Archive for November, 2009
Santa Claus took a little time out of his busy schedule to come into the studio for a fresh portrait a little while back. While he and Mrs. Claus were in, we talked a bit about some of the questions that children frequently ask him. He was gracious to share his answers.
Q: What does Santa do when a house does not have a chimney or there is a fire burning in the fire place?
SC: I use a little magic and make one!
Q: Does Rudolph always lead the sleigh?
SC: Yes! His nose is bright and can light up any sky!
Q: How do the reindeer fly?
SC: Magic reindeer feed!
Q: Why can’t I ever see Santa or his elves?
SC: The elves are very magical and fast! If you’re very good, you might catch a glimpse of an elf!
Q: How do I become an elf?
SC: Stay in school, get good grades and then – who knows!
Q: How does Santa’s sleigh make it around the world in one day?
SC: A little hard work and planning, a touch of magic and the reindeer of course!
Q: How does Santa know whether I have been naughty or nice?
SC: I get a fax every morning!
Q: What kind of snack does Santa like left out for him?
SC: Cookies! Chocolate chip are a favorite, but I will try anything left out! The reindeer like carrots and sugar beets the best!
Q: How many reindeer are in the North Pole?
SC: Lots & lots! Santa has way too many to count!
Q: What are the names of Santa’s reindeer?
SC: Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen, and of course Rudolph. There are many more Chet, Bailey, Dibbz, Baxter, but not enough time to list them all.
Q: What do Santa and Mrs. Claus do during the spring and summer?
SC: I like to take Mrs. Claus out and see the world and spend a week in the sun! Just one week though, lots of toys to make!
Q: Why doesn’t Santa always bring me what I asked for?
SC: Thanks to the elves, I know what you ask for, but I also know your parents and use their judgment, what you have room for and take all that into consideration. You may not have room for the pony you asked for!
Q: Why does Santa Claus climb down the chimney?
SC: It would be better than falling!
Q: Why don’t you come every day of the year?
SC: It takes a whole year to get ready for the next Christmas!
Q: Do you have a red-nosed reindeer?
SC: Yes, Rudolph!
Q: Is there a real Rudolph?
SC: Yes!
Q: How many cookies do you eat?
SC: Lots & lots! Way to many to count!
Q: How many kids do you deliver to?
SC: Billions! Big kids, little kids, all kids!
Q: Has Santa ever missed a year?
SC: No! Never missed a Christmas yet! There a lots of practice and planning that go into Christmas eve to make sure nothing goes wrong!
Q: Do you get the flu?
SC: I did once, June of 1956 I think. Mrs. Claus keeps me very healthy and makes me and all the elves get flu shots!
Q: Do you really live at the North Pole? I thought it was all ice up there and dark all winter long.
SC: Yes, but I do take vacations. The place is always decorated with plenty of festive lights, and Mrs. Claus’s cheerful face always keeps me in high spirits, and her cookies!
Q: Why does Santa Claus give toys to children?
SC:I give toys to all good boys & girls! I enjoy putting smiles on their faces!
Q: Why does Santa Claus wear red?
SC: Mrs. Claus made the suit the very first day I started delivering toys and red is a very cheerful color and I stand out from the other grownups!
Q: Why doesn’t Santa grow old and die like other people?
SC: I was once a mortal man, but because of all my kindness to all the good boys & girls, I was given the gift of immortality or Christmas spirit to continue my work every Christmas eve!
Q: How do you remember who wants what?
SC: An in-dash computer system with speech to let me know what house to get to next and the list of goodies to be left under the tree!
Q: Does Santa’s sleigh have air-bags, navigation or in-sleigh stereo?
SC: No need for air bags, the reindeer are very skilled in landings! Navigation has been computerized in the last few years to help plot a faster route to all the houses! And yes, a stereo is a must! Christmas carols are the preferred choice!
Q: Can children from the Muslim, Buddhist, Jewish, or other faiths be visited by Santa?
