366 Snaps Outtakes

We're approaching the hamlet on Saginaw Highway (yeah, it turns to dirt out here), from the east. I'd take and post a similar photo to this on March 3--similar, but quite a different treatment. I rather like the depth this photo shows.... ========== Joan was ill and stayed home last February 6, so I didn't wander far from the house. I played a lot with the camera/phone's settings, using the cats as photo subjects. I then drove a bit around the immediate area and continued experimenting. Subjects included another of the Spitzley farms and a short tour of Hoytville. The results were pretty good, overall, and I'd try several of the shots again. My fave of the day's photos, by far, was of Joan and Oreo, reading. ========== This photograph is an outtake from my 2012 photo-a-day project, 366 Snaps . Number of project photos taken: 27 Title of " roll :" Mulliken & Hoytville Other photos taken on 2/6/2012: none.

Before our house moved to Mulliken, it lived in Grand Ledge. Where the car wash lives now.... Wandered into Grand Ledge last February 7 to get a haircut. While I was there, I stopped to get the car cleaned. I'd try this again on April 11 , and post that effort to 366 Snaps . ========== This photograph is an outtake from my 2012 photo-a-day project, 366 Snaps . 366/2012 project discussion here .

Before our house moved to Mulliken, it lived in Grand Ledge. Where the car wash lives now.... Wandered into GL last February 7 to get a haircut. While I was there, I stopped to get the car cleaned. I'd try this again on April 11 , and post that effort to 366 Snaps . ========== By the seventh I had (finally) gotten comfortable the Bionic's camera--the day's pix were interesting, properly exposed, in focus, and generally sharp. I tried a few early-morning shots from the corner store's parking lot, took some odd and experimental pix of my car, and made an effort to capture some wide-open farm space. Not a bad day's set. While I was out I stopped for breakfast at Bob Evans. Probably PSE's black & white "stained glass" effect didn't improve the daily photo, but it seemed worth trying. ========== This photograph is an outtake from my 2012 photo-a-day project, 366 Snaps . Number of project photos taken: 29 Title of " roll :" Car Wash Other photos taken on 2/7/2012: none.

This photo wouldn't seem to need much description: This is downtown Mulliken, looking east from Ionia Street. ========== Once you get comfortable with a new camera the nature of your experiments change. Nearly everything I shot last February 8 was obviously experimental: Light and shadow contrasts in the house, oddly-framed downtown images, some focus forcing, and many panoramic shots. I rarely shoot panoramas. On this date, I shot a dozen of 'em. On the eighth I posted (for the second time in the 366 Snaps project) a photograph of Creative Taxidermy . As a pano. It was a bit twisted. ========== This photograph is an outtake from my 2012 photo-a-day project, 366 Snaps . Number of project photos taken: 28 (7 of these were from the previous night, of Taffy stealing a drink from Joan's mug) Title of " roll :" Main Street Other photos taken on 2/8/2012: none.

Stare at this one a while. Stare at it some more. It's very strange. It's even stranger than you think.... ========== This photograph is an outtake from my 2012 photo-a-day project, 366 Snaps . 366/2012 project discussion here .

The wall in our living room. Some days photography really is playing with light.... Unlike the Cybershot, the Bionic has a monochrome mode, so my February 2012 photographs were almost exclusively taken in black and white. This picture's color is the unintentional product of a bug, which I mentioned a couple days back --if I set the phone's camera to b&w, then changed other settings, it lost the monochrome. Looks like this bug's been fixed, though I've not made extensive tests. ========== The 366 Snaps photo--"The Shed at the End of Main Street"--drew interesting (and very different) comments on Flickr and Facebook. WindsorDi pointed out that someone loved the shed, as evidenced by its decorations, while Lane Smith riffed on the picture's title. ========== This photograph is an outtake from my 2012 photo-a-day project, 366 Snaps . Number of project photos taken: 44 (includes 8 low-light experiments from the previous evening) Title of " roll :" Birds & Mulliken Other photos taken on 2/9/2012: none.

