Time out for gardening...

Recently I posted in The Ladies Club, one of my FaceBook Groups, that I've gotten behind in my posting and commenting but I'm scrambling to get caught up. My reason for getting behind is that our rainy season ended and I’ve been having fun working in my yard.

Several Ladies Club members asked to see photos of what I’ve been up to. A few said they live in the city and don’t have yards and would like me to share mine in photos. Sometimes I wish I lived in a big city! I love the hustle and bustle!

  

This is a great chance to share my world with you in photos. 

Then I would like you to post url links in the comments section of this post showing photos of your surroundings. What a fun way to get to know each other better! Take a photo of your yard, the street you live on, your city's skyline, a meadow, a local park, a pond, lake or river, beach, anything that represents home to you. You can post the direct url link to your photo or make a TinyURL on my blog's home page and post that. There is no time limit on this. You can post at any time in the future.

Hubby and I live on 1.5 acres in the Pacific Northwest woods, in the state of Washington, USA,

across the Puget Sound from Seattle, Washington:

Seattle Skyline and Puget Sound 

To truly give you an idea of our yard I must start with last year’s landscaping work. We'd been overrun with weeds so we decided to tackle mother nature head on. 

First I laid 5,000 square feet of landscape paper. I had to dodge the trees and plants we'd installed a couple of years ago. 

Then we had 30 cubic yards (2 large trucks) of bark delivered:

It took hubby 25 days to spread the bark. He wore a face mask for protection. See how nicely he's dodging my flowers! 

He rested only one day:

Now on to this year. The bark looks great - no weeds. I put chicken wire around new plants to keep the rabbits and deer from eating them. Once the plants are established the chicken wire is removed. 

My new herb garden and part of the hiking trail we made around our property:

And..... drum roll please..... summer is finally here and flowers are starting to bloom:

Remember – I’d love it if you took a photo of your world and posted a url link to the photo(s) in the comments section at the end of this post. Then we can all share a bit of our lives with each other. Take a photo of your yard, garden, your street, city's skyline, a local park, a pond, lake or river, beach, anything that represents home to you.

I’m really excited to announce that I will soon be setting up an easier way for us to share url links to our photos!!! Stay tuned. 

Exploring Bainbridge Island Marina

Oh those green greens, blue blues and great panoramas: using your camera’s automatic landscape/panoramic mode. Information for beginning to advanced hobbyist photographers.

The Pacific Northwest is incredibly beautiful in autumn.  Maples turn orange, yellow and red against a background of light and dark fir, pine and cedars. I especially like using my camera’s automatic landscape mode to catch the vivid colors of the sunny blue sky and colorful trees. 

Automatic landscape/panoramic mode is designed to capture scenic vistas, city skylines, and other large scale objects.  It’s designed to keep both objects close to the camera and in the distance in sharp focus.  Check your camera's manual for information on setting this mode.


My afternoon spent photographing Bainbridge Island Marina


Bainbridge Island, WA is located in the central Puget Sound basin. It’s beautiful!  It is east of Bremerton, WA and the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, and west of Seattle.  The Washington State Ferry System runs daily Ferries from Seattle to Bainbridge Island. When I take the Ferry across the Sound to Seattle I feel like I’m on a vacation get-away.

The island is approximately five miles (8 km) wide and ten miles (16 km) long. Of the 16 islands in Puget Sound it is one of the largest. 

I always love photo outings on the Island. There's always something new and exciting to photograph, especially the wildlife. The marina is tucked into the beautiful tree-lined Eagle Harbor Cove. 


The auto landscape mode does several helpful things when you’re shooting outside.  This mode produces a large area of sharp focus. It boosts colors and contrast slightly.  It also produces rich, bold hues that we want in our landscape (panoramic) photos.  Greens and blues are emphasized.

Bainbridge Island Boathouse

Turquoise!  

As my hubby and I wandered around the marina taking photos we spotted this darling little boat with what I dubbed the lazy daisy boat cover.  My camera’s auto landscape mode really made the colors on the boat cover pop! 


I'd love to own a little boat like this!  It made me think of Edward Lear's nursery rhyme the Owl and the Pussycat. But I settled for taking several photos and we moved on down the dock.

Lazy Daisy

We heard splashing and barking behind us, turned around and saw these adorable little Puget Sound Harbor Seals playing on the dock jumping in and out of boats and the water.  Harbor seals are the most abundant marine mammal in Puget Sound. They are curious but shy animals.

Adorable!

I was able to quickly capture them with my camera before they got away.  Photographing them was a challenge!  They were friendly and let me get reasonably close.  I was using my telephoto lens so “close” was still some distance away. 

Bye Bye, Time For Oyster Dinner

They kept wiggling around which caused some blurring in the photos. Blur was also caused from the dimming afternoon light and using my telephoto lens without a tripod. I could have changed my lens and grabbed my tripod but I settled for the blurring. I was afraid they’d jump into the Sound and swim off for a nice oyster dinner before I could get any photos of them. 


So, the next time you are out photographing landscapes, cityscapes and other scenic vistas remember to set your camera on auto landscape mode.

Seals are protected from killing by the Federal Marine Mammal Protection Act. It is against the law to hunt, capture, kill, harass or otherwise disturb seals or any other marine mammal.  You may photograph and view from a distance.