Street of Dreams (Aug. 11). Note that these images are the original 3.3 megapixel pictures taken by my camera, resulting in 1.2MB to 1.5MB per picture.

Museum of Flight in Seattle, WA (Aug. 18). Note that these images are the original 3.3 megapixel pictures taken by my camera, resulting in 1.2MB to 1.5MB per picture.

Stevenson Kinetic Sculpture Race (Sept. 8) and Bonneville Fish Hatchery (Sept. 9).

Bainbridge Island Marathon (canceled due to fog), (Sept. 15) and subsequent sunny cruise around Rich Passage and Bremerton Naval Shipyard.

Budd Inlet Race on a Wave Walker (Sept. 22).

Halloween in a car trunk at Samena (Oct. 30).

Max at Fort Worden State Park (Nov. 24).

Bellevue Parks D'Lite and armonica performance (Dec. 23, 2001).

Sunrise over Lake Sammamish (Jan. 4, 2002)

Frame Builder's Workshop at Jerry Onufer's house (Jan. 12).

Seattle Viola Society with Christopher at the UW, where they will ticket your vehicle if it is parked in an undesignated parking lot. (Jan. 13).

X-C Skiing with Christopher, and sledding at Snoqualmie Pass (Jan. 26).

Sunrise through the clouds (Feb. 2).

Sandpoint to 520 Bridge with Rusty Lane, and Aria in my Escapade (Feb. 9).

La Conner Race with the Sound Rowers (Feb. 23)

Seattle Bike Expo Pedalcraft booth (Mar. 2nd)

Snow Day (Mar. 8)

Lake Sammamish Race with the Sound Rowers (Mar. 9)

Mountain and pets (gecko and rats) (Mar. 17)

Lake Sammamish Demo of OWC's Cadence, HydroCycle's WaveWalker and Nauticraft Encore pedal boats (Mar. 23)

Tour of Puget Sound with Ron McDonald in Escapade pedal boats (Mar. 24)

Easter Hunt & F.I.R.S.T. Robot Competition at the University of Washington (Mar. 30)

American Lake Classic race with the Sound Rowers, near Tacoma, WA (Apr. 13)

Escapade Around Mercer Island, one sunny Tuesday on Lake Washington, WA (Apr. 30)

Commencement Bay Race, with the Sound Rowers at Tacoma, WA (May 11)

Lilac Trials with Bob Stuart on Lake Sammamish, WA (May 24)

Larrabee State Park, WA, with the family at the beach (June 1)

Manchester Race with the Sound Rowers (June 8)

Washington Water Trails final day of the 9 days/100 miles event, with entire family. (July 28)

Day 1, Day 2, and Day 3 of a camping trip to Camp Parsons on the Hood Canal in Washington State.

Round Shaw Row race with the Sound Rowers (Aug 9), (Aug 10), and (Aug 11).

Meeting Tall Ships in Seattle's Elliott Bay (August 15, 2002)

Sound Rowers Great Cross Sound Challenge, going from Alki beach to Bainbridge Island and back (August 24, 2002)

A hike to Tolmie Peak at Mt. Rainier with the kids. (Sept. 1, 2002)

Sound Rowers Bainbridge Island Marathon, starting from Fay Bainbridge State Park (or Fort Ward) and ending at Fay Bainbridge park. (Sept. 7, 2002)

Sound Rowers Budd Inlet Race, starting from Olympia's Swantown Marina, heading northwesterly, then across the inlet and back south to the marina. (Sept. 21, 2002)

The 2002 Lake Samish Salmon Roe pictures and story. (Oct. 5)

Rowing on Lake Washington on a Row-Cat. Pictures taken by D. Natelson aboard my Escapade. (Oct. 15, 2002)

The Cascade Distance Race pictures. (Oct. 19, 2002)

The Boy Scout Troop 618 Court of Honor pictures. (Oct. 22)

The Sound Rowers Medina to Mercer Sausage Pull race pictures. About 20 photos were taken by a person aboard one of the chase boats. (Oct. 26, 2002)

Boy Scout Troop 618 Eagle Scout ceremony for Adam Burke. (Nov. 17)

The Sound Rowers annual meeting. (Dec. 7, 2002)

Boy Scout Troop 618 Eagle Scout ceremony for Travis Modery. (Dec. 27, 2002)

Boy Scout Troop 618 Discovery Park Hike. (Jan. 11, 2003)

Cub Scout Pack 669 Pinewood Derby race. (Jan. 25)