Our house, from down the road a bit, with new-fallen snow. It snowed all day last February 10, beginning about the time I got up. This gave me a chance to experiment with contrast issues; on the whole, the day's efforts were interesting. The day's early pictures show a light dusting; later shots show everything gone white. ========== Drove into Grand Ledge, apparently just to get breakfast, and pulled off the road to take a few pictures on the return trip. The best of those shots became my 366 Snaps photo, and showed a mid-field farmyard through fairly heavy snow. I'd show you that farmyard again on October 26 , but from a different angle. You'll see the place again in the outtakes. Promise. ========== This photograph is an outtake from my 2012 photo-a-day project, 366 Snaps . Number of project photos taken: 43 Title of " roll :" Mulliken & GL Other photos taken on 2/9/2012: So far the only February pix I've taken which can't be attributed to the 366 project are eBay auction prep: 11 of those on this date, shot with the big Nikon.

The patched cracks in Brittany Lane apparently hold heat a bit better than the unpatched paving. I rather like the resulting look. This photograph is an outtake from my 2012 photo-a-day project, 366 Snaps . 366/2012 project discussion here .

The previous day's snowstorm continued overnight, then the morning brought sunshine and single-digit temperatures. So my February 11 photographs included thermometer shots, pix of drifts, efforts to show the snow's depth, images of our buried garden, and captures of shadows. Including, inevitably, a handful of trellis shots. ========== This photograph is an outtake from my 2012 photo-a-day project, 366 Snaps . Number of project photos taken: 64 Title of " roll :" Let's Just Chill Out Other photos taken on 2/11/2012: none.

The twelfth day of February was still snowy, so I started with a couple garden shots. This was the day's first photo. I took several pix along my usual route to the Thriftway, then several more of Swede's Restaurant, which neighbors the store. For 366 Snaps I went with one of those. On my return to the house I found Taffy'd taken refuge in the covered cat bed, which is too small for her. I wasted a bakers' dozen poorly-lit shots trying to capture that. ========== Which reminds me: Parts of my daily life are surprisingly well documented: The photographs, themselves, often tell stories, particularly if you sort the set into time sequence. Facebook logs everything you tell it (only the Swede's photo on February 12). LibraryThing tells me I wrote (posted) a review of Alexander Kent's In Gallant Company on that date, which suggests I finished the book that day. I also posted that review to my blog, a dabbler's journal . Then I duplicated my (December 2009) LT review of James Schmidt's Agent of Vega on dabbler , this duplication being part of a daily project that stretched over several months. I didn't ride my bike on 2/12/2012, but would do so (in the basement, on a rack) the next morning. I can't, however, tell you what we had for supper, or whether we ate out. I expect I'll return to this theme on or about March 20. Keep your eyes peeled. ========== This photograph is an outtake from my 2012 photo-a-day project, 366 Snaps . Number of project photos taken: 28 Title of " roll :" Around Mulliken [again. my default title] Other photos taken on 2/12/2012: none.

Last February 13's 366 Snaps photo began with the title--The Wolfe Pack's an NYC-based Nero Wolfe fan club, and their web site contains a wealth of information about Stout's books. I had these titles stacked up so I could lend them to my sister. As you'd perhaps guess, I'm a Nero Wolfe fan m'self. This was a frustrating photo session. The light was terrible, so I kept adjusting the settings and changing angles in an effort to get a presentable image. Most were awful. I see I put a comment about that in the tags: "Gosh the Droid's a terrible camera." Regardless, the idea's a "funny-once" joke. Here I am repeating it.... ========== This photograph is an alternate version from my 2012 photo-a-day project, 366 Snaps . Number of project photos taken: 21 Title of " roll :" Wolfe Pack Other photos taken on 2/13/2012: none.

The Tigers play their first exhibition tomorrow. Baseball's coming! ========== As she left for work last Valentine's Day, Joan asked if I had a plan for the day. I told her I had a photo assignment.... Craig Wieczorkiewicz, host of the Midwest League Traveler website , had been begging for photographs of "snowbound" Midwest League stadiums in Michigan. Although snowbound was probably an exaggeration, I set out to supply some Lansing shots. Took my phone and the big Nikon with me and wandered around the periphery of the place I think of as Olds Park but which now goes by another name. I expected I'd post a photo of one or another of the ballyard's statues to 366 Snaps , which is what occurred (deliberately vignetted, probably using Bibble Pro's Vigne plugin). I put the best of the day's set on my baseball flickr . And here's what Craig did with the pix . This, though, is the best photo I took that day--and I took it with the phone cam I'd been cursing the day before. It all depends.... ========== This photograph is an outtake from my 2012 photo-a-day project, 366 Snaps . Number of project photos taken: 21 Title of " roll :" Cooley Other photos taken on 2/14/2012: As I say above, I took 17 more ballpark photos with the D300.

