Presentation 3

North America as a resident

Pacific North West Mountains Other Regions Massachusetts

Intro page

I am a physicist by training and spent my working life in high-tech industrial engineering. I have/had a reputation of “doing detail”! I got into more serious photography to capture some of the scenery I visited as an active mountaineer. Then I got into wildlife photography and its been downhill ever since On the whole my photography is “realistic” (but my finished images are not necessarily as they come out of the camera) This presentation has a lot of wildlife images but it also has a mix of other genres

The Pacific North West

The Pacific North West (Washington State and northern Oregon). Just to give an idea of scale, the map covers about 300 miles east to west. I lived just north of Seattle in a “city” called Mukilteo from January 2014 to June 2016

Mukilteo Ferry

The populous area of Washington State is centred on Puget Sound which is criss-crossed by ferries. This is the ferry to Mukilteo from Whidbey Island, several of my staff came to work this way

Alpenglow on Mt Baker

Just looking the other way from the previous image (not the same evening) but this wasn’t an uncommon sight

After the Bar Closes

I had to walk past this lighthouse on my way to the parking lot from the Diamond Knot Alehouse (not that I went there that often, honest) . As I was putting the presentation together I remembered that there was a picture on my phone of the bar taken at my leaving party – never did get to around to deleting it. The bar and the lighthouse are just next to the ferry terminal of the first image

The bar - insert

Harley-Davidson

Switching from the delights of Mukilteo to what I would like to think of as “Arty Images” – at this point I expect a level of incredulity from anyone who has seen my work. Motorbikes, almost exclusively Harleys, are not about utility or speed they are about “cool”, about being young and macho when you are 55 and have a beer gut. The more chrome there is, the greater the impact on the beer gut! This one was photographed on the ferry in the first image

Thanksgiving Surfer

An Oregon Coast surfer striking a pose. He deserves some credit it was Thanksgiving (November 28th)

Sunset over Puget Sound

Sunsets were great living on the West Coast and even better with the islands and the Olympic Peninsular out to the west

Bremerton Statue

Bremerton Statue

This guy is in Bremerton – on the West side of Puget Sound, home to an enormous naval base. The statue is on “Bremerton Boardwalk”, one of the 10 best things to do in Bremerton according to Trip Advisor. The original version of this image was a disaster with the sky completely burned out and for some reason the camera was set to jpeg not RAW. But I like the “patina” on his face. I am not sure if I like the high contrast or the high-key version best so here are both of them.

Cannon Beach Detail

Quite an achievement to find an area of beach without footprints at such a popular location – you have to follow the tide out to get fresh sand

Three Fingers

The Cascade mountains photographed from the SEO location (see later) with 840mm focal length. Not an easy place to get to so I never explored it, but it makes a good backdrop

Browns Slough

Sunset over Puget Sound again, this time with the Olympic mountains as a backdrop and GBHs as detail

Working with Colours

a big crop in Skagit are tulips. The workforce is an interesting mix of Mexicans, Vietnamese and Filipinos. I just think that the guys face makes the image. I never did get the hang of tulip pictures

Bathing in the Dew

But there were always Savannah Sparrows singing if you got there early enough

Great Blue Heron with Small Fish

The GBH is always a striking bird but the contrast between its size and its catch makes for a good story

Birdfeeder Raider

This Steller’s Jay was photographed from my house window – this is the adult, the three juveniles could empty a bird-feeder in a few seconds

Ring-Necked Duck

One appeared at Bowling Green Marsh a while back, it was quite hard to distinguish it from the Tufted Ducks it was mixing with but it got a lot of birders excited

This is a Bullock’s Oriole Feeding her young, the nest was just a few feet above the main track through the nature reserve

Harlequin and Pebbles

The Harlequin Duck is easy to photograph, they are birds of the very edge of the sea and they are quite approachable