As part of our two year running tradition (with many years to come), Asha and I took the time to have some fun taking photos for our holiday card.  Thanks to my trusty tripod and MkII, we were able to capture a few fun and partially random moments (the cones on our heads was totally Asha’s idea!).  Our location was in Bothell, down by the amphitheater back in mid October.  Also, take a peek at the whit and wisdom of my good friend Horace Glump at his website, featuring photos from yours truly at the Glumpabilia Store which can also be found in the right sidebar.

Asha and I met up with our newly wed friends Angela and Evan to hit up the Puyallup Fair the last day it was running.  This was the first time Asha and I had been to a fair of this size, and we were quite surprised, as it was substantially larger than the Kootenai County Fair we grew up with in Coeur d’ Alene Idaho.  Below are a few details from our highly enjoyable far experience.

Angela sporting the one of the substantial burgers we enjoyed

"Lomo" style fair ride image

Asha modeling next to one of the many attractive signs

Evan giving a proffessional photographer worthy dirty camera stare

Skillfully posing for a final shot of the night

A few weeks back, my good friends Simon and Nancy paid us a visit.  Being the good “Seattlites” that my wife and I are, we did our best to give them both the most authentic experience possible.  This obviously included a trip to Pike Place Market, dinner at Bin on the Lake (formally the Beach Cafe in Kirkland), a visit to the Olympic Sculpture Park and rock climbing at the REI wall.  

Although this festive event happened at the begining of this month, life has been a bit crazy of late.  Nevertheless, its always better late then never.  To celebrate the day of my good friend Nathaniel’s birth, Asha, Nathaniel and I dined at the Cactus on Alki Beach.  There was a 45 min. wait for a “window” seat, but it was more than worth it to dine in the setting sun!  Below are a few images from the dinner and after dinner activities taken by myself, Nathaniel and Asha. 

Not really sure what my shirt is doing here... Photo by Nathaniel Willson.

Photo by Asha Grinnell

Photo by Nathaniel Willson

Sunset on Alki

Asha strikes a pose

If you were to check out the metadata imbeded in these images, you would see that they are in fact not very old.  Nonetheless, I shot these and didn’t touch them for a while.  Today I was bitten by the creativity bug, so I sat down and poked and prodded these images until the itch stopped.  Here’s a little info about each image, with a before and after.

The first is of my sister(She is starting grad school this fall!  They grow up so fast *tear*.) on the University of Idaho campus after her graduation ceremony.  She insisted on having a picture shot in front of this building, so I complied.  Although cute, I wanted to jazz it up a bit.  Yes, yes, yes I can hear you moaning “HDR imaging is so last year!”.  That’s ok, because this image isn’t meant for you!  Technically this is a fake HDR as I am only using one shot, not multiple image.  The method I chose can be found on Deke McClelland’s podcast, dekePod.  I had forgotten how much fun it is to work in the LAB color space instead of RGB.  Makes me want to go back and dust off my channel mixing skills!

This second image is a portrait I did of my friend Tracey.  For reasons that I will not go into for my own personal safety and that of my family, Tracey has recently “exited” the country.  Tracey (and my sisters legs sticking out of the trunk of his car) actually made the cut for my final portfolio when I graduated from AIS.  That was quite a while ago, so we both thought it was time for a new unsettling image.  This image was originally one of three in a series, but without the binary code running across it.  I liked it, but it needed something more.  While I was working in the yard it suddenly occurred to me what the image needed to complete it.  Below is the final product.