Bellingham Experiments

I haven't been posting very often lately, and you may have assumed that I've been sitting on my haunches, neglecting to explore the outdoors. Not so! My laziness pertains much more to computer work (like my blog) than to actual outdoor activity. This post will look at some of the pictures I've been taking recently in and around Bellingham.

This first is probably my favorite. The view is of the Nooksack River from Hovander Homestead Park, near Ferndale, just after sunset. The air was actually quite breezy, making this a difficult shot to do well (not only did the breeze make it hard to get the grass blades sharp, but it kept rearranging them, sometimes in arrangements more or less attractive than others). I used f/6.3 to isolate the grass blades while still keeping a bit of detail in the river background.

Next, from the same location, is a clover flower. I liked the way the evening light was falling on it. The background is maybe a bit messy at f/4.5, but I've done worse. I wish now that I had tried a wider aperture, but I didn't really want to lose any more detail in the flower itself.

In the next one, I liked how the evening light was shafting down the river bank. I used f/6.3 to isolate the purple flowers in the foreground.

This one uses a long shutter speed (2 seconds) to blur the grass and the river; the tree is still sharp. I don't know if it's that interesting of a composition...but it was something to try, at least.

The next one comes to you courtesy of the Connelly Creek Nature Trail in Bellingham. I had seen this clump of Indian Plum on an earlier walk, and returned to photograph them. My first attempt, using a straight-on perspective, was rather bland and uninspiring. So I got behind and beneath them, and the result was at least more interesting (haven't decided yet if I like it or not). I used f/3.3, because I wanted to maximize my isolation of the berries, and make the bokeh as circular as possible.

Finally, a couple pictures from Larrabee State Park. I wanted to set the sunset against the park's cool rock formations. I am probably going to try this first one again sometime, because I like the composition, but the contrast is too high. When I try it again, I'm going to use flash (I would have the first time, but the doggone batteries were dead!). I used f/9; I wanted to get good depth of field but stopping down any further would have increased my risk of lens flare.

Lastly, from the same location, comes some gumweed juxtaposed against the park's cool rocks and the water. I only stopped down to f/11; I would have stopped down further, to get a wider depth of field, but it was very windy and I couldn't sacrifice any more shutter speed. So the very back is a bit out of focus.