Happy Burning Pumpkins Halloween to you all

Happy Halloween everybody. To celebrate here are some photos from the recent Jack-o-Lantern burning at the Hoes down festival in Capay Valley, CA.

I have been helping my friend Mike Carson, do the Hoe's Down festival at Full Belly Farms for a while now. And if I am able to visit California in the fall I always try to make this fair, it is that fun and comes HIGHLY recommended from me.

Well one year after a lone day at the forge (this is the time where you get a little loopy) we carved up some pumpkins. Of course one thing lead to another and it ended up on the forge to see how it would burn. Once we figured out you needed to cut a hole in the bottom of the pumpkin, flaming Jack-o-lanterns were born (eat you heart out Green Goblin).

We get a big turn out for this nightly display all from word of mouth, because it is not in the fair's program. Here are a few photos from this years Hoe's down festival. This years pumpkin burning comes with a small twist, a cheesy one. Cartman from South Park would love this, Cheesy poofs burn and burn easily. In most of these photos you will notice one Jack-o-lantern on the forge and the other with flames coming out of it. The flame source for that other jack-O-lantern is cheesy poofs. So if you find yourself without any candles at home or at the store just get some cheesy poofs, fill you Jack-o-lantern up with them and toss one lite match in, instant flame.

Wild Northern California

I was down at the Mother in Law's place during the last bit of September, 2009 to help replace some windows. My Mother in Law lives out in the country of Penn Valley, CA. Which is in northern California near Nevada City.

Being out in the country she see a large amount and variety of wildlife go through her property. What from birds to turkeys, rascillay rabbits to raccoons to deer to coyotes to foxes to mountain lines and even a bear. While there I was able to get some photos of the wild turkeys and deer.

Along with the wildlife you can also see some fun farm / ranching equipment around the area. I walked down the dirt road from my mother in law's place to go take some photos of this old truck with bits of old cars/trucks in its bed (see photos below). While walking I came across this old horse or ox drawn wagon under a big oak. I think the owner had it out there as a marker. One you can use while giving directions to your place. "Just drive up the dirt road for a 1/2 mile take the right fork and go up the driveway that has the old horse drawn wagon by it". Or at least that is what I think.

Idaho Statesman photo contest

Well the annual Idaho Statesman "Idaho Outdoors" Photography contest has been published. And of course my dad won the grand prize again, for the third time. He seems to be lucky on these odd years. Here is a link to the webpage.

My Uncle, Walter Kaiser, received two honorable mentions, his girlfriend Jennifer Rogers received an honorable mention and I received two honorable mentions (#'s 48 and 52). One of these years one of us will beat out my dad for the grand prize.

Here are the two photos that received the honorable mentions in the contest. One is from my photographs of the Bear that was cruising around the Easley Gulch and Baker/Newman Creek cabins this year. I captured this image while at my Uncle's cabin near Newman Creek in the Sawtooth National Forest of Idaho.

The butterfly photo is from 2008 and is a picture of a mountain blue. I took a lot of photos in this spot because the area was just infested with insects alighting themselves on the plant. The photo was taken just up the Easley Gulch road near our family cabin in Idaho.

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.