Reconnaissance Trip

I had the day off last Friday so Jenny and I planned a ride in Mt. Vernon because this time of year the tulips fields “should be” in full bloom. For years one of Jenny’s dream rides has been to ride from tulip field to tulip field taking pictures as we rode. We had never done this ride before so this was going to be the year. That is until Friday morning arrived. On Friday morning we awoke to a very steady rain and our youngest child had come down with a cold.

As we weighed our options we decided to drive out to Mt. Vernon anyway to snap some photos. Of course our daughter assured us that she was well enough to go with us but not well enough to go to school. I’m not really sure how that could be but we gave in to her flawed logic.

When we got to Mt. Vernon we realized that the tulips were just starting to bloom so we were a couple of weeks too early if we wanted to get some good photos. Lucky for us the daffodils were in full bloom so we were able to snap some photos. Here are some of my favorites.

Doesn't look very sick does she?

On our way out of town Jenny spotted a road side produce stand she had heard about that also served amazing ice cream cones. Of course we stopped to sample their products. I swear, these cones were at least 2000 calories a piece but very tasty.

While we sat in the parking lot eating our ice cream we discussed some ride possibilities. I guess I've got a one track mind. Here’s the plan.

Drive to Mt Vernon and park at the produce stand parking lot. Ride through the tulip fields heading north up to Bellingham (which is very close to the Canadian border) then head south on Chuckanut drive down the coast. Finally, end the ride at the produce stand and have an ice cream cone as a recovery meal. I’m guessing this route will would be 60 – 70 miles long so the recovery ice cream will be very well deserved by then.

Even though we weren’t able to ride on Friday it was still a great reconnaissance trip for a future ride. We are planning on taking our oldest son with us when we do this route. I’m already looking forward to it.

Some Times You Just Get Lucky

Last Sunday morning before breakfast I wandered out the front door and snapped this picture from our driveway of the sunrise. Honestly, I didn't alter this picture with Photoshop and it really didn't look this great in real life. I think I just got lucky. I wish this happened more often.

Photography

Every time I go for a bike ride one of the essential items that I put in my jersey pocket is a small camera. I do this because I always come across something amazing to take a picture of while I’m riding. If you’re a cyclist you already know that at the speed of a bike you see things that you would never notice while driving a car. It’s an amazing phenomenon.

I’ve always wanted to take amazingly awesome pictures that inflict shock and awe on others but I’ve always fallen short. Here is the scenario that I run into. I’m out for a ride early on a Saturday morning on some deserted road and as I round a corner I spot some amazing scenery or something interesting that would make a great picture. I pull out my camera and snap a few pictures and go on my way. When I get home I always have grandiose expectations of how my pictures will turn out. 9 times out of 10 I’m disappointed with my pictures once I see them in full size on the computer because they don’t have the bright vivid colors of the original scene that I envisioned that they would have.

The other day I was reading through a blog that Jenny stumbled across (www.thepioneerwoman.com) that talked about how to make some simple adjustments to your photos using Photoshop Elements in order to bring out the vivid colors of your photos. After doing some research I found that Adobe offers a free trial of their software for 30 days so I downloaded Photoshop Elements to give it a test drive.

To be honest this software isn’t super user friendly but after doing some reading Jenny and I figured out how to spruce up our pictures with just a few clicks of the mouse. Just by making some simple changes with this software our pictures look a lot more like the original scene.

Here’s a before and after example of some Idaho cows that I took a picture of last summer. The after picture looks a lot more like the real setting in actual life. If Photoshop Elements can do this for Idaho cows I’m thinking it will do wonders for almost any picture. By the way, these cows only live 15 miles away from where the movie Napoleon Dynamite was filmed so they are practically famous.

Before

After

Now that I look at these pictures on the web you really can't see much of a difference but believe me when they are bigger the edited one looks a lot nicer. As you can tell, I’m sold on this software. I don’t think I’ll ever be a world class photographer but hopefully my pictures will be a lot more respectable. I’m seriously considering buying this software package.

12 Hours in Photos

I've always been a fan of the Blog 12 Hours in Photos. I think it's a great concept in documenting a day in your life told through pictures. Yesterday I had the day off so I thought I'd give the 12 Hours in photos a try.

6AM: Fixing breakfast for the High School Kids

7AM: Leaving for Junior High

8AM: Leaving for Elementary School

9AM: Bikes taking a break on the way to Snohomish

10AM: Checking out the flooding in Snohomish

11AM: On the ride back home

12PM: Getting ready for Elementary School Christmas Concert in January (Makeup because of snow day)

1PM: The big Christmas Concert

2PM: Taking a nap (one of my superpowers)

3PM: Jenny playing some piano

4PM: Stopping for a bite to eat before a movie

5PM: Marley and Me (good movie!!)