Sara’s Fave Photos

We went to Salty’s Restaurant at Alki at my favorite time of day. The weather was unusually clear and lovely, and the view couldn’t have been more perfect.

For more skies around the world, visit Skywatch Friday.

Today I saw rainbows in three locations as I drove around and did errands. You’ve gotta be quick with rainbows; they just won’t wait for you. So while I was driving down this alley in downtown Burien, I stopped the car, leaned my head out the window, and took the shot. I actually like it, even though this type of urban shot isn’t my usual thing. Gotta love rainbows.

Visit Thursday Challenge for more Sky photos, and/or visit Skywatch Friday for even more skies around the world!

I got a lot of mileage out of that one sunny half-hour walk the other day. Here’s a nice winter shadow shot for you. Visit Shadow Shot Sunday for more interesting penumbras. And it’s SOOC, or straight out of the camera, also.

Here’s a scene from a perfect day last September. I just loved the way the home was surrounded by greenery and even reflected it in the windows. That light color in the middle window is the trunk of a huge tree.

For more windows and doors, visit Window Views, and for more reflections, visit Weekend Reflections.

This is one of my top faves, from the archives, from when I used to live in Sonoma County, CA, which is about an hour or so north of San Francisco. I came across it and thought I might have taken it at about this time of year, or maybe March. Those huge live oaks are so dramatic when they are bare. Sure gives you that changing weather feeling of early spring.

Visit Scenic Sunday for some lovely views of the world. And this sure is a great shadow shot for Shadow Shot Sunday.

Since this is one of my all-time favorites, I’m tagging it Best Post of the Week.

Also, I’ve fixed the little problem with comments not being available when you click on a category to the left. Now comments are available whenever you click on a page (or should be). Thank you, Marsha Perry of Perry Internet Consulting! She made this blog on a Wordpress template for me, and I am so grateful. What a great addition to my life.

I know Christmas is over, but just one more photo of lights, and then I promise I’ll stop. My new camera, the Canon S90, is especially good in low light so I had to see what it could do handheld with holiday lights. This fired at 1/60th of a second, which is great for a night shot, even one with lights.

I truly love this candycane archway and would love to have something like it. It was very tall, and felt so cheerful and welcoming. Where do people get stuff like this?

For more photos with some ruby redness, visit Ruby Tuesday.

These were taken a couple of years ago in the town of Redondo, south of Des Moines, half an hour or so south of Seattle. This one street just goes all out, collecting food for a food bank and everything. I love the lights. Nothing makes me feel like an enchanted child like Christmas lights sparkling in the nighttime.

You can see more Window and Doors here, and have a very merry time doing so. Try Color Carnival for more brilliant colors, too.

Today is the final day for voting on the Photoblog Awards for 2009. If you like the photos on this blog, please vote for it today by clicking in the link below. You have to register (name and password only) and then click on the word Vote in the upper left. Thanks very much! Photoblog Awards 2009.

Just a few days ago, this view of Seattle (see the Space Needle over on the left?) was taken from the Viaduct going into the city, late in the afternoon. They’re going to tear it down due to earthquake concerns and build a tunnel, they say. Safety is good, but I’ll sure miss the incredible views.

Visit Scenic Sunday for more sunny wonderfulness.

And just a few more days of Photoblog Awards stuff: PLEASE IGNORE IF READ BEFORE about the 2009 Photoblog Awards. If you like my photos, please vote for this photoblog before Dec. 15 and leave a comment in the link  below. You have to register (name and password only) and then click on the word Vote in the upper left. Thanks very much! Photoblog Awards 2009.

Here I am in front of the Sahara Hotel. I like that the door handles are my initial. I know this is a goofy picture, but I like it.

For more (and probably better) reflections, visit Weekend Reflections. And SOOC will have more straight-out-of-the-camera shots. Check out Window Views for more windows and doors.

PLEASE IGNORE IF READ BEFORE about the 2009 Photoblog Awards. If you like my photos, please vote for this photoblog before Dec. 15 and leave a comment in the link  below. You have to register (name and password only) and then click on the word Vote in the upper left. Thanks very much! Photoblog Awards 2009

I did crop this a tiny bit to remove some distracting cars from the lower edge, but otherwise it’s SOOC, or straight out of the camera. It’s from a couple of weeks ago when we went to Portland, Oregon, and I bet those red leaves are history already.

For more interesting skies around the world, visit Skywatch Friday. And visit Scenic Sunday as well, if you can. Well worth it.

PLEASE IGNORE IF READ BEFORE about the 2009 Photoblog Awards. If you like my photos, please vote for this photoblog before Dec. 15 and leave a comment in the link  below. You have to register (name and password only) and then click on the word Vote in the upper left. Thanks very much! Photoblog Awards 2009

Blessed sunshine! This is a rare sunny view of Seattle as you drive north on the Viaduct. Such a wonderful confabulation of building styles and eras. The tall one in the middle is called by some the Jukebox building, and the one below it the Deoderant building. Not very respectful, but descriptive.

Perhaps you’d like to visit Window Views for more interesting doors and window photos. This shot is also SOOC, or straight out of the camera. (But I sure deleted a lot from that group!)

PLEASE IGNORE IF READ BEFORE about the 2009 Photoblog Awards. If you like my photos, please vote for this photoblog before Dec. 15 and leave a comment in the link  below. You have to register (name and password only) and then click on the word Vote in the upper left. Thanks very much! Photoblog Awards 2009

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Here’s a photo for the Thursday Challenge of the idea of energy. Las Vegas is sure a great place to see that in use, and lots of it. This Eiffel Tower may not be as big as the real thing, but I’d hate to pay that electric bill.

