Trip to Sequim

I got carried away with the animal photos in my previous post, but they were only a small part of our trip to Sequim. We really went to celebrate Kim's birthday and to visit the Lavender Festival.

I took a few photos of fields of lavender and decided that I really wanted a more "impressionistic" view of the fields. I accomplished this by not using a tripod, and by going for longer exposures where I moved the camera (up and down or sideways, or in circular motions) during the exposure.

 

Here is a more "straight" version of the above scene for comparison...

 

After the lavender fields we headed out to the Dungeness Spit as viewed from the Three Crabs restaurant...

 

The last two images are from the ride home. The view of the road in my side view mirror. And a passing ferry...

 

I'm in the process of making images from the blog available as prints. Check them out!

Animal Portraits

When we talk about portraits, we usually are referring to people. But yesterday Kim and I headed out to Sequim, WA for the Lavender Festival and a drive around the area. That included a stop at the Olympic Game Farm where we took some portraits of the animals running around.

I find that photographing animals to be a fun way to keep focused. The game farm is a drive through, with many of the animals free roaming, coming up to your car to "beg" for bread (wheat or whole grain). Others, are caged, but mostly accessible for photos.

Photographing animals can be a challenge, as they don't respond to spoken commands. You pretty much have to be ready to capture fleeting moments and also be ready to close your car window quickly before you find a llama trying to join you in the car. Here are a few images from the outing.

I promise, one of these days soon, I'll get back to photographing people.

American Bison

Elk

Elk

Domestic Yak

Llama

Black-Tailed Prairie Dog

Can I just get someone to help with that itch?

And a couple of images from one of the Lavender Farms, Purple Haze...

 

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All of the above images created with a Canon 5DmkII with a Canon 70-200mm L f/4 IS lens with a Canon 1.4x converter, except for the lady bug images, which were taken with a Tamron 90mm macro lens.