SC: I’m known in many cultures by many different names, so yes children all over the world will be visited by me!
So there you have it, straight from Santa himself. He’ll be at Bellingham’s Holiday Port Festival next weekend to listen to children’s wishes and pose for photos with them. Hours are 4-8 pm Friday, December 4; 1-5 pm Saturday, December 5; and 1-4:30 pm Sunday, December 6. Look for Santa just inside the Bellingham Cruise Terminal.
I’ll be there too, photographing the kids with Santa. Photo packages begin at just $20. While you’re there, enjoy the holiday music and check out all the gingerbread houses entered in this year’s contest.
November 29 2009 | Human Nature and Photography and Portraits | 2 Comments »
More than a month ago my gardening friend Dawn called and asked me to photograph her son’s senior portrait. We talked about locations and decided that their extensive property in southern Skagit County would be a good place. Chris is an outdoors guy, an athlete, and a pianist. As is often the case with active high school seniors, finding a time that fit his schedule was a challenge. We ended up with an October Sunday morning session under cloudy skies.
It was actually raining when I arrived, so we started with a few interior shots with Chris at the piano. He wasn’t too keen on those, but we wanted to make mom happy. When the rain stopped we moved outside and began working our way around the garden.
We shot under the grape arbor, among the structural ornamental grasses, and around a contemporary sculpture. We did standing and seated poses and tried kneeling but Chris had a football injury from Saturday’s game and it hurt to kneel. Painful grimaces don’t make good portraits.
This portrait is in the apple orchard. At first I had Chris leaning on the tree, and looking through the crotch of the V-shaped trunk. Then I asked Chris if he had any other ideas and he immediately climbed up in the tree. He’s pretty tall, so fitting him into the tree was almost a challenge. I guessed that he’d been climbing the tree since he was little.
Chris had an easy smile and we had a good time working together to create a wide range of poses in locations throughout the property. I knew the family would probably only purchase one portrait at the end, but I like to provide many concepts to choose from.
This portrait of Chris at the edge of the woods is the one everyone ultimately liked the best and ordered as a small wall portrait. He looks relaxed and comfortable, and the golden yellow autumn foliage contrasts nicely with the blue sweater and jeans.
The overcast sky served as a giant softbox. I added a single off-camera flash as fill and to give a little dimension to the light in this portrait and in many of the others I made that morning. I shot with the Canon 1Ds Mk II, a 24-105 and a 70-200 lens. The fall color in the garden and the adjacent woods made a nice setting.
All in all, we worked for a couple of hours. When Chris and his folks came in for their viewing and purchase session earlier this week (they were out of the country in between) there were many portraits that they liked a lot. I showed more choices than I often do, but they were pretty quick to make decisions as I projected the portraits. Finished portraits will be back from the lab after Thanksgiving and will look great in their home.
Here’s a video with more of the session:
If you like what you see and would like to explore having me create your senior portraits when the days get a little longer and the weather more dependable please send an e-mail or pick up the phone and call. You can use the Contact page on the menu at the left, too.
November 24 2009 | Photography and Portraits | No Comments »
A little over ten years ago this stretch of Whatcom Creek through Bellingham burned when gasoline spilled from the Olympic Pipeline in Whatcom Falls Park a couple of miles upstream. It was a major tragedy in which three young people died and beautiful shady woodland habitat along the creek was destroyed. But this section of creek didn’t have much going for it at that time. It was channelized with rock riprap and a weedy field of fill dirt came up to the edge of the blackberry-choked creek.
In 2008 Bellingham initiated a major stream improvement project here and constructed a new trail along the south side of the creek. Designed to reduce flooding on nearby Iowa Street and provide backwater spawning habitat for salmon, 30,000 cubic yards of fill dirt were removed. The slope was graded, native trees and shrubs were planted, and snags were pounded into the ground.
