Retired economics professor (“dismal scientist”). Married 40+ years to the love of my life; we have two grown daughters, both married, two granddaughters and a...
@jillmstruss Thanks, Jill! Truth? This is actually upside-down. This guy was actually doing a "head-stand" and I took this pretty much "horizontally". That is, no wild contortions to get underneath.
@marieooi It turned out well. Last of only 3 shots it let me snap. Whew!
@aspada And a thank you so much from me to you, too, Amy! A wow from you means a lot!
@jtookey150 Thank you, Jean! One of the obvious benefits of zooming out to 250mm: the focal range is so shallow that the background gets blurred just like we'd like it to be!
@annbo And another grateful thank you from me, Ann! Thanks for taking a peek. :)
@michelleyoung Truth? I considered stopping the daily grind and the daily push for a photo to post on May 31. Glad I didn't; I've been fortunate to get some shots I'm pretty pleased to have. :)
@jesperani Thanks so much, Jennifer! Reading your profile: welcome to the club! Lots of things fall to the wayside when kids come along. The good news is that they grow up and become independent adults and you can resume things that fell by the wayside ... or, alternatively, pick up something entirely new (as I have taken up sculling!). :)
Thom.. I have often been there... but i know if i stop, i would regret it.. this feels rewarding in its own little way and I do like the fact that you can look back on the previous year and know excatly what you were doing the da you took a specific shot.. I am not sure if we would have such vivid memories without this :)
@michelleyoung It is nice to have that what-was-going-on-a-year-ago. Plus I know I have grown as a photographer in the past year. Top two things: noticing shadows, letting go of symmetry and including entire subjects in the frame. Goal for the second year: improve at flash photography (at which I still suck) and/or photographing people. I just have a hard time getting over that psychological hump of "invading their space" (or stealing their soul!)...
True. We never know. I will see my silly canoe and Kayak picture that I superimposed on water puddle bubble picture on there and am like WHAT? haha Then some I have really really liked, nothing. Two examples I can think of are in Jan I think it was, when I took the seagull in Walmart parking lot pics. I worked and worked to learn to pan with them and get them flying and I got one coming dead on towards me, in flight. it did have an odd crop as I did not catch the entire left wing. It did not get any or many favs....and I LOVED that photo. And taking it! So much fun. Also, of that series I put up of the "gray assassin bug" (the one that killed the spider in one shot) people liked the one where he is face on better and it got more favs (but not enough for PP and I think it is one of my best bug pics and others have made it on there) than the whited out square one where we see him from behind. I LOVED that funky from behind one...it cracks me up...love the shapes and for those who don't like creepy bugs, thought it would be the more popular of the two. But no. So....yes, we must do it for ourselves. This year, I am going to do more challenge work and less "go shoot 500 photos on nature walks every day" The time I spent uploading those, sorting the ones I wanted to post, editing them...took forever. I will do it, but not every day....I may "journal" more, do some "set up photography," the challenges and themes, and even some "Silly stuff" I have planned. I plan to let my students help me again too. So I am looking forward to next year. I thought I'd want a week or two off, but nah...I'm addicted.
by the way, what plant is that the bug is on? The "star" shape looks like the end of a persimmon or something! We had a persimmon tree when I was growing up on Blue Mountain...but I hate persimmons. Ugh. Anyway...this photo is a quality photo...in that sense it should have hit the PP. One person on a "why am I not ever on the PP" thread had a suggestion to Ross that he change "fav" to "like" like on Facebook. Point being some people see a bug or something and think "That's not my fav" and "like" might seem more appropriate...."I like/appreciate the work you did here." made sense to me. But alot of people fav it so they can see it again, and if they hate bugs...no fav-ing will be going on no matter what you call that button!
And I was wrong...my seagull that I loved did get favs...12 of them. But not sure how fast, but maybe 6 favs pretty quickly...and it never got on the PP as far as I know... http://365project.org/espyetta/365/2012-01-08
@espyetta As mentioned in one of my early replies above, I admit that I have rotated this image 180°: the dragonfly was actually doing a headstand and s/he was on top of a — what else — dead knockout rose bloom. The rose bush is the tallest plant in our garden, so perching there gives the dragonflies a 360° view of all the air traffic in the garden!
![Sigh. [Travel-day]](https://media.365project.org/1/9428160_bfilmqru48_sq.jpg "Sigh. [Travel-day]")
@marieooi It turned out well. Last of only 3 shots it let me snap. Whew!
@aspada And a thank you so much from me to you, too, Amy! A wow from you means a lot!
@jtookey150 Thank you, Jean! One of the obvious benefits of zooming out to 250mm: the focal range is so shallow that the background gets blurred just like we'd like it to be!
@annbo And another grateful thank you from me, Ann! Thanks for taking a peek. :)
@michelleyoung Truth? I considered stopping the daily grind and the daily push for a photo to post on May 31. Glad I didn't; I've been fortunate to get some shots I'm pretty pleased to have. :)
@jesperani Thanks so much, Jennifer! Reading your profile: welcome to the club! Lots of things fall to the wayside when kids come along. The good news is that they grow up and become independent adults and you can resume things that fell by the wayside ... or, alternatively, pick up something entirely new (as I have taken up sculling!). :)
@rhos Thank you, Ann! I was pleased. Thanks so much for your FAV!
@kerristephens Thank you, Kerri!