Category Archives: Puget Sound

Winter is just ducky

I love ducks. The types of ducks around here vary by the season. American widgeons and goldeneye are two species that winter here in the not-so-sunny Puget Sound region. The mallards are around all year.

It’s fun to watch the ducks. The goldeneye are diving ducks that fish together in groups.

For Denzil Nature Photo Challenge.

Nothing but blue skies…

…At least for now. They are predicting snow later today.

This is a a follow up to the Winter Storm Watch post. Here is approximately the same view this morning.

Early morning skies: View from Cedarhurst on Vashon Island across Colvos Passage on Puget Sound toward the west.

In the above photo you can just see the top of the mountain I mentioned in that post, Mount Constance. Zooming in you can see the snow from the storm:

Mount Constance in the Olympic Mountains of Washington state peeking over the Kitsap Peninsula.

A reminder of the cloud break up that the mountains cause (you can also see how the water is affected by the neutral density filter)

The same view as a winter storm blew  in.

For Hammad Rais’s Weekend Sky challenge.

Keep warm and safe!

Winter storm watch

The clouds were moving consistently from south to north (left to right in the photos). I believe that the consistent shape break up is due to the Olympic Mountains, which arise pretty much straight out from the edge of the bulk head.

I set my camera up on a tripod as the first bank of clouds arrived, put on neutral density filters (CPL plus a six stop), set the aperture set at F/16, and ISO at 64. Then I took the above sequence of photos between 4:00pm and 6:25pm. The length of the exposures varied depending on the ambient light but generally went from about 5 seconds for the first shot, at about 4:00pm to 10 for the last one, which was during twilight.

For Wordless Wednesday and Hammad Rais’s Weekend Sky

Mid-week monochrome skies

Mid-week monochrome seems like a perfect description of today’s skies. I took a couple of pictures while we were getting on the ferry and was curious to see how much difference switching to black and white would make

Ferry leaving the north end of Vashon Island.
Color
Same photo as above with GIMP's desaturate HSV filter applied.
Simple desaturation

Then I played with a more elaborate black and treatment:

Dramatic treatment using Nik

Looking in another direction.

Looking north-northwest from the Fauntleroy ferry dock in Seattle
Color
Same photo desaturated using the GIMP's desaturate with the luma method.
Simple desaturation

A more dramatic treatment using the Nik Silver Effects pro

Dramatic black and white

Since we had thunderstorms and a lot of rain the more dramatic black and white seem to suit the feel of the day. But my eyes did not deceive me: there isn’t a whole lot of difference between the color image and one that is simply desaturated.

A little later we got a little more light (and the power came back on!).

Skies over Fern Cove on Vashon Island.
Color
Same photo desaturated using the GIMP's built-in desaturate value method.
Simple desaturation
Same photo using the Nik Collection's Silver Effects Pro.
Dramatic treatment using the Nik Silver Effects Pro program.

For Brashley Photography’s Mid-week Monochrome.