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Gerry Daniel > rocks, trees, reflections
Gerry Daniel > 2008 Daily Photo Community photo
Gerry Daniel > 2008 Daily Photo Community photo
Gerry Daniel > Granted the photo I posted yesterday was nothing exciting but it is part of the process of learning, so it seemed like a good idea to record a baseline. It's often hard to judge progress without the baseline to give a point of reference. One of the aspects of photography that has been dormant for me in recent months is to stretch my comfort zone. Experimenting is fun, challenging, and a necessary element of growth. We often forget to enjoy the journey and focus too hard on the destination. There are many advantages to being in the moment, enjoying the journey. Being open to the experience along the way and being aware of the many paths that can lead to the destination can make all the difference. Sometimes, if you allow yourself that freedom, the destination may be somewhere different than you expected or the destination can involve many opportunities that might not have been apparent when you started. In a broad sense, I think that my destination in photography is unknown. It's more a case of having places I want to visit while I travel towards that unknown. Some of the places won't be revealed until I have journeyed to other places along the way. The photo I posted yesterday was somewhat crude. Crude in an unfinished sense, not in a negative sense. Today's photo is a marker along the road, it's representative of the distance from yesterday to today on trying to learn how to take certain types of photos. It is by no means indicative of reaching the destination for this branch of the trip. There is still plenty of progress to be made, plenty of crudeness in the image. In the twelfth month of this photography project for 2008, it's easy to lose a sense of where I have been, what I've done, accomplishments and failures. It's easy to get frustrated and let this project become a grind. There have been many days when I have wondered if I should stop, days when I have questioned whether I belonged in this community with so many talented photographers, days when I was too hard on myself for not achieving the outcome I wanted. Part of those negative feelings have been personal criticism of my skill as a photographer but part of the negative feelings have been things from other areas of my life influencing how I felt about my photography. This is a diverse group and each person has their own challenges that are independent of what is in our photographs. It's important for me to remember why I am here, in this community, involved in this project. Fun and personal enjoyment need to be at the top of the list. Whether you like the photo from yesterday, today, or tomorrow is not for me to decide. It's beyond my scope of control. The funny thing about submitting photos here is that it has remained an act of sharing and how an image will be interpreted is an unknown. It is still gratifying when people truly like one of my images but it isn't an expectation nor a requirement. Today's song is by Yoav, the title is "Where Is My Mind?" from the "Charmed and Strange" 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 > We had thundershowers this afternoon but there was a break between them when the sun peeked out then clouds took over again. Shooting after a rain is one of my favorite times to take photographs. Today’s photo is just the underside of a lily pad. The patterns on the underside of the leaf and the water droplets from the rain were visually interesting to me. Today’s iTunes song is “Nobody’s Cryin’” by Patty Griffin from “A Kiss In Time”.
Gerry Daniel > I am making a conscious effort to not photograph the water lilies for a while. It was becoming sort of a rut and a bit of a crutch. Thanks for being polite while I worked through it.
Gerry Daniel > After being away since February, I am sorta slipping back into the Daily Photo Community. It will probably not be a daily thing for me, I just don't have the drive for the daily grind required for getting one in the group every day. I am a few days late posting this one but didn't make the decision to create the gallery the day I took the photo. The only significance is that this is my first water lily photo for 2009. Seemed like a good place to start for getting somewhat back in the group. Song for the day is "Wait for the Summer" from the "All Hour Cymbals" album by Yeasayer.
Gerry Daniel > I was up early this morning for the Farmer’s Market. A person with a tomato addiction has to get there early to make sure they have a shot at the best tomatoes. It’s all about setting priorities. So despite the fact that it was a Saturday morning and technically I could have slept late, fresh tomatoes were calling me. Late this afternoon I took some sunset pictures. They didn’t turn out well at all. I am not sure what was wrong. It might have just been a dull sunset. But luckily, the morning photos at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens were decent. This photograph was taken In the Japanese Gardens. The IPod song for today is by The Weepies, titled “Not Your Year” from the “Say I Am You” album.
After being away since February, I am sorta slipping back into the Daily Photo Community. It will probably not be a daily thing for me, I just don't have the drive for the daily grind required for getting one in the group every day. I am a few days late posting this one but didn't make the decision to create the gallery the day I took the photo. The only significance is that this is my first water lily photo for 2009. Seemed like a good place to start for getting somewhat back in the group.

Song for the day is "Wait for the Summer" from the "All Hour Cymbals" album by Yeasayer.
Gerry Daniel > After being away since February, I am sorta slipping back into the Daily Photo Community. It will probably not be a daily thing for me, I just don't have the drive for the daily grind required for getting one in the group every day. I am a few days late posting this one but didn't make the decision to create the gallery the day I took the photo. The only significance is that this is my first water lily photo for 2009. Seemed like a good place to start for getting somewhat back in the group. Song for the day is "Wait for the Summer" from the "All Hour Cymbals" album by Yeasayer.
After being away since February, I am sorta slipping back into the Daily Photo Community. It will probably not be a daily thing for me, I just don't have the drive for the daily grind required for getting one in the group every day. I am a few days late posting this one but didn't make the decision to create the gallery the day I took the photo. The only significance is that this is my first water lily photo for 2009. Seemed like a good place to start for getting somewhat back in the group.

Song for the day is "Wait for the Summer" from the "All Hour Cymbals" album by Yeasayer.
See photo in original gallery.
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