The first Flickr 365-daily-photo efforts I was aware of were all self-portrait projects. The first I closely followed was starpixie's --which was creative in ways I hadn't imagined possible (all in all, I just adore Beth, though her Flickr stream's grown dull). I, on the other hand, rarely photograph myself, and when I do the pix usually turn out stiff and boring. But last February I was using a camera designed for self-portraiture, so for one day I turned the lens my way. I'm sure I'd be a better photographer if I'd put m'self through a selfie project--I'd learn about effective posing, and I'd likely acquire a bunch of technical tricks I'd find useful elsewhere. But I fear I'm not that interested.... ========== This photograph is an outtake from my 2012 photo-a-day project, 366 Snaps . Number of project photos taken: 18 Title of " roll :" Let's Do a Selfie Today Other photos taken on 2/15/2012: none.

I love the fan in our kitchen, and occasionally try to photograph it. I'd finally post its pic to 366 Snaps on July 16 . I'm not entirely certain this one isn't better. What they aren't is alike . ========== I took photographs in the kitchen and living room last February 16--eight of the fan, four of the fruit bowl, four of my shoes, and five of Taffy. These were all low-light photographs and it's clear that I was experimenting with the camera app's settings. Nearly all of the day's photographs were good. I'd reuse some of these ideas later in the 366 project. ========== This photograph is an outtake from my 2012 photo-a-day project, 366 Snaps . Number of project photos taken: 21 Title of " roll :" The Cat and the Kitchen Other photos taken on 2/16/2012: none.

I'd manage a far better version of this photo on February 24 , and post that to 366 Snaps . 366/2012 project discussion here . This photograph is an outtake from my 2012 photo-a-day project, 366 Snaps .

Last February 17 I had the fastest DMV stop ever: Renewed plates, renewed my photo license, got my picture took, paid, and back to my car in less than 10 minutes. Not bad. ========== I've a low tolerance for DMV jokes, partly because I spent an entire career working for Michigan's Department of State. Besides, the branch manager at the Delta Plus Office--that's this picture--is a friend. But the excellent service was mostly the product of good timing. This photograph is an outtake from my 2012 photo-a-day project, 366 Snaps . 366/2012 project discussion here .

Ah, memories.... ========== See the 5035 First Street photo for some discussion of what Wall Lake means to me. Eventually you grow weary of always shooting pictures in the neighborhood. I delivered the Nero Wolfe books to my sister last February 17, and found a chance to photograph something different. On my way to Kalamazoo I stopped in Delton, where we'd lived for a time in the seventies, to photograph the cottages my parents had owned. Turns out that only one is still standing. I also took a few pix of the area, and wished we still owned the property. I got off the highways for the return trip from Kalamazoo, since I had the time and knew the roads. The Christle barn photo I posted to 366 Snaps was an opportunity shot; it happens to be another Delton address, but near Fair Lake. ========== This photograph is an outtake from my 2012 photo-a-day project, 366 Snaps . Number of project photos taken: 10 Title of " roll :" Kalamazoo Outing Other photos taken on 2/17/2012: none.

About the time the Army shipped me to Vietnam my parents purchased a pair summer cottages--part of a retired resort--at Wall Lake. While the cottages weren't on the water, you could see the lake in two directions, and we had docking privileges at the end of the road. 'Twas a pleasant place to summer. This was the larger cottage. A few years back the little cottage was still standing, but it's now gone. (But the photos I took in 2005 are just awful. Last February 17 I did better.) Mom & Dad sold the Kalamazoo house in 1972, so for a time this was our primary residence. Neither cottage was properly winterized--in fact, the small cottage only had a space heater--so we were glad to move back into Kalamazoo when they bought a Winchell-neighborhood home in early December. My parents sold the Wall Lake place in '73. Living in two locations turned out to be a lot of work. So we never returned to First Street, except to inspect, clean up, and visit friends. Frankly I'm surprised that any of the resort cottages remain. The base of Wall Lake's point had mostly cabins when we lived there; now there are many substantial homes. Four decades will do that. ========== This photograph is an outtake from my 2012 photo-a-day project, 366 Snaps . 366/2012 project discussion here .