Mukilteo Lighthouse

I had a chance to visit the Puget Sound north of Seattle a few weeks back on business. It rained all day, but by evening the drizzle stopped and I spent a couple of hours at Mukilteo Lighthouse Park in Mukilteo, Washington.

Before my trip I struggled with the decision of whether or not to bring my camera along. As much as I enjoy taking pictures, there are trips (business trips in particular) where I don't ever take my camera out of its case. Lugging the camera on and off of airplanes only to not use it can be a pain. Well, as you can see, I finally opted to bring the camera along again... I think I chose wisely.

Finding myself alone for several hours with my camera in tow in a place as picturesque as this... Well, there are worse ways to spend an evening on a business trip. I watched the ferry boats running back and forth across the sound in tandem, I observed lots of wildlife, and I generally just had a great time. I capped off the evening with a delicious dinner at Ivar's followed by another half hour on the piers watching the sunset.

Mukilteo Lighthouse See the entire album!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Salmon River Trail

I'm taking a break from city photography posts for today. In late October Grandpa, several grand kids, and I piled into the van and headed for the hills of Eastern Central Connecticut. One of my coworkers had described hiking on the Salmon River Trail in Colchester, CT and I was curious to see it. My kids love to hike our local nature trails and they really enjoyed this longer hike with it's steeper hills and scenic views.

The trail starts at the Comstock Covered Bridge, one of only a handful of historic covered bridges remaining in Connecticut, which is currently closed for renovation. For a short distance the trail follows closely along side the broad and shallow Salmon river which appears to be perfectly suited for fly fishing. Then the trail gains altitude until it eventually crests the edge of the river gorge, offering panoramic views of the colorful forested hills and rapids in the bend of the river, now far below. We could hear ATVs in the hills across the river, and smoke from a camp fire rose in stark white contrast against the darker woods.

We hiked a couple of miles and only turned around when it became apparent that we were going to be hiking back in the dark. We watched the sun dip over the horizon from the overlook. The ATVs had by then gone silent but the boisterous and festive voices of the riders carried clearly in the crisp evening air. The flash of fireworks created distant silhouettes on the smoke that still hung over and through the trees next to the river. We resumed hiking through the descending darkness, arriving back at the van just as the last remnants of light faded from the sky.

We'll have to come back next season to hike clear through to Day Pond State Park.

Salmon River, Colchester, CT

Mushroom City

Rapids

Kids in a row

Light on the trail ahead

Sepia Sunset

This hiker loved being on the trail

Grandpa and his troop of hikers

This was about the last light I could capture with the camera

Manhattan Skyline - Sepia

Some of my favorite sepia treatments of the Manhattan skyline taken from and near my room in the W Hotel in Hoboken...

Amazed by the view from our room...

View from Pier C Park, Hoboken, NJ

Pier C Park from W Hotel

B/W vs. sepia

Same view, different sky

Freedom Tower over Pier A Park, Hoboken, NJ

Harkness Park Seascapes

Here are a few shots from Harkness State Park taken at a windy picnic I attended in the middle of October. A few of my friends have already seen these none of them made it to my photo blog... until now, that is. You like?

B/W Conversion

Wedding Pavilion - Too Windy for Vows

Texture and Light

My favorite of the day.

This is probably the highest surf I've yet seen on Long Island Sound. Usually our waves are small.

Probably too similar to the last one to justify posting but I like the way it is framed so here it is anyway...

Lynde Point Lighthouse Sunset

I was scanning through photos tonight and these shots of the Lynde Point Lighthouse in Old Saybrook caught my eye. On October 6 I was headed home from baseball practice with my son and we just had to stop and capture this sunset. I set up a tripod and let my 8-year-old trip some of the 6 to 10 second exposures, so I guess he technically took a few of these. I have to admit I am thrilled when I see my kids getting excited about this stuff.

We missed the really brilliant moments of the sunset by about 5 minutes so as good as these look they could have been incredible.

An Evening at Pilgrim's Landing

One evening back in July I was headed home pretty late from work and I noticed distant lightning flashing against what appeared to be a very clear night sky. I was up late already so I grabbed my camera and tripod and headed for Pilgrim's Landing on the Connecticut River near my home. Here are a few of the pictures I captured from the river's edge while an impressive storm front approached but never really arrived (I guess it passed to the North of us). It was sort of eery standing in the dark watching the clouds and the distant lightning while I waited for camera exposures. I was using a small flashlight and every time the light touched the shallow water it became a roiling mass of tiny eels. I assume they were American Eels as I know they are native to the local rivers. Unfortunately, my attempts to photograph the eels didn't turn out very well in the low light.

Bridge to Old Saybrook

Very similar to the first shot, this exposure resulted in a completely different color temp. I struggled to choose between these two shots for a fair photography contest... I chose this one and won a third-place ribbon at the Guilford Fair.

For a dark cloudy night, there were sure a lot of stars showing through

Mirror-Smooth

The canoe landing

From My Car Window

Here are three pictures taken from my car window this afternoon.

 
Jordan Cove, Waterford, CT

 
Creeping Plox or plox subulata

 
Scratch That Itch!