Sound Rowers La Conner race. (Feb. 15, 2003)

Pedalcraft at Bike Expo in Seattle. (Feb. 28, 2003)

Pedalcraft at Bike Expo in Seattle. (Mar. 2, 2003)

Sound Rowers Lake Sammamish race near Issaquah. (Mar. 15)

Boy Scout Troop 618 Eagle Scout ceremony for Michael Salgado. (Mar. 30)

Sound Rowers American Lake Classic at American Lake near Tacoma. (Apr. 12)

Seawheels HPV picnic at Green Lake. (Apr. 13)

Sound Rowers Lake Whatcom Classic at Lake Whatcom near Bellingham. (April 19)

Camping with the Cub Scouts at Deception Pass State Park near Anacortes. (June 7)

Many more boating photos can be found in my 2003 cruises page. (June 7)

Photos of my waterproof housing - using some cheap stuff. It works pretty well, and even survives dunking in salt water! (December 29)

Here is a simple comparison of photos from some fairly new digital cameras. These include the Minolta DiMAGE A-1, Sony DSC-F828 and the Canon D300 DLSR.

I took a lot of pictures on board a Cadence pedal boat. To keep my (then new) Minolta DiMAGE A-1 camera dry I bought a couple of Ewa Marine waterproof cases. I'm reasonably happy with the way the U-FX model works on both dry land and water. The controls are mostly usable and the manual zoom lens seems to function better with this case. The only problems I have found so far have been trying to use the case in the cold (less than 45 degrees F) where the plastic becomes quite inflexible, and trying to quickly insert or remove my fairly large hand when it gets all sweaty during boat races. Also, when exposed to sunlight for over 30 minutes I find that a greenhouse effect occurs in warmer weather. This causes my camera to overheat and malfunction.

Boating photos using the U-FX case can be found in my 2004 cruises page. (March 26)

I had to return the waterproof case after several months due to a large hole that had developed along one of the seams. It so far has taken almost two months for a replacement to arrive from the distributor.

Meanwhile, since the boat racing season does not wait for camera cases to arrive, I made another one from an acrylic tube glued to an acrylic disc, with the camera body wrapped in transparent 16 mil (more or less) flexible vinyl. This is clamped around the acrylic tube with a hose clamp. The inner diameter of the tube is a perfect fit to the outer diameter of the Minolta's sun shade attachment, and the vinyl is flexible enough to afford a comfortable grasp and relatively easy operation of the camera controls. Not bad for about $10 invested, though I can't easily insert and remove the camera as I did with the Ewa.

Boating photos using the home made case can be found in my 2004 cruises page. Jump to the San Juan Challenge pages. (September)

The D-A case, while more compact, is more difficult to use. Trying to fit the camera inside is more difficult, you can't use the controls, the shutter button is tough to access, and the neck strap is pretty much worthless. That case was sent back.

Photos of both cases are available. At this time the D-A plus the CA-49 adapter cost around US$225. The U-FX case includes the adapters, and costs $179 from Photo Habitat. Tell Walter I sent ya!

Here are photos from the 2008 Dan Harris Challenge.

Here are photos from the 2009 Indian Arm Race, near Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Photos from a trip to Ottawa, Ontario, May 9 - 11, 2005. Beautiful weather, beautiful flowers, etc.Includes a side trip to Boldt Castle near Alexandria Bay, NY.

I took a road trip to Southern California with my Cadence pedal boat on my car. Had fun in Folsom, neat trip in Naples, bummed around Balboa Island, and made it to Mission Bay. June 2-12, 2005

The Tall Ships arrived in Tacoma, WA. Beautiful weather, fun pedaling around in my Escapade pedal boat. June 30, 2005

After a few years I switched to a Nikon D90 DSLR and a different Ewa Marine vinyl case. That worked quite well for a number of years, but eventually the vinyl at the seams failed and the neck strap bracket also failed. Duct tape worked for the seam issue. Drilling the bracket and a jerry-rigged strap mount got another year or two out of the casing.

Now I use an Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II. It is light weight, splash resistant and has a 28-300 zoom lens. It is simply marvelous for photography on the water. I've had it in rain, fog, sun, etc., and it has excellent image stabilization.

The Sound Rowers web site has loads of photos that I have taken.

Here are some photography lessons provided online free of charge.

Video of a flock of seagulls circling about on the shores of Lake Washington early in 2004.

Last updated September 28, 2021 by the michael@lampi.org