Gerry Daniel > Not too much to say today.  I am mentally very tired, it's been a tough week at work and the holidays always seem to bring extra stress.  It seems like every year, there is this excitement about the holidays, all of the joy and excitement that has been in my head from when I was a kid, but the reality as an adult is that it is a mixture of moods and feelings.  People have their own issues going on in their lives, everybody is trying hard to meet this expectation of what they want the holidays to be, but reality is that like photography, the holidays for the most part are isolated moments of joy, excitement, expectation, hope, conflict, exhaustion, disappointment, and sadness.  But it is life in microcosm.  But like Charlie Brown and Lucy with the football, we are Charlie Brown every year, Lucy is holding the holiday football and encouraging us to kick it. We anticipate the joy but we have been fooled before and hesitate.  Then she encourages us to try again and we run to kick it with all the hope in the world.

Today's song is by Andrew Bird, the title is "Imitosis" from the "Armchair Apocrypha" album.
Gerry Daniel > This afternoon I had an opportunity to shoot outside.  It was nice to change settings and get back into the woods.  It has rained a fair bit lately and the late autumn air had a nice rich smell.  There were leaves scattered all over the woods and the trails.  The leaves in today's photo reminded me of leather.  It was something about the colors and the textures.

Today's song is by Wolf Parade, the title is "Fine Young Cannibals" from the "At Mount Zoomer" album.
Gerry Daniel > At some point in the future, I plan to buy a nice macro lens.  Until then, I will have to settle for close-up filters.  This is just a picture of a knot in a rope.  I had fun playing with the close-up filters but didn’t exactly come up with anything stunning.

I appreciate all of the encouragement from the group the last few days.  My issues with my photographs are influenced a lot by my mood away from the camera.  I apologize for bringing some of that baggage over here, for better or worse the daily photographs end up being a photo blog of sorts.  It is a nice way to record the year and life creeping into the mix is inevitable.  Lately I haven’t been able to contribute as much as I’d like to the community in terms of commenting on your images.  Hopefully this week will be better for me in terms of time to look at the other galleries.
Gerry Daniel > There was something about these little flowers that caught my attention this afternoon.  Most of my shots for the afternoon were of larger flowers like irises and roses.  Part of my time tonight was exploring better techniques for converting an image to a high contrast black & white photograph.  It was time well spent and no doubt will come in handy down the road.  Today’s shot however is in full color.
Gerry Daniel > used to be hope, just a shadow now

there was a time when i was concerned about developing a style, something that would set my images apart and make them recognizable as one of my shots - some of the photographers in the dailies have a distinctive "look" to their photographs - at this point, finding a style isn't important to me - what is important is that my images capture what was in my vision for the photograph - at some point, maybe a style will emerge, maybe it won't - it was and always will be about the image not about style

"what about the flying monkeys?" you wonder - that is totally not my problem but if you see any, hopefully they will be smaller monkeys that aren't able to pick you up and fly away with you - if you are chased by flying monkeys, remember to use the zombie strategy, trip someone else to create a diversion and give yourself time to escape, also remember that monkeys have thumbs so they can turn door knobs, use the dead bolt

i know what you're thinking, "are there any flying monkeys in that building?" i don't know for sure but it does look like the kind of place they might hide, that broken window makes me a little uneasy - i know i said that the smaller flying monkeys were less of a threat, but if they travel together like a street gang, if there are enough of them, the fact that they are small won't be much help

this is more complicated than i thought
Gerry Daniel > bricks, bench, and shadows
Gerry Daniel > 2008 Daily Photo Community photo
Gerry Daniel > There is a shot of a Japanese Hydrangea in the Bonus Tracks gallery, along with a few other shots from today.  I had never seen a Japanese Hydrangea before and photographed it because it was both unusual and pretty.  For some reason, I have found water lilies to be a great subject this spring.  The flowers and the plants look so prehistoric to me, very primitive.  The one today had a pretty purple flower and the others I had seen were either pink or white.  The bloom on this water lily seemed to glow, almost like it had an internal light source and was radiating.  If you are keeping score, this is not the first water lily to make my pick as the daily photo, it isn’t even the first one this month.  One of the hard things about selecting the daily photo on some days is that what has already been shot and posted to the daily gallery, especially in a given month, will often influence my choice.  If I had been choosing on variety, one of the other shots would have been the choice today.  But you know me, I live on the edge.  Yep, I am out there pushing the limits.  So against all odds, today’s daily photo is a water lily.  I would have tried to build some suspense but you would have already seen the image by now so the element of surprise was gone.  Or was it?  Look back, maybe the image has changed.  Nah, it’s still the water lily.

Once again, thanks so much for all of the comments and support from the group on my photographs.  It means a lot, especially because there is so much talent in this community.  Being around your galleries for the past several months has been a huge help to my photography.
Gerry Daniel > another world
At some point in the future, I plan to buy a nice macro lens. Until then, I will have to settle for close-up filters. This is just a picture of a knot in a rope. I had fun playing with the close-up filters but didn’t exactly come up with anything stunning.

I appreciate all of the encouragement from the group the last few days. My issues with my photographs are influenced a lot by my mood away from the camera. I apologize for bringing some of that baggage over here, for better or worse the daily photographs end up being a photo blog of sorts. It is a nice way to record the year and life creeping into the mix is inevitable. Lately I haven’t been able to contribute as much as I’d like to the community in terms of commenting on your images. Hopefully this week will be better for me in terms of time to look at the other galleries.
Gerry Daniel > At some point in the future, I plan to buy a nice macro lens.  Until then, I will have to settle for close-up filters.  This is just a picture of a knot in a rope.  I had fun playing with the close-up filters but didn’t exactly come up with anything stunning.

I appreciate all of the encouragement from the group the last few days.  My issues with my photographs are influenced a lot by my mood away from the camera.  I apologize for bringing some of that baggage over here, for better or worse the daily photographs end up being a photo blog of sorts.  It is a nice way to record the year and life creeping into the mix is inevitable.  Lately I haven’t been able to contribute as much as I’d like to the community in terms of commenting on your images.  Hopefully this week will be better for me in terms of time to look at the other galleries.
At some point in the future, I plan to buy a nice macro lens. Until then, I will have to settle for close-up filters. This is just a picture of a knot in a rope. I had fun playing with the close-up filters but didn’t exactly come up with anything stunning.

I appreciate all of the encouragement from the group the last few days. My issues with my photographs are influenced a lot by my mood away from the camera. I apologize for bringing some of that baggage over here, for better or worse the daily photographs end up being a photo blog of sorts. It is a nice way to record the year and life creeping into the mix is inevitable. Lately I haven’t been able to contribute as much as I’d like to the community in terms of commenting on your images. Hopefully this week will be better for me in terms of time to look at the other galleries.
See photo in original gallery.

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