Visit with Malena

 So great to get to see our good friend Malena from Trujillo Peru this afternoon.

 We met at her friend Mirella's house and had a lovely time with Mirella and Mark. We all had dinner together at the Outback Steakhouse. Desert was a really yummy tiramisu that Mark made. He is an excellent cook. Malena hasn't changed a bit since we last saw her in 2007.

Mirella, Mark, Ann, Malena and Arvin

Trip to SAM to see Gauguin

We traveled with a group by train from Bellingham to Seattle 

We walked from the train station through Pioneer Square to the Seattle Art Museum

We ate lunch at Taste, the restaurant at the museum, then went in to see the Gauguin exhibit. I loved the exhibit, especially a set of woodcuts he made for a book that was never published. I couldn't take any photos of the Gauguin exhibit but took a few of other exhibits at SAM.

Afterwards, Jacqui, Vikki, Arvin and I walked a bit to get coffee and then took in an exhibit at a glass museum across the street from SAM. Then we went to Pike Place Market for a snack before we went back to catch the 6:20 train back to Bellingham.

Family Photos from our Trip

 Steve

 Jennifer and Bailey

 Emmett and Bailey

 Steve and Dawg

High Dynamic Range

I read a book about my camera on the plane as we flew to Nevada. I discovered I could set it to take seven pictures in a row, fast, changing the exposure from two stops under to two stops over in 2/3 stop intervals. These photos could then be combined to increase the dynamic range using Photoshop CS5 or another processor. So I took a bunch of sets of seven photos to play with when I got home. Here are some of the results. I have more coming but thought I'd share the ones I've done so far. They can be done "realistically" or more "surrealistically". Most of mine so far lean toward realism. But I'm beginning to explore moving further.

The Real

 

The Surreal