INCOMING!

We recently visited St. Maarten in the Caribbean with some great friends. We decided to go to the airport side of the island to see if we could get some pictures of a plane coming in for a landing into the small international airport located on the Dutch side of the island. 

 We asked a local where the planes came over the beach and he pointed to a spot about 200 yards away from us. I just happened to look out to the horizon and saw a big plane headed into St. Maarten for a landing. I took off running while making some adjustments to my camera to be ready the pictures. I was standing next to three people on the beach who were also watching the plane come in. I quickly decided to run behind them and take the series of pictures to add some perspective to how large the plane was and how close it came to the beach and water. Once the plane when over us the wind from the engines and the plane were fierce. Sand was flying everywhere….it was amazing….Here is the series of 32 pictures I took of the event. ENJOY!

Now these are MOUNTAINS..

I flew over Mt. Rainier, Mt. Adams and the snowy top of Mt. St. Helens dome over the last couple of weeks on my way down to California.  I am glad I have had window seats and my handy Kodak  EasyShare camera!

Dome on top of St. Helens..

Rainier close up...

Mt. Adams

Mt. Hood

San Diego

Brant Easter Geese!

I received a call from my friend and bird buddy Chris Nelson yesterday afternoon... at around 5:30PM telling me that there was a large flock of Brant Geese on the shore in the back of his house along Shaw Cove in Gig Harbor. I told him I would be right over and me another friend of mine who was celebrating Easter with us jumped in my car and headed over to his house. We made it in less than 10 minutes and I am glad we made the trip. I was able to go down on the beach and get within 20 or so yards from the birds. This was the first time I had ever seen/photographed a Brant Goose!

Here is some information I found out on these geese from "WhatBird.com"..

Brant: Small goose, dark brown upperparts and brown-barred, pale gray underparts. Head is black; short black neck has partial white ring. Tail and vent are white. Western race, formerly known as the Black Brant, is darker. Heavy direct flight with strong wing beats. Flies in straight line formation.

Range and Habitat

Brant: Breeds in eastern Siberia and along the northern coast of Alaska and western Canada; Pacific subspecies spends winters along the west coast from British Columbia to Baja California. Preferred habitats include tundra and coastal islands in the Arctic during breeding, and salt marshes and estuaries during winter.

Capping off a perfect Saturday....

Spring finally arrived today. This was by far the best Saturday weather we have had the entire year....and to cap it off.....the sunset...

HDR Shots

I am still playing with some trial software called Photomatix. Part of me loves the cool effects and another part of me struggles with the effects. The type of photography is called HDR (High Dynamic Range). You must set your DSLR to "bracket" mode and take 3 rapid fire pictures all with different exposures. Photomatix combines all three photos to get the following effects...

Eagle Days....

These were taken early this morning in our neighbors tree along Ray Nash Drive...(if you want to see the "full meal deal", just click on each photo)

Snail droppings

The sun is out this late Monday afternoon so I am not going to complain (even though it is 45 degrees on April 11th....but I digress).

Looking out our window I noticed the Seagulls were busy picking off Aleutian Moon Snails off the beach and then dropping them on the beach to crack them open an evening dinner.

The Aleutian Moon Snail Typical size:is  4-5” length. It is a
miniature version of the Lewis's moonsnail.” lengthth brown mottling or blotching, light colored shell.
Comment: A miniature version of the Lewis's moonsnail, the Aleutian moonsnail tends to sport some mottling or brown spots on its soft body. Photographed at Sunrise Beach in southern Puget Sound.

Camp 6 at Pt. Defiance

Cindi and I visited the Camp 6 Logging museum at Pt. Defiance this afternoon with some great friends. Camp 6 covers Washington State’s logging and railroad history from the 1880’s through the 1940’s.

My friend introduced me to a new a new photography  imaging called high-dynamic-range imaging (HDR). It is a set of techniques that allow a greater dynamic range of luminance between the lightest and darkest areas of an image than current standard digital imaging techniques or photographic methods.

Here are some shots from the day....

Happy Song Sparrow, Skunk Cabbage & Sunset

Me and the Lovely took a walk in the Harbor this Saturday morning....First glimpse of sun in days... Somehow the sun makes everyone a little more happy...including this Song Sparrow down by Murphy's Landing...

I came across this Western Skunk Cabbage along Whitmore Dr. NW in Gig Harbor today as well....

And to end the nice Saturday.....a beautiful sunset off of Ray Nash Drive..