The cost of solar energy, now the cheapest electricity in much of the world, has dropped 76% since 2009. In the United States residential panel installed cost dropped from $8.50/watt to as low as $2.01/watt before incentives. In October, 2020, we paid $1.46/watt, after taking advantage of the 26% federal tax credit. That puts […]
Smith Island Tufted Puffins
On July 10, 2020, I launched a kayak from Joseph Whidbey State Park, Whidbey Is, WA, and paddled to Smith Is. My photo target was Tufted Puffins. Flat-top, 400-acre Smith Island is not a destination for paddlers. The five-nautical-mile, open water route crosses a shipping lane with barge traffic and speeding watercraft. Wind from the […]
Horseshoe Lake
Alpine Lakes Wilderness Photography Field Report from October 7-9, 2014. Rich and I got the bad, not unexpected, outcome. Early October is prime time for the Washington State Enchantments, when golden larch skirt the stark, granite spires. Vying with a dozen hopefuls for the single, 7:45am permit draw─we lost. Our backup was Horseshoe Lake. The […]
Indian Henry’s Hunting Ground
Mt. Rainer National Park. I’m in my office, doing Lightroom repair work on an ancient, 2006 image from Indian Henry’s Hunting Ground. The photo didn’t make my (publish) cut years ago, but it wasn’t because composition, light or uniqueness were lacking. It passed those tests. The problem was mosquitoes, which streaked like blobs across sky, […]
Anna’s Hummingbird Vid
In the spring of 2016 I shot footage of a hummingbird nest in Marymoor Park. After researching hummers the following winter, I wrote a script and created my first video production, titled Anna’s Hummingbird. It showed at the East Side Audubon Volunteer dinner. In 2017, the female re-built her nest at the same location; I […]
2019 Favorite Images 2019_12
One big kayak trip, no backpacking, much bird photography most often by kayak. A few pika shoots. I only sought landscapes a couple times, pretty dismal really. But I like what I got this year while staying pretty close to home. Washington State has so much to offer photographers. All images were shot with either […]
Whale Tales
In 1994, a group of us kayakers organized and executed a self-led kayak camping trip at Johnstone Strait, on the north coast of Vancouver Island, BC. It was almost pure bliss. Twenty-five years later, my wife and I joined Sea Kayak Adventures on a six-day kayak camping trip. I’m shocked at the changes. One thing […]
Mirrorless has Arrived 2019_03
I’m sitting in a kayak at the Sammamish River mouth on Lake Washington. Three hundred or so Common Mergansers flock nearby─in the slough fishing, roosting on the lake or flying in-between. The heavy birds fly at 40 mph up and down the tree-lined slough, a gauntlet that challenges the electronic viewfinder (EVF) and auto-focus of […]
One-Step Merge 2018_11
Adobe updated Lightroom Classic CC last week (October, 2018). Two additions of interest to me are the One-step Merge to Panorama and the new Color/Luminance Range Mask. The One-step Merge creates HDR panoramas with a single select and click, where beforehand you needed the separate steps of creating multiple HDR images, and then select and […]
Milky Way at Palouse Falls 2018_10
Everything was going according to plan. At home, I consulted with www.stellarium.org for the Milky Way location, NOAA for cloud cover and Google Earth for orientation at Palouse Falls, WA. An October Milky Way shoot looked probable. I also checked the Palouse River stream gage, which was flowing above normal, not high but good enough. […]