Morning at the marina

Last Saturday members of area photo clubs visited Port Townsend to photograph boats. It seemed like a fun activity to get involved with. I got to see other’s views of the city. Got to take some photos, myself.

Light on the Rhody

This is our native rhododendron, Rhododendron macrophyllum. The photo was taken in Fort Townsend State Park. As the actual name of the plant is a mouthful, most of us just call them rhodys. The week marks the 77th annual Rhododendron Festival, Port Townsend’s biggest event.

The Pacific Rhododendron grows native on the west coast from B.C. to California. It’s the Washington state flower and the flower after which the festival was named.

Click photo for larger view.

You've been a bad cart. Go stand in the corner

I have a new camera and I was trying out some of its “creative modes”. This is high contrast black and white. Since I’ve never used this type of feature before, I was pleasantly surprised by the effect. While the stark nature of the photo is not appropriate for a lot of subjects, it does lend a certain mood to this one.

Click photo for larger view.

Nature's candles

I don’t apologize for the visual pun. When I saw the evening light shine on this bundle of pine candles, the photo title popped into my head, even before I took the shot. According to the article Wikipedia on pines:

The new spring shoots are sometimes called “candles”; they are covered in brown or whitish bud scales and point upward at first, then later turn green and spread outward. These “candles” offer foresters a means to evaluate fertility of the soil and vigour of the trees.

The garden is in

Well, most of our community garden is in. Planting has to be staggered because we’ve not had much warm weather and because different plants have different growing periods.

Community gardens are a big movement in the Port Townsend area. I think there are about two dozen. These are not pea patches, where each person has a plot to plant. Rather, we share in the planting and harvesting of everything. It’s a great community building type of project and it yields fresh produce. Not a bad extra benefit.

Click photo for larger view.

Early morning at Kah Tai

Dawn comes at about 5:30 this time of year. Sometimes I wake up with the light and can’t get back to sleep. This time I decided to just go with the flow. I  grabbed the camera and headed down to Kah Tai Nature Lagoon to catch the first light of the sun as it popped up over Morgan Hill.

Click photo for larger view.

Herd of elk?

Just east of Sequim, WA, about 30 miles from Port Townsend there is a sign: Elk X-ing. In the 20 + years I’ve lived here I’ve never seen any elk near the sign, that is until today.

I noticed what I first thought was a herd of deer, then did a double take. Roosevelt elk were grazing in a field. These animals are much larger than our local deer. They are the largest North American sub-species of elk.

I pointed the animals out to K.  She said, “go back.” I made the first possible turn around on US 101 to return for a photo. I couldn’t get close and the camera was pointing into the sun, so the shot isn’t what I’d have liked. No matter.

If you look at the elk closest on the right, you’ll notice that it’s wearing a blue collar. There were at least three elk wearing collars. Apparently, that is a radio transmitter that activates the flashing lights on the Elk X-ing road sign.

Click photos for larger views.