Home for my 365 photo challenge, where I attempt to take and post a photo every day for the year.
Click on Photos to see all the photos on one page, or scroll down and look at each post. You can find more pictures and some not-very-good blogging at Cliff538. You can see the Polaroid archive page here.
Curious about my journey back into film shooting, you can find all those posts here. There is also a dedicated page to the journey and resources that I have personally used and can recommend.
I hope these pictures bring a smile and inspire you to go take some pictures.
Long day driving, lots of wind, but a few great signs. I wish I had more time to capture them properly. I can really see a road trip where the whole mission is photographing old road signs.
May your hope be strong.
“Hope” is the thing with feathers -
That perches in the soul -
And sings the tune without the words -
And never stops - at all -
And sweetest — in the Gale — is heard —
And sore must be the storm —
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm —
I’ve heard it in the chillest land —
And on the strangest Sea —
Yet — never — in Extremity,
It asked a crumb — of me.
~ Emily Dickinson
Today was a day of favorites: coffee shop, hike, stores, and fish & chips. Prepping for an early departure tomorrow. Filled up with diesel, which has become painful at $7.00+/gal.
Pictures from the road tomorrow.
I hope you are reading a good book. If not, start one today!
Hikes, Bookstores, Farmers' Markets, Coffee shops. I’m in my happy place.
The farmers' market was amazing. Over 100 booths and a little bit of everything. We found a proper used bookstore that was bursting with books, on two levels, with stacks all over the floor- how it should be, in my opinion.
One of my favorite writers is Karl Ove Knausgaard, and I found a hardcover first-edition set of My Struggle. Sadly, it was missing volume 1, but that will give me something to search for.
All the extra little bits down in Stray Pixels
Thanks for stopping by and taking a look. I hope you found some peace today in this hectic, out-of-control world we live in.
Another day of bookstores and walking around. Found an incredible deli that made me the best vegetarian sandwich I think I’ve ever had, along with a mushroom soup that I’m still thinking about.
Lots of signs today. Got pretty creative with the processing, pushing boundaries, and probably embarrassing my future self…
Live large, make pictures, and use lots of vignetting! LOL
15 more signs down in Stray Pixels
I hope you had a good day; hug someone and tell them you love them.
All film shooting today, so just a few iPhone shots to get the pic of the day.
Found our best halibut fish & chips place yet, just about perfect. Spent a few hours in the local bookstore, which was a delight. Will be back again to spend a few more hours. Purchased two books and two magazines that are dedicated to readers and books.
Explored the village of Fairhaven for a while and went to a local park for a hike. I could really get into this nice, simple lifestyle, LOL. Going to be hard to go back to work.
👾Click for Stray Pixels👾
All iPhone shot and processed
Nothing good down here, just mostly posted for the sake of memories.
A rare selfie just to document the first year my beard is totally white.
Good night’s sleep last night and a slower day today gave me time to catch up.
Great coffee and a six-mile hike today; caught up on some shopping and chores.
Down in Stray Pixels are the rest of the photos from yesterday. A couple of versions of “Keeping Watch”; the two people sitting out in front were just perfect. I really like the shot.
Easy day today. Coffee and breakfast at Locus, excellent coffee, and I can recommend the Quinoa breakfast bowl. 7-mile walk in the cool morning mist, then checked out the Community Food Co-op.
I shot mostly film today, so just a few iPhone pics.
I love trying all the local coffee shops, and one here stands head and shoulders above the rest. Camber Coffee has my heart for their coffee, attention to detail, food quality, and atmosphere.
Outstanding coffee this morning from a local shop. You know it’s good when the line is 30 minutes long. Great hike up to a lake today and halibut tacos. It’s a simple life.
Nice 6-mile hike along the waterfront today. Yet again, fish & chips for dinner and Lopez Island ice cream for dessert. Not a bad way to spend the day.
Down in Stray Pixels, you will see three stickers I found today. What a great way to spread positivity and love.
I need some.
Outstanding day: 7.5M / 12KM hiking, surrounded by Mother Nature and all her creations, Amazing fish & chips in Bellingham, great conversations with some of the locals. It was overcast most of the day, but we ended up with blue skies at the end, all in a wonderful temperature of 68°F/20°C.
