Seasons Greetings

May peace be your gift at Christmas and your blessing throughout the coming year.

Lighting the city Christmas Tree

Saturday, Santa Clause came to Port Townsend for our tree lighting ceremony. The Wild Rose Chorale provided music.

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Photographing my backyard

I just enrolled in a photo workshop titled Close to Home, which is based on the popular Craft & Vision ebook, Close to Home: Finding Great Photographs in Your Own Back Yard, this workshop is designed to help us look more closely into your local surrounding and find great photographs no matter where we live.

Ray Ketchum, who is assisting the presenter, Stuart Sipahigil first told me about the workshop. As good as Ray made it sound, I wasn’t that interested. I had Stuart’s ebook and enjoyed it. That’s not surprising as the ebook is quite good and covers a subject that I haven’t seen addressed elsewhere. However, I’ve been photographing “close to home” for a couple of years and am nowhere close to running out of ideas. Fortunately, I thought the idea through again. There’s always something to learn, and hanging out with other enthusiastic photographers is a great experience, one that can be energizing and inspiring. Looking at the workshop that way, why shouldn’t I do it?

Ray also assures me that Stuart Sipahigil is a good teacher. The venue is my hometown, so I have no travel expenses. The workshop is reasonably priced, as these things go, and most of all, I will get new ideas and ways of looking at things that have become too familiar. For example, this picture is an opportunity that I walk by many times a day. It’s right out my door for goodness sake. Yet, I’ve never stopped and appreciated the simple beauty of the tree and the flower boxes in the background. Just thinking about the workshop has inspired me.

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Bob Gray's campaign booth at the Jefferson County Fair

Bob is running for one of Port Townsend’s two city council seats up for election this year. He set up a booth at the fair and did a lot of campaigning. Bob is president of the Port Townsend Photo Club and a good photo subject himself.

Kinetic Skulpture vehicle Whale on a Trapeze

Each year in October, Port Townsend hosts the Kinetic Sculpture Race. We have a parade, the Koronation Kostume Ball and race. In the race the human powered Kinetic Skulptures have to traverse a varied course that includes streets with hills, Port Townsend Bay,  a sand dune at Fort Worden State Park and a mud pit at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds. The race and festival offer many prizes, the most coveted of which is the Mediocrity award. Entries come mostly from the West Coast but teams come from as far away as Maryland.

Whale on a Trapeze returning to land

While kostumes aren't required, dressing up is part of the fun

A pre-race sobriety test requires making a balloon animal (of no specific species)

Polished air intake

This polished air intake gives a different view of the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival.

This is a Reflection Friday photo.

Trying out Pygmy Kayaks at the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Show

Stitch and glue plywood kayaks are an interesting breed. They look traditional but are actually very high tech. They employ a combination of thin marine grade plywood with fiberglass and epoxy. The resulting boat is very light, about half the weight of a basic plastic kayak.

Pygmy Boats, based in Port Townsend is one maker that sells this type of kayak kit. Here we see Wooden Boat Festival goers who got to try out the kayaks. This is a Watery Wednesday photo.