Today, a group of us from the Koma Kulshan chapter of the Washington Native Plant Society toured the area to see the results of the restoration as well as an older planting upstream.
Vikki Jackson was our tour leader. She’s seen here explaining about an older man-made wetland pond constructed several years ago to provide wildlife habitat.
We looked at what species had been planted and discussed the engineering that went into the new wetlands and spawning channels along the creek. The water was running high from our November storms, so we could easily see how engineered log jams were diverting some of the stream flow into the side channels and away from the businesses along Iowa Street on the north bank. Most of the plantings were shrubs like ninebark, red-osier dogwood, hardhack, and snowberry, with some salal and kinnickinick closer to the trail. There were a few maples and a fair number of conifers like Douglas-fir and western red cedar. What we found striking in their absence were red alders and black cottonwoods. Both are early successional trees and alders in particular improve the soil by adding nitrogen.
Overall, we were impressed with the work at Red Tail Reach and look forward to watching what grows, what dies, and how the environment changes in the coming years.
Upstream of the Fraser Street connector trail the restoration has been in place for about nine years. The shrub layer is maturing nicely and the conifers are about 15 feet tall. We mostly agreed that jump starting the mature conifer forest along the creek was a good plan here. There is no nearby seed source, so it would have taken a long time for any Douglas-firs or cedars to get started. Not all the original trees along the creek had burned and we saw a couple of clumps of large cottonwoods.
Among the trees planted were Sitka spruces and some of them had these clumps of brown foliage that Lyle is examining in the photo above. Is this damage from Spruce Needle Miner, Endothenia albolineana, or something else? Whatever caused the damage seemed to only attack new foliage. Here’s a detail:
I’m certainly not an expert in plant diseases nor insect damage. There are aphids that feed on spruces as well as some fungal diseases, but results of my limited Google search suggested that neither of these were the likely culprit because they mostly attack older foliage and this damage appears to be limited to new needles.
After I originally posted this a friend e-mailed that the brown cone-like lump is most likely a Cooley Spruce Gall, produced by Cooley spruce gall adelgids, Adelges cooleyi. The galls are unsightly on spruces, but apparently do little long-term damage to the trees. The aldegids have a complex life cycle which includes Douglas-fir as an alternate host. See Cooley Spruce Galls from Colorado State University Extension for more info.
Our outing included spying a few flowers in bloom, mostly non-native weeds. But this little beach strawberry,
Fragaria chiloensis was blooming at the base of a south-facing rock protecting a storm sewer outlet channel from erosion. It was struggling to compete with invasive Himalayan blackberries that you can see around the strawberry.
Today’s photos were all made with my pocket camera, a Canon S70.
We’ve had three weeks of heavy rain, high winds, and generally typical November weather. Does the sighting of the first strawberry blooming mean that spring has arrived? You be the judge, but I’m hopeful.
November 21 2009 | Bellingham and Native Plants | 4 Comments »
Do you dream in color or shades of brown? How do you remember places you’ve visited? Did you grow up with black & white TV and add color in your mind?
Here in western Washington, the monochromatic season is upon us. The contrast is much more dramatic than the seasonal changes in eastern Washington where this photo was made last June. On the dry side of the Cascades the green season is very short, only a month or two, and the brown season lasts the rest of the year. I’ve accentuated it a bit in this image.
While I don’t want to live on the dry side of the mountains, I enjoy spending time over there. The diversity of plant life is greater than in our dense forests. As I understand it, that’s mostly due to the more challenging environment. In this desert environment plants are spread out farther from one another so their extensive root systems can pull up enough water.
The flower blooming here, seen in false color, is Columbia Cutleaf (Hymenopappus filifolius). It’s a composite that grows on the nearly pure sand found along the Columbia River.
The original photo is below.