More “making pictures” and hiking tomorrow.
Do something creative tomorrow, something that makes your heart smile and thank you very much for stopping by.
Good day, hiking and shooting. Not ideal because it’s getting the shot right now in this light; we have to keep moving. No waiting for good light or for this cloud to roll by. There is always a price to pay for being on the move, photography-wise.
Finally got the film cameras out and got a few shots on them as well.
I’m at least on this trip, starting to post pictures below that I normally wouldn’t. This blog is almost becoming an online journal of sorts. I want some pictures for my memories, not necessarily because they are good pictures. We will see how this evolves. It’s interesting how this blog has changed since its beginnings. I’m sure it will change some more.
Since writing more on this blog, I’ve started to ignore my personal journal. I sometimes just post a link to the day’s post in my journal. That was never my intent, but it’s what I’m seeing happen. Just more changes I see happening.
Keep the dirty side down, never stop learning, and take more pictures! Thanks for stopping by.
Easy 3-hour drive to Fidalgo Island today. Set up camp and went into town for halibut fish & chips, followed by the best ice cream on the planet at Lopez Island Creamery. 1
Nothing too spectacular on the photo front, but finally got the Nikon out.
Click for Stray Pixels 👾👾👾👾
They’ve had people fly across the country just for this ice cream. I don’t know how they do it, but it’s crazy addictive good stuff. Hands down the best ice cream I’ve ever had. ↩︎
It was nice to sleep in this morning and have leisurely coffee while researching a local hike. We found our hike, loaded up, and went to start the truck; click, click. Huh, that’s not right. Try again; click, click. The batteries are dead, real nice. 1
I plugged in my portable jump-start battery, and it started to get hot and swell. Well, shit. That’s not good. Next, I’m going to have a runway lithium fire on my hands.
Luckily, we are in a small town with local maintenance shops. Called one up; they ran out and gave us a free jump-start. I drove over and had them replace both batteries to the tune of $600. This trip is getting expensive. 2
Off we went on a nice hike along the Yakima River, then had ice cream and a nice afternoon at camp, doing laundry, cleaning solar panels, and organizing.
Tomorrow we will be at the coast. The ocean is my happy place. There is no place I’d rather be than by the ocean. Someday, I’m going to live by the ocean again. Hopefully soon.
I appreciate you stopping by, and I hope it was a great day.
Click for Stray Pixels 👾👾👾👾
All iPhone shot and processed
I’m not much of a drinker; it decimates my sleep, my wife doesn’t drink at all, and it just does not make me feel very good. After a nice little buzz, I just don’t feel that good. So, it’s just not worth it to me these days. But there’s always a but, right? When I’m traveling, camping, or exploring, it is nice to have a local beer early in the day so it doesn’t affect my sleep. While on vacation, I’ll try and have my Beer of the Day post.
Beer of the Day
The Phoenix heat is notoriously hard on batteries. I’ve lived in the desert off and on for 8 years. In my experience, you have to change your batteries at a minimum every 2 years. ↩︎
The air conditioner was $3500; diesel fuel, on average, has been over $5/gal. But on the bright side, I didn’t even get all pessimistic; it’s nice and cool here, and after the panic of the 115°F with no AC thing, this was easy-peasy. ↩︎
Just a short 3-hour drive today to Ellensburg, WA. Set up camp and drove into town to check it out and take a walk around town. Wouldn’t you know it, it’s a super cute downtown with tons of historic signs and old buildings. Did Cliff bring his camera? Nope. So iPhone shots it was. I need to work on going back downtown with my camera for some proper photos.
I kicked myself for not bringing my camera and resigned myself to iPhone shots. I wasn’t expecting much to be photoworthy in town, and my main concern was food; I was starving. Learned another lesson today.
Taking two days here to take a break from driving. Planning a nice hike tomorrow and hopefully some photography time and reading.
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I took a picture of the community bulletin board because you can always get a good feel for the town by looking at what’s posted. I’m trying to snap a photo of every board I come across; I think it will be neat to look back in 20 years at what was posted. Now it’s on the internet forever.
