Good-bye to the 2014 Photo Challenge

Well, it is the final day of the great 365 Day Photo Challenge and so time for the obligatory refective post. I'm glad I did it yet I'm very glad it's over. It was a worthy endeavor and I learned an awful lot, but I won't be doing another one in 2015.

Here are a few quick observations.

There's no place like home. 

Most of the shots I took were from right here at the 127. I love what I see every day looking out our back door. The view is to the southeast and the morning sky is often quite spectacular. The trees are tall and full and there are no houses or power lines to muddy up the landscape. I also found many favorite places to shoot in and around Windham and Lewiston. There was great satisfaction in seeing the familiar in new and different ways.

A dog is a woman's best friend and model.

My trio of terrible terriers made frequent appearances. Of course, my pups are all extremely good looking, but more importantly they were always here and willing to help when the weather was lousy and I hadn't gotten a daily shot. 

Your sister is your first and best friend.

Although Pam gets honorable mention for the third place finisher, the one who stuck with this right beside me the entire year was my sister, Deb. Even though we lost our mother in August and missed a few days, we kept taking pictures and finished up strong. I loved seeing her photos, especially those of that mysterious catalpa tree. We both had a lot fun commenting back and forth on the Pinterest board. And, hey, I just love my sister.

 Photo by Deb Cleveland

Most of my photos are crappy. But some of them are pretty good. 

I have a lot to learn about photography. Lighting is an ongoing mystery and flash photography is downright baffling. As soon as I get the exposure correct, the damned light changes. Timing takes great practice. That "decisive moment" eludes me more often than not. Planning shots is a lot of work and sometimes feels too contrived to me.  Once in awhile a quick snapshot can do the job. Most of the time what you see is not at all what you get. Still I have a few photographs that I am proud of and may even print and frame.

Post processing is a blessing and a curse.

I learned to use Lightroom this year. It's amazing software. I'm blown away by how much you can do to a raw image to bring out details you never even saw. I love being able to correct the dreaded white balance and add clarity and sharpness where needed. Being able to fix mistakes and improve your images is appealing but also addictive. I made a lot of those rookie over processing errors as I went along. I also wasted a lot of time that I could have used out shooting. This year I want to get it right in camera. I also want to shoot some film. 

It's not the gear that makes the difference. 

I used several different cameras for this challenge - two different DSLRs, several point and shoots, my iPhone, and my pride and joy Fuji X-T1.  Yes, some cameras are better than others but what matters most is what you see and where you stand. 

Thanks to all of you who participated. May you keep making photographs. 

Happy New Year, Folks.

Photo by Pam Hodenberg

365 Day Photo Challenge Board

Don't Over Customize

 So, yeah, I got a new iPad. We're quite rough on electronics here at the 127 and my old one had a cracked screen. (No, I did not drop it purposely when I heard he Air 2 was being released). For me getting a new device is not only exciting but a perfect opportunity to reorganize and to revisit app selections, blog subscriptions, and news feeds. I'm starting  fresh and only installing the things I really use. But while I'm purging and editing,  I'm also being reminded of what I perceive as a dangerous trend, over customizing. 

I can tell Facebook what I want to see and don't want to see. I can pick my news sources and blogs in Feedly. I can follow only the boards that interest me in Pinterest, make Twitter lists, and select specific Communities in Google+. That's great, right? Sure. In many respects these kinds of choices save us time and make our lives easier. I'm not inclined to read things that don't interest me so why should I bother to weed through them? Well, maybe, just maybe, I'm missing something important.

Remember magazines, anyone? Life, Look, Time, Newsweek? Did you ever read a daily newspaper? These were publications that gave us a little bit of everything. We were exposed to unfamiliar stories and issues and to opinions that differed from our own. Of course, we didn't read every article and editorial anymore than we open every single link today. But they were there for us if we wanted them often complete with pictures. Yes, pictures that we might not otherwise have seen. We were able to broaden our world view and prepare ourselves to be better Jeopardy players just by thumbing through the pages. 

The Internet gives us access to just about everything. It's amazing to me what I can see and discover here on the web. How expansive and mind-bogglingly broad it all is! I think we should embrace it and open ourselves up a little more. When we over customize we close ourselves in. We become too fixed and polarized. Have you been watching any of those horribly misleading and divisive political ads? Are you exclusively Fox News or MS NBC? Is it "my way or the highway" ? Perhaps your perspective has shrunk. Maybe you're over customizing. 

Where's the 2, Apple?

My big, belated birthday present arrived last night. (Yes, people still do get presents after 60) It was a couple of weeks late because my gifted gifter thought an iPad Air 2 would be better than the soon to be obsolete, plain old iPad Air. I, of course, agreed. Who doesn't want the latest and the greatest gizmo available?  

So, last evening was the long-anticipated unboxing. Who could have imagined the chaos and confusion that ensued? You see, there is no 2 anywhere on the box or on the actual device.

Given our shared and somewhat jaded perspective of a world where people don't care, don't check, or simply don't know, we assumed a mistake had been made. We were not happy. We were ready to head back to to the store to tell that careless clerk a thing or two before we figured it out by googling the parts number on the box and came to our senses. 

How do you identify which iPad is which? By measuring the width? By weighing it? Nope. You have to check the model numbers. Why Apple? Why? How hard would it be to just stick a damned 2 on there? Just wonderin'.

About That Photo Challenge

So, yes, the 365 day photo challenge continues or should I say is still creeping along? Today is Day 256 which means there are only (do the math) 109 days remaining.  When we started out there were about 10 of us regularly pinning our daily shots to our shared Pinterest board -   http://www.pinterest.com/barbararicker/365-day-photo-challenge/ It was fun while it lasted. Then we slowly began losing folks. Now there are only three of us still at it and two of us are related. Perhaps there is some stick-to-it-iveness in the DNA, Deb Cleveland. 