PLEASE IGNORE IF READ BEFORE about the 2009 Photoblog Awards. If you like my photos, please vote for this photoblog before Dec. 15 and leave a comment in the link  below. You have to register (name and password only) and then click on the word Vote in the upper left. Thanks very much! Photoblog Awards 2009

In Las Vegas it’s all about the night, even in the daytime. This chandelier, maybe ten feet (3 meters) or so wide, is dwarfed by the arch of lights near it. Taken in the Sahara hotel, on the north end of the Strip.

This is a SOOC (straight out of the camera) goody, too.

No trip to Las Vegas would be complete without a visit to the dancing watery fountains of the Bellagio hotel. This view of its resting state was so pretty that I thought I’d show it off for Watery Wednesday. A special note about the experience is that the strange but wonderful moisture in the air, after all that desert dryness elsewhere, is so appreciated.

For more interesting windows, visit Window and Door Views.

PLEASE IGNORE IF READ BEFORE: I’m repeating this info about the 2009 Photoblog Awards. If you like my photos, please vote for this photoblog and leave a comment in the link  below. You have to register (name and password only) and then click on the word Vote in the upper left. Thanks very much! Photoblog Awards 2009

I was in Las Vegas for a conference last week. What a place! The land of glitter and excess, a little strange out there in the desert, but some lovely photo opportunities nevertheless. Here is a chandelier, maybe eight or ten feet across (3 meters), reflected in the mirrors all around it. The best part is that it was just at the entrance to the monorail station. Vegas is amazing!

For more reflections, visit Weekend Reflections. And SOOC for more straight out of the camera images.

I know it’s a little late, but had to share our neighbors’ Halloween display for Ruby Tuesday (go there for more ruby redness). There actually were even more spiders spread around their front yard. It was a truly creepy effect. I loved it! And visit Window and Door Wednesday for more interesting window views.

PLEASE IGNORE IF READ BEFORE: Readers arrive on different days, so I’m repeating about the 2009 Photoblog Awards. If you like my photos, please vote for me and/or leave a comment in the link  below. You have to register (name and password only) and then click on the word Vote in the upper left. Thanks very much! Photoblog Awards 2009

There are a few dahlias left, not  many, and as we move to winter, they are so appreciated. I like the bamboo reflected in the window here, in back of my house. Doesn’t the new paint color look good? It was a dark brown before.

For more pink visions, visit Pink Saturday. And check out Weekend Reflections, too. Try Window Wednesday, too, even though it’s not the right day.

PLEASE IGNORE IF READ BEFORE: Readers arrive on different days, so I’m repeating about the 2009 Photoblog Awards. If you like my photos, please vote for me and/or leave a comment in the link  below. You have to register (name and password only) and then click on the word Vote in the upper left. Thanks very much!

Photoblog Awards 2009

Here is how Seattle looked not that long ago as I approached it from the south. Happy Skywatch Friday!

I’ve entered the 2009 Photoblog Awards. If you like my photos, please vote for me (by leaving a comment? by clicking on the word Vote at upper left?) here:

http://vote.photoblogawards.com/photoblog.php?name=saras-fave-photos

Driving home from a meeting, still in the parking lot, I looked up and there was a photo, practically like Arizona, somehow. I’ve been totally loving the blue, blue skies we’ve had this year. In my six years in the Seattle area, this far and away the sunniest weather we’ve had. I feel so lucky.

Visit Skywatch Friday for other fabulous local skies. And don’t forget to look up!

I’m trying out a new meme, Window Wednesday. Here’s a photo of Seattle last month that I like a lot, and I hope you do, too.

Here’s a shadow shot for you today. The weather continues, amazingly, to be mostly warm and sunny here in Seattle, even well past Labor Day. It’s supposed to be over 80 later this week! Hope you are enjoying your own weather, getting outside and breathing deep, wherever you are.

Visit Shadow Shot Sunday for more fascinating shadow visions.

Here in Seattle a sunny sky is a serious thrill. This is from a few days ago, travelling north on the Viaduct. I know it’s not right to hold up the camera and take a photo (or, ahem, more than one) but as you can see, traffic was nowhere near. And the windshield was pretty clean, so what else could I do?

The tall black building is the Columbia Tower, whose 75th floor has been the source of the view of a couple of photos in this blog. In front of it is an oldie, Smith Tower. To the right you can see part of Qwest Field. Just beyond the railing to your left, not visible, is Puget Sound and the ferries and giant cranes of the harbor, but that’s for another photo.

Happy Skywatch Friday, everyone!

Oh, the last sunny days of summer. Maybe this year will be different, but many years in Seattle it turns cloudy and rainy at the beginning of September and just doesn’t seem to quit until July of the following year.

Here’s a shot of downtown Seattle taken a couple of days ago, in the late afternoon. Visit Shadow Shot Sunday for more kinds of shadows everywhere.

And here’s a link for those who love memes. This site has a list of more memes than you can believe! I’m gonna have to try me some new ones. In my spare time.

http://thehousethatlovebuilt.xanga.com/710713477/theme-days-for-august–/

Something different for photo meme of all things red, Ruby Tuesday. These are glass scuptures, probably by Tacoma native son Dale Chihuly, high up over the old wooden bar. As a person who has lived for a long time in earthquake-prone California, I sure hope they are secured well.

Browsing through the archives, looking for a good sky photo (it’s been gray lately) I found this one. It was taken on a very cold January day, but the sky was so brilliant! Happy Skywatch Friday to all.