Blog, Photo Wednesday, Wanderings

Lion’s Mane Jellyfish, on the Dry – Photo Wednesday

Today’s picture is from my old files of things that live around here…

During a walk on the beach at low tide in the summertime, quite a few lion’s mane jellyfish were trapped at low tide, and dried up.  Some of them can be quite sizable, and if you try to lift them (not with your hands, but with a stick, say, or a paddle if you are in a kayak), you find out how heavy these creatures are…

This one was high up on the beach, blown there by wind and wave action, dead and drying up. It looked like a fine glass object. Abstract art. I am guessing that this is the pattern of what passes for “muscles” in a jelly.
Lions Mane Jelly Dry WL

Blog

Hawk Visits

Not only are the eagles back from their salmon feast at the mouths of various rivers… but we have also seen a few hawks, who are visiting our neck of the woods.

Red-tailed Hawk Juvenile

About a week ago, I saw this young hawk, hanging on to the perch tree out front, on a very windy day. I think it’s a juvenile red-tailed hawk (buteo jamaicensis). But I could be wrong.

Red-tailed hawk November 2014

Then, two days ago, we noticed an adult, perched in the big fir on the bluff, over the water, checking out the snack possibilities.

Maybe they are related…

Red-tailed hawks are often perched on the light standards of Pat Bay Highway, between Sidney and Victoria. On one particular trip, I counted seven along the highway. I wasn’t driving, that day (smile).

About Art, Blog

Fabric Painting

I got some liquid pigments and fabric medium, and got to painting.

Both these patterns were achieved with an old credit card. That was actually fun. Tchik Tchik.

Hand-Painted Cottons1 WL

And then, inspired, I used an applicator and thickened dye to draw black lines on a painted background, below. With some “thorns”, no less… Also fun.

Hand-Painted Cottons2 WL

Fabric painting is a great way to “disappear into the zone” for a few hours. I don’t have any idea about how to use these painted pieces of yardage. But something will come to me, I am certain…

Blog, Just Because, Photo Wednesday

Long-term parking for the Tug and Boom – Photo Wednesday

This tug spent at least a week in a holding pattern, in front of the house. Up and down the Sound it went, very slowly… dragging the raft of logs. In BC, this is called a log boom.

At night, the tug has horizontal lighting, signalling its “parked” position, and the log boom also has position lights, light green, at all corners. Avoiding navigational hazards…

A whole forest is chained up, and floated behind a tug. Eventually, after a proper wait (at least a week, in this case) for a spot at the Port of Vancouver, it gets dragged across the Strait of Georgia, to the lower mainland of BC… Where all the log booms are gathered in the river’s mouth, also parked and waiting for loading. Most of these logs are likely loaded on ships headed West. Across the Pacific.

Floating Forest November 2014 WL
I am not complaining, my house is made of local cedar, so are my decks… I just watch cedar islands being floated across the waters.

I wonder what it’s like to be the tug’s pilot and crew. Do they play Scrabble? Watch videos? Play cards? How do they pass the time?

Blog, Inspiration, Wanderings

Black & White

Taking an ordinary photo and turning it into a black and white version is a great way to start looking at how you compose a shot with value in mind. Value and contrast become the main actors.

So here is a water view of the Unique Brilliance, a cargo ship anchored on Plumper Sound, between Saturna and Pender Islands, for several weeks this summer.

Unique Brilliance Cargo-BW

Seen from the water level, a cargo ship is a veritable wall of rusty steel. In the late afternoon, I like the contrast of the anchor chain, and even rows of rivets show up.

I liked this exercise of translating my pics to black and white – to check out whether they remain “interesting” minus the colour – so much that I worked on a few pictures last weekend, and created a new Black and White photo gallery with the ones that “passed the B&W test”. Have a look!

Quilts and Photography