Photo by Deb Cleveland

People drifted away because they got busy, got injured, got distracted, got bored. One person told me that it didn't feel right just taking a picture every day for no reason other than to post it. (You know who you are, Maureen Hopkins)  Another simply said, "Photography is hard." Some, I suspect, quit because they missed a day or two and thought the photography gods had been offended enough to kick them out. Yes, those were the purists who felt they had somehow failed the challenge. Silly people, I thought the same thing until I missed my first day. I lost three days around the time my mother passed away but I'm back at it.

I love taking at least one photo a day to share. Pardon the pun but it keeps me focused. Focused on things beyond my day to day routine. It keeps me framing and seeing little slices of my world in a different way every day. It also makes me try harder to be a better photographer. It just works for me but I understand why it isn't for everyone. 

I know I should just leave the rest of you alone, but I can't. Maintaining the board this year has made me eager to see what other folks have focused on, framed and chosen to share. I miss your photos, People. I really do. Yeah, even some of the blurry ones taken in low light. So I challenge you to come back if you were in and then were out. I challenge you to join in if you missed all the fun so far. There are still over 100 days left for great picture taking and I want to see yours. 

Photo by Pamela Hodenberg

Here's that link again - http://www.pinterest.com/barbararicker/365-day-photo-challenge/ Email me if you need an invitation to join in.

You May Not Be As Helpful As You Think

This is my first week on FMLA leave and some of you may be wondering how it's going. Well, I already have some advice for anyone who may be thinking about or already caring for an elderly friend or relative in his or her home. Check your ego at the door and remember that you are a guest. With a  heart full of love and a head full of great ideas, you certainly have the very best of intentions.  But, hey, you may not be a helpful as you think.

Unless someone is legally incompetent (oh, yeah the lawyer weighs in), you have no business rearranging the furniture, revamping the schedule or otherwise taking charge. There are many different approaches to running a household. Be respectful and understand that your way is not the only way and may not be right for others. Ask what you can do to help. Listen. Stay humble. It's not about you. 

Here's the bottom line. Think about how you would feel if someone came into your home and told you what you should and should not do.

That's it for now. I'll keep you posted.

The Photo Challenge Goes On

Well, here we are 143 days into our 365 Day Photo Challenge and I haven't missed a day yet . However, there's a reason those people in the know use the word "challenge" rather than project or undertaking. This is difficult. To take and upload a photo every single day requires time and effort. It has to (and I hate "have to's") be done regardless of available time, motivation, or the weather. No wonder we've lost some folks. Some folks? Hell, we have lost most folks, but a faithful few still carry on and others come and go. 

I started this post back in March when I realized that most of the eager photographers who originally signed on were no longer pinning. My intent then was to encourage everyone to keep on keeping on or to come back to the board with no questions asked. I never followed through with that. I mean, what was there to say? We all have busy lives and differing levels of enthusiasm. We all also have many interests, passions, and ways to spend our all too scarce slices of time. 

I love to read, but I would probably start and no be able to complete a "Read a Book a Week" challenge. I want to blog about all kinds of things but I haven't blogged since January. Yeah, I can't even blog once a month. I faithfully follow the Red Sox, but I don't watch every single game. You see how it goes? 

So I'm not complaining one bit that our numbers are down. I'm just having fun and really enjoying seeing what other people do.  Keep giving us the cat shots, the tree studies, the beach scenes, the selfies, and the other odds and ends that make up your days. I like seeing what you see and thank you for sharing with us.

Here's the link to our shared  365 Day Photo Challenge board on Pinterest  -

http://www.pinterest.com/barbararicker/365-day-photo-challenge/

Photo by Maureen Hopkins

Don't Have Too Many Accounts

One of my "resolutions" for 2014 is to clean up and simplify my digital life. You see, I have two blogs and two Twitter accounts. That may sound crazy, but I googled how to merge accounts this morning and quickly discovered that I'm not alone. I want to combine the blogs yet not lose my content. Thankfully, many similarly situated but more tech savvy folks have researched and posted about how to do this. I'm taking notes and getting ready to make my social media experience less complicated.

How did I get myself into this mess? Well, I created a blog entitled "You Need a Helmet" because I wanted to write anonymously about things that really annoy me like politics and work. (What? Me complain about work?)  I also thought a bit of anonymity might come in handy when blogging about personal family issues. It's hard to be honest without running the risk of hurting someone's feelings, something to be avoided at all costs in our clan. I created a separate Twitter account, @YouNeedaHelmet, to compliment and promote the blog.

A secret blog? Yes, you're right. That's crazy. There is no such thing. Certain people know that's your blog and soon the jig is up. So In the interest of honesty, ownership, and shameless self-promotion, I started this blog. But I missed the crankier You Need a Helmet persona and I wasn't sure if I could let it go. So I remained a two blog hog for a time. But now I think I'm ready. I barely have time to post on one blog as it is. Blogger is much easier to use than Wordpress so this blog will survive the merger. 

Now the instructions I found provide for 13 different steps and use words like export, convert and XML markup, so this could take awhile. As for the second twitter account I fear I'll just have to kill one of them. Should the helmet be beheaded? It may be a casualty in this crusade to keep things simple. Sigh. But this is the time for starting anew and breaking those bad habits like retweeting oneself. I am going to stick with it and I hope you all follow through with whatever resolutions you've made for yourselves.

Happy New Year!