"The axis of the earth sticks out visibly through the centre of each and every city." -Oliver Wendell Holmes

Hi All,

Well, no hidden messages here - just a bit of fun with the kite.  The wind was blowing, the rain had stopped, I had my kite-cam in the car - I figured it would only take a few minutes... yes, it was more than a few... :))

This is three exposures of Seattle (and each of those is a three image HDR - nine images all together) taken with the IR camera lofted on a kite-string. 

"The earth is beautiful, bright, and kindly; and the earth is also terrible, and dark, and cruel." -Ursula K. LeGuin

Alki Point (in Seattle) from an IR-converted camera lofted overhead on a kite-string.

"So, like a forgotten fire, a childhood can always flare up again within us." -Gaston Bachelard

You know what i like about the ocean (other than it's big and wet and it never, ever stops moving, of course)? It makes a child of me again - the sand beneath my bare feet, its salty breath, and its voice that goes on and on and on - all makes me grin.  

Each year, our family gets together for a sort of reunion and, each year, it is held at beautiful Moclips on the Washington coast. The place we stay is a delightful little hotel/condo setup right on the beach - I walk out of our room, across the grass, over a couple of small dunes and there's the ocean. But the best part about this place is the Moclips River flows, after having traveled from the snows of the Olympic Mountains, into the Pacific Ocean just about 100 yards to the north. Now i can leave our room and stroll to the river and turn left and stroll to the ocean and turn left and stroll along the surf... pure delight.

i went out with the kite-cam just to see if i could take a few shots - the light was OK - overcast; no long shadows, no wonderful clouds, but there was going to be a fairly high tide this weekend and i wanted to wade thru the salt water and get my ankles wet. There is something about being in the shallows at the ocean that i find exhilarating - like i'm at the beginning of some big and joyful adventure and the water pulls at me and begs me to come join in and as the water rushes back out to sea, the sand undermines beneath my feet and leaves me unbalanced - earth and water conspiring to topple me and wash me away.  

I had the kite and camera up, my shoes off, my pants rolled to just above my knees (right on the cutting edge of fashion, baby), and i set out into the waves. My thought was that i would go no deeper than my shins and fly the camera in a very calm fashion - a few moments later, as the next wave washed over my thighs, threatening points north, I was thinking "shit, i better start taking my phone and keys out of my pocket so they don't get doused".  And so it goes with me at the beach - a little way out is never enough, jumping little waves always leads to bigger ones, and i always bring two pairs of pants.  

cheers, my friends - ya wanna go to the beach?

Image notes:

I spent about three hours in the surf and at the end i was thoroughly wet and cold, the wind had come up and my kite (which was tied around my waist) was dragging me around now, and as the light left, a rain squall waited just off-shore. But i was still grinning - didn't know if my camera had captured anything worthwhile but just the act of flying it, imagining what it saw, and having an ocean wash over my legs was enough for that afternoon.  

This man and his dog were also enjoying the shallows - although, i suspect the dog was getting the lion-share of the joy as he frolicked in the water - I will also say that Master Bow-Wow seemed to give me a questioning look as he raced past the kite-flying-goof-ball-in-water-to-his-knees a couple of times - ("Yeah, who you lookin' at? And hey! I'm not the one runnin' around panting with his tongue hanging out and lapping up seawater!"........ err..... pretty sure that wasn't me....). The motionless moment shown here was very brief and all other shots of him showed only a doggie-blur.   

No heavy manipulation on this - i added some color (most from watercolor washes) and played with contrast a bit.  - and i think i got all the sand from between my toes....   :))

This is a repeat from the 'Conceptual' gallery - for a full description please see here.

"Nothing is more pleasant than to utter a yellow word and see someone's eyes light up and know it is a yellow word for them too." -Gladys Taber

Each year, north of Seattle there is an announcement of spring that is a sight beyond words. Amid acres of saturated color, each shade deepening to the horizon, I am listening to this shout of spring and feeling an echo of youthful energy flow within (how could it be otherwise, surrounded by this?) Happy Spring, my friends.

Image of a few of the tulips fields of Skagit Valley from the vantage of a camera held aloft on a kite string. 

Image Notes:

More kite-cam fun. I was delighted to have a spare day to make the trip to the Skagit Valley for the tulip riot this year. In fact, I made two trips. The first was a stop on the way home from a shopping expedition to Vancouver BC with Kyeti.  It was on my birthday and Kyeti very kindly let me fly my kite and take images to my heart's content. Unfortunately, the images I got weren't all that inspiring - but just last Thursday, I left early from work and headed north for one more dose of jubilant color.

This is actually five KAP images manually stitched together in PS. I worked and worried trying to get all those rows to match and align and finally gave up - oh but that color! I don't think there is anything like it in all of nature! - the scale is big! The two people on the road help with that.  

Diving into the silken waters of Lake Chelan.   The three of us spent some delightful days at this lake in central Washington State.  The water is just amazing!

This image was taken with my camera suspended overhead on a kite-string.

Once again a kite cam image taken at Moclips on the Washington state coast.

My kite-cam caught me strolling along the Washington coast by the town of Moclips.   A favorite of mine taken with my camera suspended from a kite string.

This is an image made up of four exposures shot with the camera suspended on a kite string about 15 feet off the ground.  The camera ended up at this altitude because the wind that morning was frighteningly light - just barely keeping the camera aloft.  Assembling this pano was a struggle due to parallax problems and I finally just had to quit fiddling.

I chatted with the bus driver and found out that this is where he stops each morning before he begins his route.  A very peaceful and beautiful way to start the day.

This distorted pano of Elliot Bay Marina is a combination of five exposures taken with my camera suspended overhead on a kite string.  The marina is located at the foot of Magnolia Hill in Seattle.

"The sea pronounces something over and over, in a hoarse whisper; I cannot quite make it out." -Annie Dillard

Original image taken with an IR-converted camera lofted overhead on a kite-string.  This is the shallows of our lovely Pacific Ocean on the shores of Washington State.  This is our water and, contrary to appearances, it is not endless.

Pete and I were attempting to get some shots of the University of Washington (Seattle) Arboretum with my camera suspended from a kite - alas, no wind.  What you see is the reflection of our wake from the floating bridge as we came around for another pass...