Poor Mr. Hanson

Tonight's photo is yet another snowy scene. I found this photo in an Issaquah antique store. On the back it reads, "They had to shovel out Mr. Hanson here at the shoe shop. He was trapped in. He is crippled you know." I suppose, like me, you did not know Mr. Hanson was crippled, but now you do. Just another public service from America's Finest Blog.

Enjoy

Dan

Firsts

The first first is that the premier posting on Blog occurred tonight! So after checking out today's photo go here to check out Blog http://rustedvan-blog.blogspot.com/. The second first is tonight's photo. This a barn outside of Ellensburg in the Robinson Canyon area, the first here is that this is among the very earliest photos I took while in Ellensburg. I can remember eating a Super Mother and drinking a Red Hook and looking out at the beautiful early evening light. I finished my burger and beer and went out into the country to shoot photos, unfortunately this barn is all I found. But one a night of firsts it makes it's way to Dusty Moments.

Enjoy and check out Blog

Dan

Another Snowy Scene

Today it snowed for a bit and the boy threw a polite tantrum, screaming, "out please!" He did not want to get up or wear a shirt or get into his car seat, but this sort of stuff is for Cicely's blog. Today's snowy scene comes from Silverton, WA. My sister has a cabin up there, these photos were taken when we drove up with Cicely's family one Boxing Day a few years back.

Enjoy

Dan\

Feeding the Squirrels and Other Items of Note

Having already tackled and completed the digital archiving of my Grandmother's photograph collection, I have turned to archiving my families photographs. So what a surprise it was to see a picture of my sister feeding a squirrel, I guess it is a case of like mother like daughter (See Feeding the Squirrels, All Part of Growing Up Paar). I'm hoping my sister has taken the time to photograph her family feeding rodents.

In other items of note, I was "employed" to photograph 13 Froelichs today, oh and 2 Williams'. What fun it was, and I learned much, like for starters photographing groups that large requires additional fees. I also learned that two cameras will be better than one. In the next day or two I will be posting some of the photos in a brand spanking new blog, called Blog (http://rustedvan-blog.blogspot.com/), so stay tuned oh fateful readers, I'll let you know when the first post is ready for viewing. In the meantime please keep in mind that Rustedvan Photography is always ready for hire and right now the prices are real cheap, how cheap? Almost free, okay mostly free...

If you cannot wait for the first highly anticipated post on Blog, you can check out the raw photos from today's Froelich Family Foto Shoot

here: http://picasaweb.google.com/rustedvan/FroelichFamily.

Enjoy

Dan

$7 Buck Fish-eye Lens

I saw this technique on Flickr, so I thought I'd give it a try. Basically, I'm using a cheap Chinese peephole for a front door and placing it up to the lens of my point and shoot digital camera. Then setting the camera to macro and away I go. I found out a couple of things right away, one the cheap plastic lens cover is all scratched up and two its hard to tell if the object you are shooting is in focus. However all in all, it makes a interesting photo and I'm interested in messing around with it some more.

Here a couple photos from today.

Enjoy

Dan

Winter Scenes

Now that snow is once again in the forecast, tonight I bring you a couple photos from wintertime in around Ellensburg. The first photo is from the Denmark Hall area of the valley, I think... and the second is Olmstead State Park.

Enjoy

Dan

Perspective

You may have had a bad week, day, month or year. But it probably never came down to this...

Inauguration Day

You know this is a very special day in American history. However one theory would say that in a truly colorblind society, President Obama's skin color and heritage is meaningless. So, I suppose this event highlights in a way just how far America is from that glorious day (although it is closer than it was yesterday). Aside from that, it also is a very special day, when 2 million Americans descend upon Washington to celebrate hope and a chance for change. To me this is why we should be remember this day. I didn't go to Washington or even skip work to watch the event, however I did DVR it so I could watch it, the crowds were quite impressive.
I have only taken the time to watch one Inauguration in real time, Clinton's first back in 1993. I don't really remember too much about 1993, other than Bill spoke longer than Henry Harrison, my friends and I were happy to see George Sr. retire and there was a really bad windstorm in Seattle. In fact it is the windstorm I remember most. After Bill finished talking I went out to Shoreline to go to school, I remember dodging falling trees and electrical wires and wondering if it was really safe to be outside. I remember thinking the same thing driving home. The power was out everywhere in Fremont that day except on my street so I was able to get my car in and out of the garage at my apartment building, so that was nice.
In other news, my brother in law had his first cancer treatment today, so hang in there Karl.
After all this blah blah about cancer and the Inaugurations, what photograph should be featured today. I don't have anything from the windstorm or any inauguration, or for that matter cancer treatment. So instead I give you a man holding an infant, view this moment within the context of boundless hope, something today has been all about.
Enjoy
Dan

The Divine Light Shines Upon the Lonely Hi-way

This photo is an example of why you don't point a camera in the direction of the sun. This lonely hi-way installment was taken by my dad, probably about 1981 on a motocycle trip he and my mom took to Northern California.

