02-01-10 Running Water

This is one of the many waterfalls at the Plitvice Lakes in Croatia. I had no tripod for the shots I took in this beautiful location so the water isn't quite as blurry as I'd like. The striking feature of the the Plitivice Lakes is the amazingly blue and clear water that flows through the park.

01-31-10 Aegean Sunset

Here's another "reflections" photo. It's Deb again, striking a pose on a cruise boat sailing the eastern Aegean Sea. I think that's the same sun that sets in South Dakota, though.

01-30-10 Top Ten

Thanks to those of you who responded to my "The End Is Near" post. I'm persuaded that I need to keep posting. It's a good thing for me because it makes me go back and look at photos I'd forgotten about. It also motivates me to try to capture new things in new ways.

Before I go back to photos, I thought I'd show you one more geeky blog statistic page. This one shows the ranking of photos over the last 11 months based on number of page visits. Interestingly, the most viewed photo on my blog is "View of a Nude Beach - Corfu." I don't think that it's the best picture of the 300+ pictures that are posted. I think the word "nude" is the secret to its success.

Among the other statistics I get are the search terms that brought people to my blog. And "nude" "nude photos" and "nude beach" bring people to my web site every day. I'm well aware that people like you don't get to "A Photo A Day" via Google. So relax. I know it's not your prurient interests that cause you to bookmark "A Photo A Day." Right?

If you've got a minute, try doing a Google photo search for "nude beach Corfu." WARNING: if you don't have safe search on, you will see more than the sand and sea at this beautiful little beach I photographed. You may even see some private parts. But you may also see my blog photo.

Incidentally, 4 of the top 10 photos in my blog are from Brian and Katie's wedding.

01-29-10 Reflections - Tropical Breeze

My wife doesn't really like it when I take her photo so instead I often take a photo of the reflections I see in her sunglasses. This is a palm tree in Mexico. But it's also a close-up Deb's head. She'll be thrilled.

01-28-10 The End Is Near

I don't mean 2012. I mean the end of this blog.

In this screen capture, you are looking at the monthly statistics for "A Photo A Day." Boring? Probably. I started this blog on February 21, 2009, and I plan on ending it on February 20.

What is interesting about the graph is that though it indicates that people take a look from time to time (over 25,000 hits), I have very little clue of who those people are. I would really appreciated hearing from you. I don't want to sound like I'm needy but if any of you can offer a compelling reason why I should continue and that I haven't become redundant, I may continue to post.

I do appreciate people taking the time to look at my pictures.

01-27-10 More Glassy Abstraction

There's not much art in the photograph - the art is in the amazing glass objects that were layered between Plexiglas panels in the ceiling of a walkway near The Museum of Glass in Tacoma, Washington.

01-26-10 Glass Abstraction

This was taken in a Venetian glass factory on a recent student trip. If I didn't tell you that these were teardrop decorations dangling from a VERY expensive chandelier, I'm guessing you may not know what you were looking at.

01-25-10 A Return To Summer

Over the top of my computer, as I look out my window, I seen blustery winter weather bringing more light snow that is mostly horizontal. There is a "winter weather advisory" this morning - whatever that means.

On my computer desktop, however, I am looking at a beautiful Stargazer lilly. It's not hard to imagine warmer summer weather, is it?

01-24-10 Going Down

There is an elevator to the top of the Arc de Triomphe but for the adventurous there are spiral stairs to the base. There is very little light in the stairwell and so I needed to use a high iso and slow shutter speed to get this photo.

One last thing: Does art imitate nature here? Check out this photo (click)

Canon 5D 1/30s f/1.2 ISO1250 50mm

01-23-10 Regan

This is another one of my early experiments in portraiture. Regan had come along on a photo shoot to provide company for a friend of hers I was photographing (whose pictures I can't find :-( ).

After photographing her friend, I asked Regan if she minded if I took a few pictures of her. She grudgingly agreed and this photo may show a little of her reluctance. I didn't know much about portraiture then but I did know that the soft window light I found for this portrait is flattering. I hadn't learned about Rembrandt lighting but it is present in this portrait.

01-22-10 Peaceful Moment

I was waiting for my tour group to gather after a tour of the Roman Colosseum. As always, the ancient building was crowded, noisy and swelteringly hot. I turned away from our group and found these two tourists sitting in the flood of light entering the colonnade, no doubt plotting their strategy for their visit to Rome. This photo makes the Colosseum look quiet, cool and relaxing. Maybe that's the magic of photography. Or may it's the deception.

There are many things I like about this photo: I like the repeating lines of the columns and the repeating bright and dark made by the Roman sunlight. I also like the pock marks that show the age of this place. Finally, I like that by accident the three primary colors are present in this photo, though in very muted shades. Can you see them?

01-21-10 Ellie

In the process of organizing my photo collection (400,000+!) I came across some of my first portrait sessions. This happens to be of a girl named Ellie and is one of my favorite portraits. I was shooting film in those days and then developing it in my makeshift darkroom. Once the negatives were ready, I used a high resolution film scanner and Photoshop to process the pictures.

Ellie was very relaxed and comfortable. I wasn't because I really didn't know anything about taking portraits. I thank her for this photo, which was taken in a doorway of an old barn north of Watertown.