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.