Enjoy

Dan

I'm Feelin' Lucky

Why am I feeling lucky, because my jury duty obligations lasted only 90 minutes, just long enough to see the Troy McClure-like video on what it means to be a juror and to listen to a judge wax on about how it wasn't much fun to be on a jury in sixteenth century England. Having be randomly chosen to be relived of my civic duties I was free to wander about the city. It had been along time since I last took the opportunity to see the city in the morning. It was too bad I did not bring a camera. But who brings a camera to jury duty. Say "Cheese" Judge Waxman...

So today, in honor of the Pike Place doughnut holes I had for breakfast, I bring you a photo from another early morning venture into the city.

Enjoy

Dan

Tyn Cathedral Before the Tourists Arrive

The Tyn Cathedral or the Church of Our Lady in front of Tyn, is located in the Old Town Square in the Old Town section of Prague. The building replaced a 11th century Romanesque church, construction began in the 14th century and was finally completed in 1511. The photo was taken in the morning before the tourist hoards arrived to over take the Old Town Square.

Dan

Quincy and the Glove

No the Glove is not The Glove, Gary Payton, but instead my grandfather's baseball glove. At some point in the first months of Quin's life Cicely and I decided to take pictures of Quin with the glove to show how he changes. We took the pictures monthly for his first year and every six months since. I can tell you, it has become much more difficult to get a good photo, the older and more active he becomes. Here are photos of Quin at one month, six months, one year and at two years, notice how the glove doesn't change very much.

Enjoy

Dan

Jazmin and Bobby Still Love Always?

The most meaningful love statements can be found written on the walls of watchtowers at coastal artillery forts, especially love statements penned with a Sharpie. The question of course, is this love statement really true, is it really still love always. Well I'd like to believe it is, because otherwise Jazmin and Bobby defaced a State Park for nothing.

This photo has not be altered other than instead of digitally scanning it as a black and white negative, it has been scanned as a color negative. I have found that sometimes you get an interesting result from this trick, then again sometimes you do not. I do like the pinkish tones in the photo.

Enjoy

Dan

Flood

Things aren't so great here in the upper Snoqualmie Valley, the recent rain combined with all the melting snow that was on the ground has made for an angry river. Thus far we have fared okay, not all of Riverbend has been so lucky the homes near the lake and by the entrance appear to have water at least in their garages.

Dan

Happy Birthday

It's Quin's 2nd Birthday today. It is really hard to believe that he is already 2 years old.

Post 150, Its a Super Special Time

I'm not sure if I thought I'd ever get around to posting 150 blog entries, back when I started this thing in April. To all of you who have been paying attention to this silly thing, you are the best people on earth, all four of you!

Today to celebrate 150 posts I give you 4 pictures of a rusted van. As you may know rusted van, one word, is my email address. A clever moniker, that unfortunately, is not completely my doing. Some credit for the name must go to my ex-girlfriend, as she helped think it up. Sometimes this inconvenient truth bugs me, but never enough to consider changing my email address. For over time the it has become clear that rustedvan is a unique name (only 799 hits when goggled), which is important when your name is not terribly unique. When Goggling Dan Williams you get nearly 13 million hits.

I also will take time in this 150th post, to announce that I am in the process of starting up a little photography/digital imaging business, to be named Rustedvan Photography. I hope to be up and running by summer time, but in the meantime if you need any photographic work done, please hit me up, you'll find my currents rates are practically free.

Anyway enjoy the van

Dan

I Need a Tri-pod Like America Needs Jeb Bush

I cannot say much about this photo, other than it was taken prior to 1990. Furthermore, I cannot say much about the title of this blog entry, other than with a tri-pod the past would have been in better focus. All that said, I'm liking the blurring and its effect on the scene.

Enjoy

Dan

My Old Lady

Here are pictures of Cicely, my old lady.

Enjoy, I know I will...

Dan

The first two photos are by Cicely herself.

The last three are among my favorite shots from 2008.

A New Year

So today being New Year's Day I thought would post a photo of something upbeat and positive to start the year off right.

Enjoy

Dan