Day 24 of 30-Day Photography Challenge (Animal)

Day 24 Animal

No-brainer for this one. I happen to live with an animal by the name of Suki Kabuki Tuki Tuki, or Suki to her closest friends and select associates.

Suki and I have been together since I saw her photograph on a Small Dog Rescue website in Blaine, WA about 8 years ago. The photo showed her in a plastic cone,  just recently out of surgery. She was a mess. But she was a mess for which I instantly fell.

Suki, or Anabelle or Daisy Mae or whatever she had been named by the rescue, had originally been the beloved pet of a woman who passed away and the woman's children were saddled with their mother's dog. An accident--legitimate--befell the dog, which was rushed begrudgingly to the vet's office. It turned out the people didn't want to, or couldn't, pay for the necessary surgery and they instructed the dog be put down. The vet called the rescue, the rescue paid for the surgery, which necessitated the removal of a shattered eye. I saw the dog on the website and the promptly re-named Suki has been with me since.

Miss Suki is the subject of today's challenge.

Day 99 of 365

What a beautiful day! Spring! Finally! Even though it is spring, it is still chilly at night and early morning, so firewood is still available at the local markets. Now that I think about it, one can buy firewood just about all year around because people buy them for fires out on the beach in the summer, too. Which brings me to today's photograph, that of a bundle of firewood.

05-09-2011

Mothers Day 2011 And Still At It ...

Happy Mothers Day all who be of a maternal persuasion!

I feel like the postal service! Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays this photographer from completing her mission of a photo a day for a year!

So, here's today's offering:

05/08/2011

Day 95 of 365 and Palominos and Smiley Faces ...

The last couple of days I've had to doff my photographer hat and don my Realtor chapeau. That's not to say that photographs weren't taken. Another agent in my office needed photographs of her new listing ... I do GREAT real estate photos.

But on the way back to the office, I drove through a construction site. Man, oh man! I love construction sites! I found a beat up tractor shovel kind of implement, for scooping up dirt and rocks, boulders from the looks of it, etc., etc. I found all manner of cool scratches and markings and lettering peeling off.

So, making up for yesterday and today:

05/04/2011

05/05/2011

Foliage and 365 ...

I almost shut down my computer and headed home, but remembered NO ACCESS AT HOME, so I'll quickly share with you today's Project 365 offerings.

It was messy out this morning, but sunshine poked through in the late afternoon. When the sun comes out I notice all sorts of little plants and things, all co-existing and thriving here in the Pacific Northwest.

Today's photos are a sample of foliage from pine cones and fern, to delicate little spring flowers I don't know the name of, to bamboo!

04-05-2011

Yea verily ... 365

Branches again today, of another sort ...



Arcing Cobalt Orange

 03/29/2011

Etsy Treasury and 365

Happy Birthday, Cole! Grandma kisses and hugs to you!!!

I received notification that another one of my photographs was included in an Etsy treasury titled Rich,Warm and Beautiful. The photo was one I shot while in Hawaii a couple of years ago. Oh how I wish I were back there again ... warm ... lush ... tropical breezes ... gorgeous colors ... no money, honey.

The reception for Northwest  Sea and Sky is tomorrow night from 6 - 9 p.m. at Loomis Hall Gallery on Martin Street in Blaine. There are ten photographers and six sculptors represented in this exhibit. It's been years since I have submitted any of my artwork for inclusion in a show. It will be fun to see my two photos hung on a gallery wall! I might even work up the nerve to submit more elsewhere. But, don't want to get carried away, you know.

Since living in Birch Bay, I've often passed by a little old building on the northwest corner of Blaine and Peace Portal. Right now it's a thrift shop, before then a used book store, an antique store, and before that it had been empty for years. There's a sizable Dutch presence in Whatcom County, although more so over in the Lynden area about 15 miles east. Only once have I seen this windmill moving, and I never realized there was wording on the blades of the windmill. Good thing it's painted over, because the shop is seldom OPEN.

03-17-2011



Dutch Open I




Dutch Open II



Red and Dead and 365

Red, Red and White

There's a derelict burger joint on Peace Portal in Blaine that has been on the market for as long as the seven years I've lived here. I pass by it just about every day and think about what uses I could put the empty building to. But today I stopped, in the rain, and scouted around a bit.

I found a lot of peeling paint, which appeals to me--pun intended--and evidence of rain present and past. So today's photo is a mini-album. Surprise!

03-12-2011



Years of Rain Stain





Condensation Under Drink Lid



Day 63 of 365

Here is a photograph of Drayton Harbor at low tide. When at low tide it looks like some imaginary alien landscape. Not so much in this shot, but there are boulders and depressions in the sand. But I liked how the lowest spot still has a silver ribbon of water.

03-04-2011


Drayton Harbor at Low Tide



On and Off and Back On and 365 ...

