet up, especially when the ocean is covered by low level clouds, but she did catch a pretty dramatic sunset and with the left wing of our plane included.
I still think Mount Haleakala is the most dramatic sight to see on Maui so am going to close out our trip photos with this panorama of the crater on Mt. Haleakala. I have posted it in an earlier post I think but it is interesting. I made it up by combining three separate photos into one, letting Photoshop Elements version 6 stitch them together into this one photo. Click on this image and go look at it in a larger size on my Flickr site where these photos are all hosted.
I love Maui as a place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there. I would like to go back sometime in the future but it really is a long way to go and, until that genie builds the bridge, I can't drive our RV over so have to fly and then sleep in someone else's bed. We may go back but I think we are both glad that we did go there together at least once. It is a magical place.
While there we ate out for almost all of our meals and always at a different place. This restaurant was related to another where we ate dinner early in our trip. Both were good. We ate breakfast at this one which was near the post office in Kehei. There are a lot of interesting signs posted here and one that caught my interest was this one-
I tried to talk Pat into taking these lessons but she said "No."
Here is another of the Koi fish in the pool at the garden near our Bad Ass Coffee shop and the open air shopping beside it. This was a nice, shady place to sit and drink a mocha while people watching or fish watching. Or both.
We did a lot of looking around that day but have already covered part of it in photos. In the late afternoon, just before sunset, we got into our swim suits and walked across the street to Kamaoli Park 3. Pat's grand daughter is quite a good volley ball player and there were some boys there playing a version of volley ball with a ball that was about 2 feet in diameter, so she took some photos of them. I took a photo of her taking photos of them. I like to look at her better than I'd like to look at them.
Then we went down to the actual beach where there already were quite a few people gathering to wait to watch the sunset. While there, Pat took a photo of me taking photos of the sunset-
It did seem a little darker than these photos make it look but that is because the camera exposure system is trying to make it look like a normally lighted photo. The one of Pat did still have some of the late day very warm toned sunshine on her.
This is looking down the beach to the north. The clouds above the West Maui Mountain Range are catching the rays of the setting sun so are contrasting nicely with the deeper blue of the sky.
Here is a closer shot of Pat & I with the sunset in the background. I set the camera and asked a passerby who was taking photos with his own camera to take a few with mine. The camera's flash unit was set to provide a bit of fill light so that we wouldn't just appear as black silhouettes against the brighter sky, but to keep a good exposure of the sky. He did a good job.
Here's another of Pat's where she exposed for the sunset, letting the foreground go darker. Photoshop has brought back a bit of detail in the foreground but you can see how dramatic the sky was. The light on the beach was actually somewhat in between what is seen here and the lighter beach scenes.
We were getting ready to leave the condo the next morning. Pat had been out on the deck taking photos and came walking back inside as I was taking some last photos of the inside of the condo. This one shows a good example of that mirror wall that we finally got used to but it sure seemed odd at first. It made the place look larger than it really was but in a kind of confusing way. Notice the post office mailing box on the chair, ready to mail home. We bought two more bags to check on the airline to carry things we bought home and still ended up mailing two of those post office boxes with things we couldn't get in anywhere else. A lesson for our next trip - take at least one extra empty suitcase over with us.
Pat had the window seat on our flight back and took some photos at the airport, including this one of another plane like the one we flew on. Hawaiian Airlines uses very colorful tail paint on their aircraft!
This is someplace mid-Pacific Ocean as the sun set. There is not much to see from 37,000 feet up, especially when the ocean is covered by low level clouds, but she did catch a pretty dramatic sunset and with the left wing of our plane included.
I still think Mount Haleakala is the most dramatic sight to see on Maui so am going to close out our trip photos with this panorama of the crater on Mt. Haleakala. I have posted it in an earlier post I think but it is interesting. I made it up by combining three separate photos into one, letting Photoshop Elements version 6 stitch them together into this one photo. Click on this image and go look at it in a larger size on my Flickr site where these photos are all hosted.
I love Maui as a place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there. I would like to go back sometime in the future but it really is a long way to go and, until that genie builds the bridge, I can't drive our RV over so have to fly and then sleep in someone else's bed. We may go back but I think we are both glad that we did go there together at least once. It is a magical place.
Labels: Hawaii, Pat and I, Photos, Sunrises and Sunsets, Trips to see things
Saturday, November 03, 2007
Maui Sunset Luau
On Thursday, October 25th we attended the Maui Sunset Luau on the beach at the Maui Prince Hotel.
Here is Pat walking down the path toward the Luau. This one was in Wialea, pretty close to where we were staying in Kehei so it didn't take too long to get there. Just around the curve that is ahead of her is where we checked in - we were pre-registered to attend.
