5/366

There is something almost eerie about a spring-like day in the frozen north in January. Faces usually wrapped against the cold turn towards the weak sunshine, and towards each other and smile.

4/366

Only 4 days in, and I am already encountering a day with not enough photo time in it! So.. I grabbed the camera on the way out the door to work and found a whole new way of looking while there...

3/366

Today I found that while winter does come with muted tones, it is not all drear and drab. Perhaps, if I keep looking, I will even find some glitz.

2/366

There is a battle within once the holidays are over between the desire to put away all the trappings and trimmings so life can resume as normal; and to hang on for just a while longer to the color and glitz, before it is replaced with the muted tones of the heart of winter.
For today at least, the color will remain..

1/366

A challenge in the winter will be finding subjects/objects when stuck indoors. Finding a new way of looking at the nearby. This is where the "inane" comes in.

From the Inane to the Sublime: My 365 Photo Endeavour

January 1
I have debated beginning this commitment having been made aware of some of the drawbacks of taking it on:

-Fear of failure; not staying with it.
(So what.. like you have never quit anything before? That is no reason not to start!)
-Being less than completely satisfied with the quality of photos presented when quantity becomes a factor..
(Maybe time to lose Polly Perfect sometimes)
-Diminishing the joy of my hobby when it becomes a chore.
(Hmm.. well we shall see)

On the plus side, a little discipline in my life can't be a bad thing, and I sincerely would like to get better at photography. Practice can only make better even if perfection remains out of reach.

My tools for this adventure will be my 2 year old Pentax K-X and my Panasonic DMC-TS3, with the possibility that my Blackberry will even be used for some entries, although the quality there would have me cringing.

I use paint.net for post processing, although I should take the leap and attempt the quantum leap to Photoshop.

Feedback is welcome anytime.

Here we go....

Edit: Oh Geez.. forgot this is a leap year!!

Chasing the Future

I must admit, here and now, that I am no visionary. Even with knowledge of the current state and an awareness of past development in any given technology, I have never been able to foresee the evolution of it.
Growing up, I was fascinated by future visions.I loved The Jetsons, although even then I could imagine mid-air collisions of folks whizzing around wearing jet packs. Agent 86 and Inspector Gadget were my heroes. I longed for a Dick Tracy watch; how cool would it be to hear your friend's crackling voice coming from your watch!
A sci-fi nut from early on; I devoured novels by Jules Verne, amazed at his foresight. Some of the rocket man type fiction predicted in novels from the 50's had already been realized by the time I read them. By that time, hell; men were already leaving footie-prints on the moon!
Sure, I knew all about computers; my dad had used one at work. It filled a climate controlled room with mysterious metal cabinets, whirring sounds and spinning disks. Wearing the rose-coloured granny glasses of optimism, in the late sixties the future was now, with limitless possibilities. I watched "Here come the Seventies" eagerly and dreamed of living in my Domehome.
On a side note, it is interesting that, in researching this topic I have found that designers of futuristic cars through the last fifty years really have not changed up the vision. Their models all look like elongated drops of water, beautifully aerodynamic but 3 inches off the ground with zero trunk space. C'mon guys..
Anyway..You would think that all this attention I paid to it, that I would have my finger on the pulse of the emerging face of technology.
Yeah; not so much.
In a college advertising course in 1980,we were instructed to design an ad campaign for one of the following: a personal computer, a personal video camera, a compact disk player or a mobile phone. Admittedly that year was pivotal, with development at a peak in all those products which, unlike myself, my instructor was apparently aware of.
There I sat, shaking my head. You gotta be kidding, right? What would anyone want with a personal computer? Why do we need CD players; I mean look at the history there.. 8-tracks were a monumental failure, as evidenced by the stack of them I had collecting dust. My cassette player was just fine. A video camera would be great, but who is going to want to lug around 30 lbs of equipment?
And a mobile phone? Pfft..never!!
I do not at this point even remember which I chose, or how I promoted my product; but I am pretty sure the names PC, camcorder, CD or cellular never came up.
I hang my head in shame.
The upside of this is that I am continuously amazed and surprised at developments in science and technology, which is a wonderful thing. I cringe at my hindsight, and try to nurture my foresight.. but it sure ain't easy.