Both versions were processed in Adobe Lightroom from an original shot with a Canon 1Ds Mk II and a 24-105mm lens at 28mm. I can’t remember for sure, but I think I was using a polarizing filter that day to increase the contrast in the sky and cut reflections on the foliage. The location is about a mile or two south of the Vantage I-90 bridge and is one of my favorite places along the river because of the high diversity of plants there in the spring.
November 17 2009 | Native Plants and Photography | No Comments »
What a day! And what a difference a month makes. Compare this photo with the one from October 12.
I was sitting happily captioning photos this morning when I looked out the window and saw that the sky was a stunningly clear blue. I stepped out to the side yard where I can see Mt. Baker and it was clear all the way to the top of the mountain. Much too nice to stay inside so I gathered my gear, made lunch, changed into winter hiking clothes, and headed up Mt. Baker Highway to the end of the road at the Mt. Baker Ski Area. One little glitch along the way. I forgot my wallet at home, realized it when I stopped for gas in Deming, and had to return to Bellingham for it.
I didn’t get to the ski area parking lot, which was full, until almost 12:30. That was OK since I wanted afternoon light. But it wasn’t OK, because I was racing the clouds that had started to roll in.
I strapped on my snowshoes and headed up toward Artist Point, initially following the groomed ski runs until I got to the top of Blueberry. There I passed the “entering wilderness if you have a problem tough luck” sign as I left the ski area and entered the backcountry. I wasn’t particularly concerned about avalanche danger even though we’d just gotten a ton of fresh soft snow. I continued up to Austin Pass where I stopped to make the photo at the top of the post.
From Austin I climbed up a steep boot and ski track that mostly followed the summertime Wild Goose Trail. It’s the short, steep, and fast way up. The snow was soft and deep so I was glad not to be breaking trail. I made the photo on the right soon after topping out from the steep climb. The ski tracks looked to be from yesterday as they’d started to fill in.
I don’t know just what made these tracks zig zagging across the snow. Could have been a meadow vole or other small rodent that dens under the snow. There were several sets of tracks similar to these in the snow just below Artist Point. I particularly liked this set of tracks because of the way they curved around. What distracted the critter from a straight path?
By this point there were fewer people around since most folks out today were sking or boarding inbounds at the ski area. Just a few hardy soles made the hike for some fresh tracks below Table Mountain. I was sinking nearly to my knees wearing snowshoes. The Artist Point outhouse was buried in snow deeper than the top of the doors. Within a couple of weeks it’s likely to be completely buried as it is every winter. The official snow report was 72 inches on top of Pan Dome and Artist Point is higher so there was probably more snow up there.
Clouds were by now starting to roll in from the south and west. Mt. Baker was obscured and Shuksan was in and out. I had planned to continue out the ridge to Huntoon Point, wanting to photograph Shuksan from my favorite tarn just below the point. But with the thick clouds and no trail through the deep snow I decided Artist Point was a good destination for today.
I broke trail the short distance to the overlook toward Swift Creek and Baker Lake. Clouds obscured the lake as well as Mt. Baker, but the snow crusted on the Mountain Hemlocks along the ridge created more accessible drama. I ate my peanut butter sandwich under this tree, admiring the way the wind had blasted the snow into the branches, almost completely hiding the foliage.
I’ve been up to this spot many times over the past 19 years and most of the time on winter visits the trees look much like this. The branches are short and stubby, hanging down to shed some of their snow load. I think this effect is caused by the relatively wet snow we receive in combination with the prevailing southwest wind. We call it the pineapple express, but I don’t think this tortured lollypop of a tree looks anything like a pineapple. A popsicle, maybe.
Hopefully this is just the first of many days I’ll be out playing in the snow this winter.
In case you’re wondering, I shot all of these with my Canon 1Ds Mk II, handheld for a change with the 24-105mm IS lens. The two of the tracks are pretty much straight from the camera, but the view of Shuksan and the Hemlock have been manipulated in Lightroom.
November 12 2009 | Fitness and Mountains and Photography | 4 Comments »
