After having some success with newborn photos, we decided to try some family photos as well. Thankfully my parents were in town so I didn’t have to use a tripod for each picture.
Scherschel BBQ
Tim and Chelsea hosted a barbeque at their house on Friday for our family. It was our first social outing with Elijah and it went pretty well. The food and company were both wonderful. I wish we could have stayed to enjoy the fire pit but we had to call it a night and head home. Thanks to Tim and Chelsea for having us all over!
Emeline and David were fun targets for my camera and I got a couple fun photos:
Pregnancy Photos
Tyla and I have attempted a few home photo sessions to capture her big beautiful belly. You might have seen some of them on Facebook, but I thought I’d post them here too. The due date is less than 3 weeks away!
Seafair 2012
Every year Seattle hosts a multi-week event called Seafair. Navy ships come into port, there’s a large airshow including the Blue Angels, and the hydroplane boats race. This year I got the pleasure of watching the Blue Angels twice.
On Friday, my division at work rented out two of the Argosy boats. I was on the Royal Argosy (the one that hosted our wedding reception) with camera in hand. The Blue Angels fly up and down Lake Washington, so being out in a boat is a very unique way to watch the show. They seem to pass within arms reach.
On Saturday as part of Tyla’s birthday weekend extravaganza, I surprised her with tickets to Seafair. We usually just watch from a park or somewhere free, but this year we had reserved parking and two reserved seats in the grandstands. It was well worth the price as we got to enjoy the whole airshow (not just the Blue Angels) and it was all taking place right in front of us with commentary over the loudspeakers. In between flying acts, we got to watch the incredible hydroplane races up close and personal.
I almost didn’t get any pictures on Saturday though. We walked the mile from our car to our seats and I pulled out my camera for the first shot. I depressed the shutter button, but nothing happened. It immediately dawned on me that I had left the battery in the car. AUGH! I decided it was worth the effort to go get it so I handed Tyla the camera and most of the stuff in my pockets and ran to the car and back. It was 90 degrees that day and I don’t run, so by the time I got back, I was a ball of sweat.
I’m so happy that I ran back though because I got some good pictures. A few of my favorites from both days are posted below but you can see more in the photo gallery. I know that photo gallery isn’t awesome, so I’ve also posted some of the better ones on Flickr. If you want full resolution copies of any of these, please let me know.
Tulip Festival
The Skagit Valley Tulip Festival is a pretty big shin dig in these parts. Imagine 100,000 of your closest friends driving up I-5 and then getting off on some tiny exit to sit in traffic in fields. Usually Tyla and I head up there on the motorcycle with ~100 other riders for the annual Tulip Ride, but we missed it this year because it fell on our one year anniversary. So this year we headed up there with Tim and Chelsea and had a blast! When we’re there on the bikes, we’re going on a prearranged date and we have a schedule to stick to. This time we waited for a glorious sunny day and took our time.
While I’ve seen the fields before and it’s not really anything new, I was very excited to take the camera out for a spin. I still wonder how many spectacular pictures I’m missing, but I do feel like I’m getting a few more keepers as the weeks go on.
You can view them in the photo gallery under Tulip Festival. The six newest photos are from this trip. I’ll spoil the surprise and add my favorite one to this post, but head into the photo gallery to see the rest.
PS. If you have an eye for photography and have suggestions about how I could have improved any of these photos, please let me know! Don’t worry about offending me. Whether it’s bad composition, post-processing, or anything else, I want to know!