The photographs in this gallery originally appeared in separate monthly galleries for 2008. The photographs were part of a year-long project to take a photograph a day and post it to a monthly gallery.

The photographs featured here are a subset of the original monthly galleries for 2008. They are sorted in reverse, by date which means the oldest photographs are at the end.
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Gerry Daniel > There might be some better images from my shots today but I haven’t worked through all of them yet. I have a bad headache and am going to get away from the computer. So this becomes today’s daily photo by default.
Gerry Daniel > Before I say anything about my daily photo, I want to say a few things about the people at SmugMug. I recently ordered a few prints of my photos through the SmugMug site. Shooting in digital and displaying my images on my SmugMug site gives me a lot of control over many of the aspects of my photographs that relate to the quality of the images. Translating the photographs into print is another matter entirely. I was optimistic about the prints I had ordered but was prepared to accept something less than the quality that I wanted. My photos are an extension of me and I am sensitive about how they are reproduced. I received the prints yesterday. Quality, that’s the word that came to mind when I looked at the prints in the shipment. They were reproduced on high quality paper and the colors, the brightness, the clarity, and the contrast were beautiful. The service I receive from them for my SmugMug site that hosts my galleries has always been first class. Now I can say from experience that the printed photographs from SmugMug are also first class. Thanks to Schmoo and Seth for your emails. Today’s picture might be a familiar site for my galleries lately but sometimes it’s the story behind the image that makes it unique. A couple of months ago I ordered a waterproof cover for my Nikon D80 because the camera is not waterproof. Water and digital equipment don’t mix well in some cases and considering my investment in the camera, I didn’t want it to be damaged by water. Some of the most interesting situations to photograph are in weather that is less than ideal for the camera. So today’s shot was made in a steady afternoon rain shower. I was soaked but my camera remained completely dry. There’s something about playing in the rain that I love. I was smiling most of the time I was shooting because I was having so much fun. I want to offer my apologies to anyone that found my image from yesterday to be problematic because of the reflection. It wasn’t a problem for me but I understand that the reflection might have been distracting for some. So today, with the rainy conditions, reflections weren’t an issue. I will say this about reflections and water pictures; I like them so there are likely to be others down the road. Today’s song is another cover of a Neil Young song. The title is “For the Turnstiles” by The Be Good Tanyas from the “Hello Love” album.
Gerry Daniel > This morning at the reflecting pond at the botanical gardens, there was only one water lily flower that had opened. It was early and the flowers go back into their pods at some point at night. The water was very still, the sky was a nice shade of blue, and the reflections in the pool were beautiful. I only intended to shoot a little but the conditions were so nice I ended up shooting quite a few photographs (110 images if you are keeping score at home). Many of them are similar because I bracket my exposures on each shot. I chose this one for several reasons but the primary reason was because it was a different perspective from most of my previous water lily shots. Pretty much all of the others had been close-up shots highlighting the detail of the flower. I took plenty of close-up shots and uploaded some of them to the new water lily gallery (http://gldaniel02.smugmug.com/gallery/5388816_jr976/1/329992558_Jk6Yn). My song for tonight is a classic written by Neil Young. This version is a cover performed by Natalie Merchant in concert. The song is “After the Gold Rush” from her “Live in Concert” album. It is a powerful version of this song.
Gerry Daniel > By now, you know the drill. Another day and Gerry has another water lily photo in his daily photo gallery. Will the madness ever stop? Not likely, not given my history. Here is where this goes over the edge, spinning off into……a water lily gallery. I take full responsibility but I will tell you that there are a few in the community (you know who you are and I will protect your identity, but feel free to out yourself in the comments if you are brave) that encouraged me to take this step. Anyway, hope you like today’s photo. For the brave souls that can withstand even more water lilies, you can find the water lily gallery here (http://gldaniel02.smugmug.com/gallery/5388816_jr976/1/329980196_uteLd). The iPod song of the day is “I Try” by Ben Taylor from his “Deeper Than Gravity – EP” album.
Gerry Daniel > For today’s shot, I was back to more comfortable territory with the tripod. There is something about being able to frame carefully that I feel like I can better with the tripod. I understand that I can move around freely without the tripod but most of my subjects don’t really require me to have that type of mobility. One of the trade-offs is that I don’t shoot as well in rapidly changing situations because of my comfort with the tripod versus a handheld method. I am not going to apologize for shooting water lilies anymore. No matter what I choose to shoot, it first needs to be interesting to me. For whatever reason, the water lilies continue to interest me. So if this isn’t your cup of tea, no worries. I am sure there is more than enough variety in the various daily galleries to find things that better suit your individual taste. However, if you enjoy the water lilies then sit back and journey along with me. My song for the day is by an artist I recently discovered through iTunes. The song is titled “As Much As You Lead” by Lex Land. It is from her “Orange Days On Lemon Street” album. She has a nice vibe to her music.
Gerry Daniel > Today’s image is somewhat a function of being lazy. The stream was not very far away. I guess that is relative in terms of distance, it was way too far away to walk but didn’t take long to drive there. To be honest with you, I was hoping for something better but remember the first sentence of this caption, lazy was a factor. So in the scheme of my daily photos, this was a compromise shot. I find that I am shooting mostly with my 70-300mm lens. Part of that is due to some of the flower close-ups I want. It may all be in my head but lately when I use my 18-135mm lens, I don’t like the quality of the image. It’s like the image is poor quality and has a lot of noise, not as crisp. I started out preferring to shoot landscapes and it was my primary lens. Do any of you have any ideas on what may be going on? At some level I almost feel like I have forgotten how to shoot with it but that seems ridiculous. Maybe the landscapes I have been choosing have yielded poor images for reasons unrelated to the lens. I shoot with a Nikon D-80 and both of the aforementioned lenses are Nikon lenses so I think they are of comparable quality. Today’s iPod song is by Jose Gonzalez. The song is titled “Down the Line” and is from the “In Our Nature” album. Thanks to everyone for the support and comments on my photos.
Gerry Daniel > Saturday mornings usually start early for me during this time of year (tomato season). It makes sense to combine my excursion to the farmer’s market with my excursion to shoot my daily photos. I have considered shooting at the farmer’s market and may do that at some point but it feels invasive for some reason. Anyway, I stopped to shoot some flowers on my way home and since it was early, I avoided the hot part of the day. The older I get, the more sensitive I seem to be to the heat. I liked the shape of this flower and also the way the blooms look before they open. You can see one in the background; they almost look like little balloons. The color in this shot has been muted by 80 percent. It’s nice to be back in the group, I missed it while I was gone the past week or so. I am so far behind at looking at galleries it seems almost overwhelming to try and get caught up. My sons have encouraged me to create a Facebook page. I am not sure where I will go with it but I did notice a SmugMug presence out there. There is an application that allows me to display my SmugMug galleries so maybe it will give me a broader audience. It also allows me to explore some of my other interests outside of photography (like music). We’ll see how it goes.
Gerry Daniel > Backsliding…..I think that is what they call it. I have a weakness for photographing water lilies. I stayed away from them for a few days. I can quit photographing them if I want, it’s not like they are the boss of me. OK, so I have been seeing other flowers. What’s wrong with that? It’s not like the water lilies would be jealous of the other flowers, but I think the other flowers are jealous of the water lilies. You know how some flowers can be, they have self esteem issues. That’s really their problem; I never lied to them about the water lilies. Today’s iPod selection is by Jimi Hendrix, the title is “Hey Joe” and I picked that because today is Joe’s birthday (Joe is our network engineer, a friend, and has the office adjacent to mine).
Gerry Daniel > The weather was a little stormy this afternoon. I could only take a very few pictures and try to make one work. So this is what I have.
This morning at the reflecting pond at the botanical gardens, there was only one water lily flower that had opened. It was early and the flowers go back into their pods at some point at night. The water was very still, the sky was a nice shade of blue, and the reflections in the pool were beautiful. I only intended to shoot a little but the conditions were so nice I ended up shooting quite a few photographs (110 images if you are keeping score at home). Many of them are similar because I bracket my exposures on each shot. I chose this one for several reasons but the primary reason was because it was a different perspective from most of my previous water lily shots. Pretty much all of the others had been close-up shots highlighting the detail of the flower. I took plenty of close-up shots and uploaded some of them to the new water lily gallery (http://gldaniel02.smugmug.com/gallery/5388816_jr976/1/329992558_Jk6Yn).

