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Looking back at 2011, it was a pretty interesting year, especially when it came to the happenings of the Newsvine Photographers group. It certainly started on a high-note anyway. The official recognition was undoubtedly a community motivator behind the many significant events that happened throughout the year and that leads me to believe you Photographers are capable of achieving great things, given the proper motivation.
Surely the coming year will bring unknown change, which is essential in maintaining a healthy environment. While we work toward a better group for tomorrow and continue to struggle through our struggles, let us revisit some of the year's high-points from our columns for inspiration for the future. Here's what I thought was significant from my Photographers column in 2011:
High-key Low-key
In terms of participation, the March 2011 High-key Low Key challenge is undoubtedly the greatest Newsvine Photographers photo-challenge ever. If you read through the comments on this article and visit the many articles linked there, you'll see the great effort that the NVP community put into understanding the decidedly difficult (and somewhat confusing) challenge. It's the quintessential example of the environment Newsvine Photographers had become, a mini-community that sought to 'learn photography here' though participation and cooperation.
Day One
This was the photograph that sparked ideas of beginning a 365 project (taking one new photo every day for one year). I said that if three distinct new images could be produced for three days the project would be green-lighted. Uh, things got really hectic for awhile there and, unfortunately, the 365 will need to be started over after 200-something days. There are several days of images waiting to be processed and uploaded still. The plan is to begin another project on February 14th (no relation to Valentines Day). This is my favorite portrait shot of the pooch.
Keyboard Switch
The switch didn't happen in 2011 but I took this shot that inspired an article explaining the story behind why I now use both the Dvorak and QWERTY keyboard layouts. It's because of an article that had been published on Newsvine in 2007 (no longer available). This keyboard was several years old and had never been thoroughly cleaned. Thinking back now, I should taken a dirty keyboard shot too. Because some of they keys would only go in upside down in the new layout, I made sure to feature the 'U' in this image. Unfortunately, this keyboard did not make it through to the end of the year.
@!$%# Cleanup
After embarking on the 365 project and vowing to write an article every day for Newsvine, I began looking into photographing national days for "inspiration", you know, like National Cookie Day, and what not, as a back-up. I was lucky to come by International Pooper Scooper Week in time and headed out to the soggy, oops-I-should-have-maybe-picked-up-some-of-that-poop-over-the-winter yard, setup the tripod, and began stepping in dog crap. I didn't foresee myself intentionally stepping in @!$%# but it was a lot more fun than one might imagine.
Late Snow
The Minnesotan winter last year was brutal. If you recall, there was so much snow the inflatable roof of MetroDome collapsed. It was, if remembered correctly, in the top five snow seasons on record in Minneapolis. We were so sick of shoveling that when this April 19th snow shower happened, everyone was understandably upset and flabbergasted. This building's red brick made the large snow flakes really stand out.
Gas Prices
You always intend to write 'hard-hitting' articles and being able pair it with your photography is a huge plus. I don't seem to be able to get to them very often anymore. Tomorrow's acts of journalism will require knowing it all: finding assignments, research, writing, photography, and video. It's not clear why but this photograph of four dollar a gallon gasoline inspired the writing of: Tired of 'High' Gas Prices? Too #*@%$^$ Bad, Infrastucture Doesn't Allow Much Reduction of Demand, which was basically my only act of 'journalism' for 2011.
Special Challenge
When dear rottlady went into surgery to have her gall bladder removed, I initially intended to take up a collection and send flowers to her doorstep, but instead headed out the door on a warm but gloomy spring day in search of other people's flowers to 'give' her. Yes, Elizabeth, I scoured the neighborhood, clippers in hand, as nothing in my yard was in bloom, for flowers to steal for you. I hope this lent more to the gesture. If that wasn't enough, surely the response from asking everyone else to follow suit (no one was encouraged to steal) was. What an honor to be among such company.
Product Placement
This was one of those shots that was almost skipped over. I circled around several times before making the final decision. This Diet Coke can had been left on these stacked pavers at the American Indian OIC. Much to my surprise, this image garnered a lot of views (by my standards) on Flickr, though it's not fully clear why. It is a nice simple composition with a random object, but I'm guessing the thumbnail didn't clearly tell the viewer what that object was. The curiosity must have gotten the better of them. Given the title, one could also view this as a statement on the pervasiveness of advertising (which Coca Cola spends a lot on).
Fallen Squirrel
It was absolutely heartbreaking to see this dead squirrel on the Midtown Greenway that had obviously fallen from one of the bridges above. The camera was on my back and after slowly riding by, it beckoned, and an internal struggle began. Am I brave enough to ride back and risk being seen taking a photograph of a dead, bloody squirrel? Yes. Does that mean I have to remove it from the path? Unfortunately, yes. Am I brave enough to write an article and post the picture? Yes. It's my most popular article to date (pageviews-wise).
Forced Perspective
The photograph was shot for the Newsvine Photographers July & August forced perspective photo-challenge. The idea was to make it appear as though I was posing in warrior three on the back of this poor, tiny rocking-horse ornament. There was only two seconds to get into pose, so the form appears terrible. It was difficult to get it lined up properly. On this day, it was 96 degrees and the dew point was in the upper 80s (and I burned my feet on the pavement). You can't see it but I am drenched in sweat from just standing there. Considering all, this was definitely the most challenging photo shoot of the year.
Macro Lens
The lens was a sort of impulse purchase and "reward". It was decided to break into the camera savings fund and purchase the CPL and camera cleaning kit that was on my list. I headed to the downtown location of National Camera Excange, which was very convenient, only to learn the building had been closed. The next nearest location was in Golden Valley, which is a distance of 14 miles and a long bike ride. The lens was cheap ($19) but old and *everything* has to be done manually. This is probably my favorite shot of the year.
These weren't necessarily the the "Top 11 in '11" (thanks etva) because there were too many to choose from. There will be one more article from me for this month's photo-challenge. All in all, 2011 was a great year, photographically and otherwise. I hope you enjoyed the review and wish you a happy new year.
I raise my glass to you all.
Cheers!
