Favorites of the Year: 2011 Edition

For the past handful of years Jim M. Goldstein has posted an absolutely huge list of "best of the year" blog posts from people around the world.  This will be my third year submitting a post for the list [ If you missed the past ones, check out year one and year two. ].  I look forward to participating in this, and going through the list when he posts it.  ( The 2011 list is posted. )

And now to the pictures.  If you'd prefer to just look at them as a set and not read my ramblings hit up the flickr set.

I consider this picture one of my best in the last few years. There are a number of reasons why. I like the composition, the green and orange, the drizzle dancing off the pavement, the people, and that I got completely soaked making it. As I brought this through post-production I sat and stared at it like in an idiot. Its rare I do that. I also made a large print of it, which is also quite rare.  I like this one so much I encourage you to see it a bit bigger on the flickr lightbox.

This one makes the list because I hope it makes people think and it scared me to place it in public. Truthfully, it makes me nervous to re-highlight now. If you see this and are a little peeved with me, maybe my explanation makes it better. If not, I'm sorry, don't hold it against me too much because it isn't meant to offend ( If I truly wanted to, I'm sure I could think of easier ways to offend people ).

This is one of my attempts at landscapes this year. I don't feel I'm too good at them. I like the more compressed approach to landscapes that some people take, so I attempted to emulate it. I am placing it third in this list because it has the same orangey feel of the first two.  I had a couple of others that almost made the cut, but this one outdoes them.

These three represent a little project I have rolling with Tobias. He likes to dress up in costumes. I try to make some pictures that might capture the way he sees himself in them, instead of like the toys that they are. My favorite of the three is the Knight, it is the catalyst of the idea. The Clone Trooper is a very, very close second.  There are others in this flickr set .  We will continue adding to it over time.

Kathryn has gotten too "cool" for pictures.  So, it is nice when I am able to get a decent one of her.  Hopefully next year I will get the chance to make a few more.  They grow up fast.

Carly isn't much of a fan of this picture.  I, however, do like it.  Granted, its harder to get Carly to sit for a picture than it is to get Kathryn to sit for a picture, so I'm pretty happy with anything I can get at this point.

This is my favorite puppy picture for the year. The snow she is running about in was the first hour or so worth from a of a pretty nasty snowstorm.  It started slightly before rush evening hour. I opted to stay home that day because of the weather report. People that went in spent hours upon hours upon hours on the highway on the way home. Some had to abandon their cars and get them later. I got to take pictures of my dog.

Here is the final picture on my favorites list. It was an "out-take" from a some dancer pictures I was making. Why is it an out-take? Its not, really, I guess. But I opted to use a light setup for this different than the safer "one size fits all" approach that I used for everything else. It looks different. I put it last on this list because it seems like she is holding all the other pictures up.

If you have made it this far, thank you for looking and reading. If you stopped somewhere at the top, thank you too-- although you will not see this.

Have a good 2012.

Favorites of the Year: 2010 Edition

The year is winding down.  It is time for me to start thinking about my favorite photos of the year.  I have a few more this year than I did last year.  There are a few reasons for that.  The main reason is simply I made more pictures.  I have a larger body of junk from which to select the few pictures to represent.  Also, I feel that I did better this year than last year.  I learned a bit.  I gained a lot more confidence.  Also, shooting more, as I did, simply helps.



This first one is my absolute favorite from the year.  I think I did okay on the lighting.  But more importantly I managed to take a picture of my wife that actually shows how she looks, and not some awkward photographic caricature that only shows up in my pictures.  I don't have this issue with anyone else.  But, at least we managed to do it right this time.



This was made to celebrate Kathryn's new bike.  For me, the most important event for her this year was  learning to ride.  She put aside whatever fear she was holding onto and rode.  It was great to see her do that!  It made her nervous for me to watch her try, so I peeked out the window.  She still doesn't know I saw her.  She also doesn't know I almost cried.



This one makes me smile.  I'm still not sure why Tobias decided to pick flowers.  Maybe it was because it was Easter.  More than likely, it was probably simply because they were there.



We added a new family member this year.  This sleepy shot is the first night we had the puppy home.  She is a funny, fluffy, and sweet girl.  She is also a pain in the butt.



Some close friends also added a family member this year.  This wasn't the first night they had him home.  But it is still very cute, no?  He wasn't quite ready to sit up completely on his own for these.  It was a bit of a challenge to capture him before he started to topple.  He loved the "game" of catch that Mommy was playing though.







These 3 come from the HS Senior portrait sessions I did this year. These were a lot of fun for me. I am not sure how these guys thought about the sessions. I know in high school I ranked visiting a photographer right up there with visiting a dentist.  I think I did better than that though. At least I didn't introduce any awkwardness by pretending to be a teenager.  I did stoop to telling elephant jokes though, so that may be worse.





These two pictures represent my attempts to make some landscape style pictures. Most of those I tried to make last year largely failed. I don't think these compare favorably to what a real landscape photographer can make, but its the best I can do right now and don't seem like total failures.



This is my favorite picture that fell out of my cell phone this year. I think I like it because of all the curves, and the red against the blue-ish sky.  It amazes me that if I use that little camera on the proper subject, and aim for the proper aesthetic, I can make 8x10 prints from it that work really well.



I am not sure why, but this picture always draws me in. Something about it really appeals to me. I'm also a little sad it didn't win it's category in the community show this year. [ But not much, I really like anyway. ]



I spent some effort this year making pictures of as many different people I could.  This one is the result of about 3 minutes with this individual.  This picture is interesting to me because it looks like a studio shot, but its not. It was made in a cafeteria. The background is a portable wooden "wall", and the main light is coming from what is essentially a big glass wall.



This final picture was taken at the dress rehearsal for COA's spring production. That night was final polishing before months of effort got tested in performance. It was nice for me to peek behind the curtains a little bit. It is rare you are made aware of the hours an artist puts into their work.

If you have gotten this far, thank you for looking!

Favorites of the Year

This year I put up a little bit over 100 posts.  There are about 210 pictures posted.  As I stated in my first post, I have put up the good and the bad, talked a bit about how I did certain things, showed experiments, showed successes and failures.  It also turned a bit into me grumping about stuff, and the fun realizations one has when one can't walk.  Hopefully, there will be none of that next year.

One of the first things you should learn to do as a photographer is edit.  No, not mess in Photoshop, but learn to throw out the crap and only show people your best stuff.  This blog wasn't meant for just the stuff that worked, so those of you out looking at this probably see me as a mediocre shooter.  Maybe this post will raise your evaluation of my limited skills?  Or not.

That being said here are some of what I consider my best from the year.  It would be really cool if anyone out there could comment.  Do you agree or disagree?  Did I leave something out that made an impression on you?  Did I place a real clunker in this list?  Don't worry, this is a small list of photos.  I provided links back to the posts these originally appeared.

In no particular order, my favorites (embedded, so this will behave differently than we are used to):

From Lunch is Optional: Change?

From Lunch is Optional: Senior Moment with D

From Lunch is Optional: Visual Building Blocks

From Lunch is Optional: Busy Weekend

From Lunch is Optional: Cassie

From Lunch is Optional: Family Snapshots

From Lunch is Optional: Bit of Playtime

There are some other things I posted recently that could fit. But, I need some time to see if they grow on me, or not.

Any opinions? Anyone?

Anyone notice one of the shots is from my cell phone?