At that point there was a photographer who hung plastic leis on us, took our photo, then took back the leis. I guess that was okay as she and I both went to quite a bit of effort to get Pat leid before we came home and I have a photo of her in that real orchid lei that we took today at home. I'll post it at the end of this series on our visit to Hawaii. Suffice it to say, she did get leid in Hawaii.
The Luau started at 17:00 with Mai Tai's or Blue Hawaii's to drink, with beer available soon after. We have decided that we do like Mai Tai's. The Blue Hawaii's are good but a little too sweet for our taste. Traditional music was played live on stage while we were getting to know our table mates - up to ten at a table.
This photo is looking northwest across the table area toward the stage and the Pacific Ocean in the background. Through the trees the part of Maui that is made up from the old volcano and is now known as the West Maui Mountain range can be seen in the clouds. Some Blue Hawaiian drinks can be seen on the closest table. They really are blue in color!
The men lighted the torches to start the festivities in a traditional way. The band played while other men opened the pit to remove the pig that had been cooking there all day. This first photo shows the pit opened with the internal cover about to be removed:
Pat is on the opposite side taking photos with our Sony camera, although I didn't realize that she had come to the pit to do that.
The pig is on the hand carried tray to take it to be cut up for the serving line. It really doesn't look much like what you would think a pig would look like, but it sure was good tasting!
That night was the full moon for the month so it was a very good night to be on the beach for a giant party like this. Here the moon has risen above the mountain that is the currently dormant volcano, Haleakala and can be seen through a palm tree. Some of the other Luau attendees at an adjacent table are visible as is the food serving line behind them and a part of the hotel in the middle distance. It was a very beautiful night, with a temperature in the high 70s at this point with a very light wind.
The meal was wonderful with a few things we are not familiar with but all were good. To a greater or lesser degree. After dinner the traditional show started. I don't know how many different ways there are to do a Luau but both of them that I have attended have generally followed a similar story, that of telling of the different traditions and costumes of the various Islands that make up Polynesia. I don't know which places go with which costumes as I was busy taking photos and not notes, so will just show some of them here.
This young lady is really getting into her dance and seems to be having a lot of fun while providing great entertainment. I don't know how comfortable those coconut shell halves are worn where she is wearing them but I doubt they were included in the original way of dressing. Those I am sure came with us to the Islands.
We were seated about midway between the stage and the back, so had a couple rows of tables in front of us. It would have been nice to be able to eliminate the heads that show up in silhouette in most of these but it can't be done. Even if I were in the front row I couldn't get the whole stage width in a photo and the people don't want to sit so far back that I could shoot the whole width without people in the way. As you can see both male and female dancers are involved and the costumes are somewhat similar. Except for the coconuts.
Another female dancer with the costume from one of the other Islands.
These I do remember were Tahitian in origin.
Two of the guys show they are having as much fun as the gals were.
I remember them saying the gal in the middle here with her back to us at this point was a Princess from the Island where the costumes originate.
Those things tied around the lady's waist are two balls on the ends of a short rope and later in the dance they took them off to spin around. It is pretty colorful but does not photograph very well in the low amount of light that was there. They just look like streaks in the air.
I sure wouldn't try this at home! This fire dancer is good but I'll bet he practiced a long time with unlit sticks. This is the final part of the show before the wrap ups.
Another example of where the low light level does not let the camera stop the motion of the sticks he is spinning but here it works okay as the fire on the ends of the sticks is it's own light source.
This is the wrap up of the show. It was over before 20:00 hours and the air temperature was still 75 degrees. Would I go to another Luau? In a heartbeat and if you have the chance to attend one be sure to go.
Here is another sunset with my bride and I on the beach in our swimsuits in front of the setting sun. This beach is Kamaole III and just across the street from our condo. This photo actually was taken the night before we left Hawaii but I thought it kind of fit here with the Luau on the beach photos. Isn't she cute?
Here is Pat walking down the path toward the Luau. This one was in Wialea, pretty close to where we were staying in Kehei so it didn't take too long to get there. Just around the curve that is ahead of her is where we checked in - we were pre-registered to attend.
At that point there was a photographer who hung plastic leis on us, took our photo, then took back the leis. I guess that was okay as she and I both went to quite a bit of effort to get Pat leid before we came home and I have a photo of her in that real orchid lei that we took today at home. I'll post it at the end of this series on our visit to Hawaii. Suffice it to say, she did get leid in Hawaii.
