Happy to be Here

While I can appreciate a lovely posed photo of a baby or child, my favorites are always the candid shots. The ones where the child is caught in the act of loving what they are doing, contemplating life, being silly, or just hanging around.

It may take hundreds of shots to capture that perfect moment but I believe the results are worth the effort.

Here we have a fantastic photo I took of my 2-year-old nephew as we waited in line to ride the ponies at Remlinger Farms last weekend. I doubt he knew exactly what we were going to do…I think he was just excited to be at a new place with his favorite people surrounded by other kids laughing and having fun.

Egg Hunt at Woodland Park Zoo

The whole fam spent the day at the Woodland Park Zoo last weekend for the annual Easter celebration. Our fellow Seattleites were out in force, enjoying the beautiful weather, the egg hunt and the other activities.

The animals also seemed to be enjoying the beautiful spring day with plentiful sunshine and glorious blue skies. We captured some great shots that day including this close-up of a sleeping flamingo surrounded by his loud and smelly neighbors and a shot of the wolves hanging out in the sun (taken by my 12-year-old nephew).

Wolves Enjoying the Sunshine

Young salmon swimming

Mama and baby otter

In addition to a love of all things train and car, my almost 2-year-old nephew has a funny obsession with fish. I say funny because it’s funny to watch his reaction whenever he sees a fish of any kind in any medium…he jumps up and down shouting “FISH! FISH!” until we acknowledge that we, too, are marveling at the wonderfulness that is fish.

So you can imagine how excited he was when his older brother and I took him on his first aquarium visit last weekend. It was three hours of fantastic fish sightings! The Seattle Aquarium now boasts an amazing wall aquarium that towers over visitors as you enter the aquarium. We spent almost a third of our time there, just watching the large variety of fish swim by (even catching sight of a diver during feeding time).

My older nephew is a longtime aquarium fan and eagerly dove into the role of trip photographer. This was our first trip since the baby otter was born so, of course, we huddled in the rain with the other guests to catch a few glimpses of the adorable baby.

Sunset on the Ship

I love the shadows created by the sunlight streaming on the ship’s deck in this photo I took on my way to the Antarctic Peninsula in 2001. At the top of the photo, you can see the bottom of a lifeboat and down the left side is the mechanism for lowering/raising the lifeboat.

Taken as a lovely sunny summer day was heading towards sunset. The deck was deserted–quiet and peaceful. I enjoyed wandering around the ship at all hours…looking at the view and watching the crew work. I find it fascinating to be on a large ship out at sea.

I’m quite pleased that I captured this particular view and moment in time.

Footprints in the Snow

Last week was a snowy one for the greater Seattle area and we enjoyed watching the flakes fall. And while it seriously disrupted work, school and Thanksgiving holiday plans, my spindly winter garden definitely looked so much better under a blanket of white! My little side street is too small to ever be plowed so when the snow falls, we must wait for it to melt before venturing out. Luckily most snowfalls don’t linger long in our maritime climate.

I snapped this photo from my front door early one morning as the sun was rising and the snow had stopped falling. I was thrilled to capture the sweet little bird footprints walking/hopping across my front porch. I imagine he was after the ubiquitous spiders who call my covered porch home.

The Cape at Cape Kiwanda, Oregon Coast

Here’s a lovely photo I took of the Cape at Cape Kiwanda on the Oregon Coast during a visit there with my best friend in September 1998. Our hotel was right across the street from the beach and the Cape was only a short hike up the beach itself. The nights were black and starry. And up on the Cape we could watch the waves crash into the rocks below us. A lovely quiet vacation location.

Cherry Blossoms

I have always loved seeing the cherry blossoms bloom in the spring. The Cherry Blossom Festival in D.C. was one of my favorite spring activities when I lived in the area.

This cherry blossom photo was taken in downtown Seattle in the mid-90s. I stood under the tree and shot the fluffy white umbrella of blossoms from below. Unfortunately it was a cloudy day but the blooms are still quite lovely.

Photo: Iceberg #14 (Juneau, AK)

Another of the many iceberg photos I took while in Juneau, Alaska about ten years ago.

The Iceberg #14 photo was shot during a day boat cruise I took around Glacier Bay/Tracy Arm Fjord. It was a cloudy, rainy, and cold day in September. We saw dozens of icebergs and each one was unique.

In this shot, I particularly like how you can see the “ghost” image of all of the iceberg that lurks below the surface of the water.

Iceberg #5 (Juneau, AK)

Iceberg #5 is one of many iceberg photos I took in Juneau, Alaska about ten years ago. It was late September and the tourist season was growing to a close (in fact, I saw the first snowfall of the season).

This photo is a close up of the top of a large iceberg taken while on a day boat cruise around Glacier Bay/Tracy Arm Fjord.

The red sky is a trick of the lighting as the setting sun interplayed with the cloudy sky.

Muppets made of jellybeans

This fantastic candy portrait of Fozzie Bear and Kermit the Frog appeared on the side of a gingerbread masterpiece at the 2009 Gingerbread Village–held every year at the Seattle Sheraton in downtown Seattle.

Created from an assortment of jelly beans, this piece of art is a very tasty interpretation of two of my favorite Muppet characters! And I love the added touch of the sunglasses! Too cool!