My song for tonight is a classic written by Neil Young. This version is a cover performed by Natalie Merchant in concert. The song is “After the Gold Rush” from her “Live in Concert” album. It is a powerful version of this song.
> This morning at the reflecting pond at the botanical gardens, there was only one water lily flower that had opened. It was early and the flowers go back into their pods at some point at night. The water was very still, the sky was a nice shade of blue, and the reflections in the pool were beautiful. I only intended to shoot a little but the conditions were so nice I ended up shooting quite a few photographs (110 images if you are keeping score at home). Many of them are similar because I bracket my exposures on each shot. I chose this one for several reasons but the primary reason was because it was a different perspective from most of my previous water lily shots. Pretty much all of the others had been close-up shots highlighting the detail of the flower. I took plenty of close-up shots and uploaded some of them to the new water lily gallery (http://gldaniel02.smugmug.com/gallery/5388816_jr976/1/329992558_Jk6Yn). My song for tonight is a classic written by Neil Young. This version is a cover performed by Natalie Merchant in concert. The song is “After the Gold Rush” from her “Live in Concert” album. It is a powerful version of this song.
This morning at the reflecting pond at the botanical gardens, there was only one water lily flower that had opened. It was early and the flowers go back into their pods at some point at night. The water was very still, the sky was a nice shade of blue, and the reflections in the pool were beautiful. I only intended to shoot a little but the conditions were so nice I ended up shooting quite a few photographs (110 images if you are keeping score at home). Many of them are similar because I bracket my exposures on each shot. I chose this one for several reasons but the primary reason was because it was a different perspective from most of my previous water lily shots. Pretty much all of the others had been close-up shots highlighting the detail of the flower. I took plenty of close-up shots and uploaded some of them to the new water lily gallery (http://gldaniel02.smugmug.com/gallery/5388816_jr976/1/329992558_Jk6Yn).

My song for tonight is a classic written by Neil Young. This version is a cover performed by Natalie Merchant in concert. The song is “After the Gold Rush” from her “Live in Concert” album. It is a powerful version of this song.
Gallery pages:  <<  <  11  12  13  14  15  16  >  >>
< 120 of 231 >

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