The Luau started at 17:00 with Mai Tai's or Blue Hawaii's to drink, with beer available soon after. We have decided that we do like Mai Tai's. The Blue Hawaii's are good but a little too sweet for our taste. Traditional music was played live on stage while we were getting to know our table mates - up to ten at a table.
This photo is looking northwest across the table area toward the stage and the Pacific Ocean in the background. Through the trees the part of Maui that is made up from the old volcano and is now known as the West Maui Mountain range can be seen in the clouds. Some Blue Hawaiian drinks can be seen on the closest table. They really are blue in color!
The men lighted the torches to start the festivities in a traditional way. The band played while other men opened the pit to remove the pig that had been cooking there all day. This first photo shows the pit opened with the internal cover about to be removed:
Pat is on the opposite side taking photos with our Sony camera, although I didn't realize that she had come to the pit to do that.
The pig is on the hand carried tray to take it to be cut up for the serving line. It really doesn't look much like what you would think a pig would look like, but it sure was good tasting!
That night was the full moon for the month so it was a very good night to be on the beach for a giant party like this. Here the moon has risen above the mountain that is the currently dormant volcano, Haleakala and can be seen through a palm tree. Some of the other Luau attendees at an adjacent table are visible as is the food serving line behind them and a part of the hotel in the middle distance. It was a very beautiful night, with a temperature in the high 70s at this point with a very light wind.
The meal was wonderful with a few things we are not familiar with but all were good. To a greater or lesser degree. After dinner the traditional show started. I don't know how many different ways there are to do a Luau but both of them that I have attended have generally followed a similar story, that of telling of the different traditions and costumes of the various Islands that make up Polynesia. I don't know which places go with which costumes as I was busy taking photos and not notes, so will just show some of them here.
This young lady is really getting into her dance and seems to be having a lot of fun while providing great entertainment. I don't know how comfortable those coconut shell halves are worn where she is wearing them but I doubt they were included in the original way of dressing. Those I am sure came with us to the Islands.
We were seated about midway between the stage and the back, so had a couple rows of tables in front of us. It would have been nice to be able to eliminate the heads that show up in silhouette in most of these but it can't be done. Even if I were in the front row I couldn't get the whole stage width in a photo and the people don't want to sit so far back that I could shoot the whole width without people in the way. As you can see both male and female dancers are involved and the costumes are somewhat similar. Except for the coconuts.
Another female dancer with the costume from one of the other Islands.
These I do remember were Tahitian in origin.
Two of the guys show they are having as much fun as the gals were.
I remember them saying the gal in the middle here with her back to us at this point was a Princess from the Island where the costumes originate.
Those things tied around the lady's waist are two balls on the ends of a short rope and later in the dance they took them off to spin around. It is pretty colorful but does not photograph very well in the low amount of light that was there. They just look like streaks in the air.
I sure wouldn't try this at home! This fire dancer is good but I'll bet he practiced a long time with unlit sticks. This is the final part of the show before the wrap ups.
Another example of where the low light level does not let the camera stop the motion of the sticks he is spinning but here it works okay as the fire on the ends of the sticks is it's own light source.
This is the wrap up of the show. It was over before 20:00 hours and the air temperature was still 75 degrees. Would I go to another Luau? In a heartbeat and if you have the chance to attend one be sure to go.
Here is another sunset with my bride and I on the beach in our swimsuits in front of the setting sun. This beach is Kamaole III and just across the street from our condo. This photo actually was taken the night before we left Hawaii but I thought it kind of fit here with the Luau on the beach photos. Isn't she cute?
Labels: Entertainment, Hawaii, Pat and I, Photos, Sunrises and Sunsets
Monday, October 29, 2007
A couple of beach scenes on Maui
Diane has asked for some photos of the ocean. I have some and will post more after we get home and have more time to work with them but I did go ahead and do a couple of them quickly tonight, so here are a couple for Diane.
This is a scene alongside the road north to the old Hawaiian Royalty's favorite place to entertain, and later the whaling town for sailors, Lahina. This location is just a few miles south of Lahina and is a pretty good representative of many of the beaches around Maui. Some are clearer of trees and some have more sand. We had just pulled the car over & gotten out to take some photos when these people came along and I thought they added to the photo.
This near sunset photo was taken at a location close to the last one, but a day later. There is so much beauty here that it is almost hard to take a bad photo. We are doubling our chances with both Pat and I taking photos with two different cameras. Tonight we spent some time looking up a source for blank DVD disks to burn photos onto so we can free up the three memory cards Pat is using. I have all the photos on the computer hard disk but I like to have redundant backups, so needed the DVDs. There are now over 4Gb worth of photos from this trip, between us. We take some of the same things but she sees things differently and more likely will end up with a different photo of the same subject than I do. Again, we will try to post more of both of ours after we get home and have more time to work on them without cutting into our tourist activities. We only have one more full day on Maui before we have to return to the cold frozen north. Well, it isn't that bad but the weather sure is not what we have here!