As you'll remember, I was jubilant to be invited to participate in Northwest Sea and Sky, and had two photographs selected. Then I received an e-mail notification that for inexplicable reasons, the show was cancelled. Lo and behold, today another e-mail notification begging patience, and stating that the exhibit was back on schedule. There are days and then there are days, ja?

At this precise moment in time, the Northwest Sea and Sky exhibit will be presented and the reception will be Friday, March 18th. I don't know time, but my understanding is that the exhibit will be up for a month. If you have any interest, you can go to Loomis Hall Gallery's website http://www.loomishall.com/ or http://www.loomishallgallery.com/ where I'm told there will be eventual access online to the images included in the exhibit.

I printed out the two photographs for the show, which totally depleted my magenta ink cartridge and I cannot print anything else until I replace that empty cartridge, which could be quite some time. Serendipity, methinks.

And now for Project 365. In my studio, I have little piles here and there of things interesting to me. Today I took a simple shot of some beachcombing treasures in the corner of a windowsill.


03-03-2011




Beach Findings

 

What? Oh yeah! Project 365

Busily trying to finish a pair of earrings to upload to Etsy tomorrow and the time got away from me.

I wandered a bit around Blaine this morning before it started raining ... again ... and managed to capture a couple of shots.

Patterns galore and birds on a rooftop:

03-01-2011


LUV those patterns!




Wet Spot Yellow Line




Plywood Eyes




Library Birch




Rooftop Birds



Day 56 of 365 ...

Waiting

Today's photographic image is a view of a lone tree and an empty bench looking northwest across Semiahmoo Bay out beyond the bouy into the Sound. They looked to be waiting. Were they expecting you?

02-25-2011

OK, OK ... you know I can't stop at just one.  This was a really cool metal bin I found behind a building.

II, 3 and 12

Another day, another Project 365

As a viewer familiar with my work can easily ascertain, my photographic eye is often drawn to patterns, and geometric compositions. Today's photography falls within those parameters, but I love how the arc lends motion to an otherwise static composition.

02-24-2011

OOPS ... Project 365

It always throws me out of sync when I forget and leave my computer at the office. So, I wasn't able to upload yesterday's photo.

Today's photo(s) AND yesterday's photo ...

02-17-11

02-16-11

Project 365

Shazam! The day is done and I'm watching white and red of head and tail lights passing along Birch Bay Drive. Time to call it a day. But, wait! Have to upload today's photograph.

Most people have window blinds these days in this corner of the country. Seldom do I see drapery, and more infrequent to see lace curtains. Perhaps that's why I was struck with the way the light filtered through the lace and the graceful way the folds created a darker contrast. Curtained windows also look out onto imagination, if you let them.

The lace curtain window transported me back to an earlier time in my life, when visiting Auntie Vivian who had lace curtains. No matter if she didn't, I remember her having them, and looking through them out onto a white picket arbor covered with delicate little pink tea roses and bees buzzing in the summertime--the arbor, roses and bees she DID have. Auntie Vivian is long gone, so is the farm where she lived with Uncle Albert and their brood of 10 children whose names all began with "D."

Oh my! What odd things trigger memories. Here's today's photograph:

02-10-2011

Project 365

I went by Seaside Bakery in Blaine, and the patterns of the tables and chairs tickled my eye. Alas, the bakery was closed so I had to photograph through the glass window. I didn't set my camera to compensate for the lighting--that's what happens when I get in a hurry--but I loved the pattern. So, even though the clarity is missing, I threw a film grain filter on the image to enhance the yellow. It was a good learning experience. (I learned not to be in such a dangblasted hurry!)

02-09-2011

Project 365

There were a couple of images "clicked" today that I feel have potential, but this one particularly struck me. I almost wished I had shot a video of this landlocked sailboat in Blaine between two brick buildings. The wind whipped all around it and the canvas filled and moved with the air. It looked like the boat was trying shed its tethers to fly away. It was awesome. So, in this case, a static one shot doesn't do the scene justice. I would have loved to see it lift off and flap away over Semiahmoo Bay!

02-07-2011

Project 365

I understand we're in for some more rain, so I've particularly enjoyed the last two days of sun. One thing I like about sunshine is the shadow cast where the sunlight is blocked. So many fun shapes, angles. There are often textures that happen outside of the glare of the light, but you don't notice them until there's a contrast; a bit of yin and yang. These two photograph of shadows cast illustrate just such a contrast. Today's photo(s):

02-02-2011

Project 365

I had business in Blaine to attend to today. While there I previewed a vacant home for some clients. One never knows when opportunity will present itself. So glad I had my camera stashed in a jacket pocket. Today's photograph:

02-01-11

Project 365

01-24-11

Today was rainy wet. Better to photograph something dry inside. I had my camera, but the battery wasn't holding a charge, so these photographs were taken with my iPhone 3G.  I found this scene at Blackberry House while in Blaine this afternoon. I liked the simplicity of the chair set against the shine on the plank flooring.

OK, I liked this one, too: