Jamie Kirkpatrick's Kobo show

My ceramic artist friend Jamie Kirkpatrick just had a show at Kobo in the international district of Seattle, WA. Here is the shops website. I got a few photos from his opening a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately he had to take his show down this past Saturday. Because he is moving to Colorado. So all you people around the Denver/Boulder Colorado area be prepared for some awesome ceramics coming your way. And if you are lucky you might even get him to teach some classes out there too.

Anyways, the first photo is of Jamie (on the left) and Matt Allison (on the right). Matt is also a very talented ceramic artist, highly recommended. The second photo shows Jamie, Matt and Larry Naylor (another ceramic artist on the far right). All three of these guys have been a resident of pottery northwest here in Seattle. Larry is still in his residency there.

The rest of the photos show Jamie's pottery. Most of this actually came from a recent wood firing on Whidbey Island in Al Tenant's Kiln. He got some great pieces out of this firing.

So go on down and check out Kobo, which in itself is an excellent store. I believe Jamie still has some of his pottery there.

Fun while BBQ'in

The other day while BBQ'ing I noticed how nice the light was falling on a piece of garden art. This Bacchus head has aged mightily since my wife bought it way back when we used to live in Sonoma (or even back in San Rafael). That is about 9-10+ years. This head has gone from California to Georgia and now to Seattle, WA. Some good traveling.

What with the good amount of detail brought on by the aging process and the great light I had to run in grab the camera and take a few photos. I think this one is the best.

The first fire

We had our first fire in our new apartment over Labor day weekend. Fireplace fire that is. That's right, our apartment has a fireplace. Which is going to make for a much easier winter to deal with in Seattle. It is amazing how much a fire can make you feel comfortable and relaxed. The last time we were able to do this was in our home back in Athens, GA.

Of course I got the camera out and had to take a couple of photos. I find it interesting what fire can do to me. It has this hypnotizing effect while at the same time it is able to instill a sense of respect/danger at the same time. Maybe that is why I have gone into crafts that rely on fire. Blacksmithing and Ceramics being the two crafts.

Enjoy the fire, because I know I will be enjoying them over this winter.

Having fun with depth of field

I have been playing with taking photos with a very shallow depth of field the past two days. It has be very fun and has given me a jolt to go out and photograph. Here are a few from my walk to the library yesterday and my walk today down to the docks at Fisherman's Terminal.

Kites over Washington part deux

Well, I had so much fun taking the photos at the kite installation, I decided to post a few more photos I have processed since Wednesday.

And here they are in Black and White. I think the B&W work much better then just the color photos. They have more feeling and are not distracted by the grayness of the sky. Once you just focus on the tones of the image they seem to come together producing a better overall effect.

I am curious what do some of you think?

Kites over Washington

Well I came across this on a fluke yesterday here in Seattle at Gas Works Park. Luckily my wife had a meeting in the area I saw all these kites going up over Gas Works Park. Well one phone call later I had grabbed my camera and was in the car speeding on over there to take some photos.

Kites over Washington was an art project. You can find out more about it here. It seems to have been an art installation by Seth Abramson, who has been doing various art installations with kites for 12 years.

All I have to say, it was great to photograph. I had a blast walking around the park taking photos. I am having a blast developing these images too, especially into Black & White photographs. These are just a few. Tomorrow I think I will post a couple more.

Mule Deer

Back in July, at the cabin in Idaho, I also got a couple of snaps of some Mule Deer up at the salt lick. Mule deer are much bigger then a "bambi" type deer or what I call a the public's perception of what a deer should look like. They are more of the size of an elk. This young buck was hogging the salt lick from the doe. Ahhh males.

A stormy sunset in Idaho part II

Here is the other photo I mentioned in my previous post. I have multiple shots of this scene but I believe this one is the best of the lot. The reason being is the water, or more precise the capture of the water motion. It is interesting how very different the photos look. Water seems to move and flow to a mind of its own.

A stormy sunset in Idaho

While at the cabin back in July we were getting many rainstorms coming through. Luckily one night my dad and I decided to go out and take some photos. Unfortunately I started off with only my telephoto lens and subsequently missed the amazing double rainbow. My dad got that beautiful photo, all I got was just a little piece of it.

But I did get some other photos. Here is one of a meadow in the foreground and the Boulder Mountains in the background. This was taken at Easley Gulch, just north of Ketchum, ID.

Tomorrow I will have another photo from this night.

A bear finally

Well I finally got to see a bear in Idaho. Of all the many years of going to the family cabin growing up and the many years since then I have never seen a bear. Patience pays off, because not only did I get to see one multiple times but now I am able to photograph it, sweet.

We believe this was probably just a 2 year old brown bear. Slummin' it in the neighborhood of cabins near Easly Hot Springs and Baker Creek Road in the Sawtooth National Forest. I captured these photos at my uncle's cabin.

We knew the bear was out and about so we were keeping all the trash inside and keeping things clean. Of course there are those little things you forget about, like leaving some old hamburger buns out on the stump for the chipmunks and birds. Well add bear to that list now. This bear was even caught trying to steel bird seed from a bird feeder. Talk about your lazy Yogi bear.

Alliums

Near my families cabin in Idaho you can find some wild alliums growing. Usually I am up at the cabin so late in the season that the alliums have dried up and don't have as rich a color. Aaah, but this year on my weekend trip I was able to capture these plants, which are related to onions, in their prime.


I just like taking photographs of these plants. I don't know why, something just calls to me. What's fun with these few shots is the inclusion of a flying insect. I don't know what type of insect but it just added that extra bit to the pictures. I like them.

Wind Power

I was down in California for a weekend and I got to drive my old college route from Davis to Antioch. I always went the back ways through Dixon and Rio Vista. Well it has been a while since I have driven that route and boy has some of it changed. Yep, those HUGE windmills are new. I mean HUGE. Look at the portrait picture, down at the base of the windmill is a car. Not just a small car but a big suv. I mean HUGE!. Wow is all I could think and had to stop and take some pictures on the drive.

There used to be windmills out there to generate power, but never this big. But these big behemoths have their advantages. They generate a good amount of power and turn slowly giving birds a chance not to be filleted when flying by. They are also very fun to photograph.

An old friend visits

My good ole' friend Mike Carson paid us a visit back in July. He arrived here in Seattle just in time to stay at our new apartment. Which worked out great because the new apartment has 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. Where as our former apartment in Fremont just had one each and was much much smaller and more expensive (that pay more for less attitude).

Well, Jenn and I gave Mike the full Seattle tour. First off we went to Pike place market, saw some flying fish, ate a good lunch and then had to rush home to meet up with the cable guy. Aahh, but the next day Mike got to experience the Seattle bus system, Top Pot donuts (yummmy), ride the ducks, tour the Sci Fi musuem (EMP(they had the Jim Hensen's muppet show up, very cool)), and then see a movie on the imax screen. Man that was a long day.

So to slow the pace down a little Jenn and I took it easy on Mike. First up was a nice walk down to breakfast. Where we then tried to take Mike out with a heartattack by making him walk back to the apartment up the seriously steep hill (Mike lives in flat land Woodland, CA, but that hill is steep). After letting Mike catch his breath Jenn gave Mike the grand city tour. We drove all over Seattle showing him the different neighborhoods. We then ended up at Volunteer Park. This lovely park designed by Olmstead, houses the Asian Art Museum. This museum is a great 1930' piece of architecture and even has some interior gates made by Samuel Yellin. Mike and I spent most of our time checking out the gates in the museum. Also in Volunteer Park is a green house, where I snapped a couple of photos from.

The next day we all went to see the Harry Potter Movie (good flick). After the movie we got some lunch in Ballard and headed over to Golden Gardens. It was a nice windy day and luckily I brought the kites to fly. Murphy's Law reared its ugly head causing one of the kites strings to be a huge knot ball. I got that ball untangled, after about an hour or so and we were up and flying. After we all dive bombed each other with the kites we headed out to the beach for a bit and then drove on over to the Ballard Locks. One of the locks was working and we saw some boats go on through. There were even some salmon running, very cool to see. After that we drove on home and did some BBQ'ing.

On Mike's last day we were able to go on the Seattle underground tour. I hadn't done that yet and was looking forward to it. It was a blast. Both Mike and I enjoyed it immensely. I will have to take Jenn on the tour, hopefully the adult version, where you get all the dirty stories along with some alcoholic drinks.

All in all Mike had a great time and we both enjoyed having him visit.