This is a scene alongside the road north to the old Hawaiian Royalty's favorite place to entertain, and later the whaling town for sailors, Lahina. This location is just a few miles south of Lahina and is a pretty good representative of many of the beaches around Maui. Some are clearer of trees and some have more sand. We had just pulled the car over & gotten out to take some photos when these people came along and I thought they added to the photo.
This near sunset photo was taken at a location close to the last one, but a day later. There is so much beauty here that it is almost hard to take a bad photo. We are doubling our chances with both Pat and I taking photos with two different cameras. Tonight we spent some time looking up a source for blank DVD disks to burn photos onto so we can free up the three memory cards Pat is using. I have all the photos on the computer hard disk but I like to have redundant backups, so needed the DVDs. There are now over 4Gb worth of photos from this trip, between us. We take some of the same things but she sees things differently and more likely will end up with a different photo of the same subject than I do. Again, we will try to post more of both of ours after we get home and have more time to work on them without cutting into our tourist activities. We only have one more full day on Maui before we have to return to the cold frozen north. Well, it isn't that bad but the weather sure is not what we have here!
Labels: Hawaii, Photos, Sunrises and Sunsets
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Sunrise over our house
This time of the year we do get some spectacular sunrises and since our house faces east we get to see them. Plus, we tend to be fairly early risers so are also up and about at that time. Last Tuesday was a great example. Pat had already left for her every Tuesday volunteer job at the hospital when I noticed what was going on about 7am and went out with my camera. I took a lot of photos but have managed to narrow them down to just four to post.
In this first photo the high clouds are well lit while the sun is just beginning to kiss the surface of the low clouds near the horizon. This view is looking mainly east but a little to the north. The houses shown are those across the street from ours.
I have darkened these just a little as the camera light meter tends to lighten them to a standard which makes them too light, or lighter than it actually was. The sky areas are still quite dark as the sun is well below the horizon yet.
Here is a closer view of some of the most brilliant areas of clouds, taking advantage of the 200mm telephoto lens to reach out there.
And here is a wider angle view of that area when it is near it's peak of brightness. It is hard to narrow it down to where to aim the camera as it is all beautiful and of course the sky is constantly changing as the sun moves closer to the horizon & breaking out in full view. It is this angle light that gives the clouds the highlighting with the dark sky behind, and with the low angle of the sun making it's light shine through a lot of our atmosphere, the color of light tends to the red spectrum.
This morning there was another spectacular sunrise and I again took some photos but haven't had the chance to do anything with them yet. This time there was no noticeable fog until the sun rose so I was able to pull in Mt. Baker, our 12,000+ foot tall volcano mountain, with the brilliantly lit clouds around it. Baker was not visible due to the already formed fog when these were taken last week. I will post one or two later after I have time to work on them. I also have a lot of photos from Pat & my trip Friday with my YMCA group back to the Eastern Washington town of Leavenworth. More later.
In this first photo the high clouds are well lit while the sun is just beginning to kiss the surface of the low clouds near the horizon. This view is looking mainly east but a little to the north. The houses shown are those across the street from ours.
I have darkened these just a little as the camera light meter tends to lighten them to a standard which makes them too light, or lighter than it actually was. The sky areas are still quite dark as the sun is well below the horizon yet.
Here is a closer view of some of the most brilliant areas of clouds, taking advantage of the 200mm telephoto lens to reach out there.
And here is a wider angle view of that area when it is near it's peak of brightness. It is hard to narrow it down to where to aim the camera as it is all beautiful and of course the sky is constantly changing as the sun moves closer to the horizon & breaking out in full view. It is this angle light that gives the clouds the highlighting with the dark sky behind, and with the low angle of the sun making it's light shine through a lot of our atmosphere, the color of light tends to the red spectrum.
This morning there was another spectacular sunrise and I again took some photos but haven't had the chance to do anything with them yet. This time there was no noticeable fog until the sun rose so I was able to pull in Mt. Baker, our 12,000+ foot tall volcano mountain, with the brilliantly lit clouds around it. Baker was not visible due to the already formed fog when these were taken last week. I will post one or two later after I have time to work on them. I also have a lot of photos from Pat & my trip Friday with my YMCA group back to the Eastern Washington town of Leavenworth. More later.
Labels: Photos, Sunrises and Sunsets
Saturday, March 11, 2006
My Miata and another desert sunset
When I came out of the restaurant where I ate dinner Monday in Gila Bend, AZ, there was another spectacular desert sunset. Of course I had left my cameras in the RV & by the time I speed-walked there & back the sunset wasn't as great as it was at first, but it was still pretty nice. Here is perhaps the best one, with a saguaro silhouetted in the foreground:
Fast forward to today, in Tucson (pronounced too-sone). The sky is dark & threatening rain. The weather forecast now says we have a 70% chance of rain today but the normal Tucson weather should be back by Monday. If that holds true it should be nice for Life on Wheels that starts Tuesday. The rain will settle the dust down so it will be really nice. Here is my RV with the new Miata parked beside it, taken this morning in our site at Prince Of Tucson RV Park:
I'll post a couple of other photos of the car. The first is an interior showing the dashboard area. The top is up (rain is coming!) so it doesn't show all of the passenger compartment. I'll do one of those later when the top is down. It is snug but there is a comfortable amount of space once you are inside. The second photo shows the engine compartment with it's 1.8 liter in-line four cylinder engine, with rear wheel drive. These cars are not high powered but still are a lot of fun to drive. Due to their relatively low power, insurance companies consider them economy cars and price their coverage accordingly. Here are the photos:
I will be leaving the RV about noon today to go get lunch & a mocha, then drive to cousin J's home near the town of Oracle, about 25 miles north of the RV park. We are going to visit & tour the Biosphere II project that is 2 miles or so from his house. Biosphere II has been sold and will be torn down to build more houses, so if you want to see it yourselves, come to Tucson soon. I plan to take photos and I still have the big PC setup so should be able to move them to Photoshop, reduce them in size & transfer them to Flickr & onto my blog before Life on Wheels.
Fast forward to today, in Tucson (pronounced too-sone). The sky is dark & threatening rain. The weather forecast now says we have a 70% chance of rain today but the normal Tucson weather should be back by Monday. If that holds true it should be nice for Life on Wheels that starts Tuesday. The rain will settle the dust down so it will be really nice. Here is my RV with the new Miata parked beside it, taken this morning in our site at Prince Of Tucson RV Park:
I'll post a couple of other photos of the car. The first is an interior showing the dashboard area. The top is up (rain is coming!) so it doesn't show all of the passenger compartment. I'll do one of those later when the top is down. It is snug but there is a comfortable amount of space once you are inside. The second photo shows the engine compartment with it's 1.8 liter in-line four cylinder engine, with rear wheel drive. These cars are not high powered but still are a lot of fun to drive. Due to their relatively low power, insurance companies consider them economy cars and price their coverage accordingly. Here are the photos:
I will be leaving the RV about noon today to go get lunch & a mocha, then drive to cousin J's home near the town of Oracle, about 25 miles north of the RV park. We are going to visit & tour the Biosphere II project that is 2 miles or so from his house. Biosphere II has been sold and will be torn down to build more houses, so if you want to see it yourselves, come to Tucson soon. I plan to take photos and I still have the big PC setup so should be able to move them to Photoshop, reduce them in size & transfer them to Flickr & onto my blog before Life on Wheels.
Labels: Photos, RVing, Sunrises and Sunsets
Friday, February 03, 2006
Boomers, pizza, bonfires, good friends....
Wednesday night a small group of seven of us went to Silly Al's Pizza for dinner. We found at least three times as many other Boomers had done the same so there were many of us there. Here is a photo of our group of seven:
Yesterday I have already covered the morning propane run Huggy & I made, so we were warm last night. Our little group has gathered together in a part of Boomerville and last night we had a barbeque of steaks, salad, wine, bonfire, etc. Here is a photo of the three ladies in the group, with another beautiful desert sunset over the mountains to the west behind them:
We sat around the fire talking until about 21:00 and here is a photo of that:
Today we hope to find out what is the problem with Jerry & Erica's batteries. There was talk about a run to Dairy Queen for lunch and perhaps fish & chips for dinner. I will see what develops but for now I want to get this posted and go join the others.
Yesterday I have already covered the morning propane run Huggy & I made, so we were warm last night. Our little group has gathered together in a part of Boomerville and last night we had a barbeque of steaks, salad, wine, bonfire, etc. Here is a photo of the three ladies in the group, with another beautiful desert sunset over the mountains to the west behind them:
We sat around the fire talking until about 21:00 and here is a photo of that:
Today we hope to find out what is the problem with Jerry & Erica's batteries. There was talk about a run to Dairy Queen for lunch and perhaps fish & chips for dinner. I will see what develops but for now I want to get this posted and go join the others.
Labels: Desert, Friends, Photos, RVing, SKPs, Sunrises and Sunsets
