SKYplay

So I'm not always the most creative person around. I mean, I love to do photography, and I love to capture on "film" things like gorgeous mountain scenery and stunning architecture. But I'm not so good at coming up with stuff that hasn't already been done a zillion times. But you must check out this guy's stuff - playing with clouds and so forth. Click through this set on Flickr. SUPER creative! Enjoy!

My failed "365 Project"

Have you heard of these "Project 365"'s? The idea is to take a photo every single day - for the purpose of pressing yourself to keep shooting, but even more importantly to keep thinking and to keep creating.

For a long time, I have known that a 365 project would be difficult for me with my lifestyle - as there are often times that I get up super early, go-go-go-go all day long, and come home for the first time again late in the evening and collapse with only a couple of hours left to sleep before it starts again.

For some reason, though, a couple of weeks ago, I decided to start a self-portrait 365 project. This is another evidence of my fool-hardiness - because I hate doing self-portraits. But the "requirements" for a self-portrait (as defined by one of the self-portrait 365 groups on Flickr) is to have some portion of your body in each image. Well, I didn't get more than a week's worth of shots. Take a look for yourself.

If I must admit it, though, there is one decent shot in that batch, a black & white shot of my arms and legs, sitting on the floor, relaxed and in jeans. I got the idea from one of my former students who had a similar shot of herself in her Facebook album. (I can't show you that shot or link to it due to Facebook's wonderful security features - of which I am fully supportive!) I'll just say "Thanks!" to Liz for the inspiration. :-)

The other thing that I must admit is that I learned a lot from my short attempt at the 365 Project - and that I fully intend to carry one out some day. In my decision to shoot such a very limited subject, I had to begin to consider all of the possible variables to create 365 shots and still avoid having them all be the same shoulder-up shot of my face (uck!) Some variables that I took into consideration were: setting/context, including other objects, unique crops, including other people, and so on.

It won't be soon, but eventually you'll be reading here that I am attempting a 365 again, and the next time I will be successful! In the meantime, here are some links to inspire you:

• Photojojo looks at Project 365


• Project 365 Group on Flickr


• My friend, Vi, takes wonderful self-portraits (She's beautiful to begin with!) She makes me want to learn to do some better self-portraits myself.


• Another Flickr friend, Shannon, who started her 365 self-portraits good, and just got better and better. I believe that she's at about 300 out of the 365. Go Shannon!

Solved!

I do believe that my server problems have been solved. This should take care of the problem!

I will post again tomorrow or the next day. In the meantime, please be sure to check out SapidExistence.

Sapid Existence

Every so often, I want to point you out to another photo blog or photography blog (there is a fine line!) So today, please take a look at my friend Chris' photo blog. He is one of my online photographer contacts, and he started commenting on Angaza Photography's blog before I even realized that anyone beyond my mother was reading it. :-) Now I've been having a great time following Chris's posts at Sapid Existence - it is truly a photo blog (as opposed to mine which is leaning more toward just a blog about photography). He posts a photo in each post, usually without much text. And he gets a new post up almost every day (at least several times a week). So please click on over to Sapid Existence and say hello to Chris for me!

Blueberry Picking and More

I have two things today. First of all, a couple of weeks ago I drove up to Upstate NY to visit my brother and his family. We took the kids blueberry picking, and I took a bunch of fun family photos. I also took a couple of more serious photos, just playing around. I think this one came out kind of nice.



Also, although I haven't finished processing or uploading all of the Arizona images from my visit this past April/May, I have created a separate Arizona Gallery. Although new posts to my portfolio will temporarily go into the "Recent Uploads" Gallery, the Arizona shots will eventually all end up in the AZ Gallery. Check it out.

My Buffalo City Hall on Twitter!!

WOW! I got an e-mail the other day from someone who works at Buffalo's CBS affiliate, WIVB Channel 4. He was setting up a Twitter account for the station and wanted to use THIS photo of mine of the Buffalo City Hall (he found it here at my Angaza site by Google-ing!) for the background for their Twitter homepage. They couldn't pay me, but he was happy to credit me and to put my Angaza Photography website URL on the image.

So, please take a visit to https://twitter.com/news4buffalo to see my image!! He had to desaturate it a bit, and had to blur it a bit (the photo itself has so much detail that he said it detracted from the content of the page....) But I'm pleased. If you're from Buffalo (and, really, who else would be following WIVB on Twitter?) then you'll recognize City Hall easily. (I hope!)

SOoooooo, thanks to WIVB and special thanks to Tim for plugging my photography!!

Smorgasbord

This weekend I have a smorgasbord of loose ends to tie up for you.

First of all, I continue to process my images from my trip to Arizona. I guess that the last half of the week I spent there I did a lot less landscape/nature shooting than during the first half of the week. I hope you find these shots interesting. This wall abstract is one of several similar shots that I took in various places throughout southeastern Arizona. Many of the buildings and homes had colorful stucco siding, common throughout the Southwest. Shots like this always make me think of my friend Sarah Underhill who I wrote about in a previous post. I learned so much from Sarah as a photographer. Colorful walls were some of her favorite subjects.

Like I said, you will find a smorgasbord today. In my Recent Additions gallery, you will find several photos from Arizona, a handful of shots from my safari in Kenya last summer, and some shots from the monuments in downtown DC. I've been (figuratively) all over the map lately. :-)

Please also notice that I have added an Arizona Gallery. Arizona shots will eventually end up there after they've outlived their welcome in the Recent Additions gallery.

Enjoy your weekend!

Beijing 2008!!

Are you looking forward to the Olympics? I am. I've always been a fan of the Olympics. Just the idea that the whole world sets aside their differences and comes together in a spirit of sportsmanship and competition - to support and encourage one another - it's so profoundly meaningful!

This year, I feel even more strongly about the spirit of the Olympics because they are being held in China. Many of us will have to think outside the box to embrace the idea that we can enjoy the experience of the Olympics in China!

Recently I discovered a fabulous photoblog at Boston.com called The Big Picture, News Stories in Photographs. They always have fabulous photo essays tied in to current events. This morning I discovered that their latest photo essay is about the upcoming Beijing games. You can see all of the images in this essay at http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/. I especially love the building shaped like the Olympic Flame.

Go USA!!

Digital Photography School

Another website that I'd like to feature is Digital Photography School. I only recently discovered this site - within the past six months or so. But I visit almost every day and could get lost and spend hours there. Check it out.

There are two main sections to Digital Photography School. First is the Digital Photography School Blog, with lots of great articles and tutorials and very interesting reading. They even run weekly photo contests and have weekly surveys. I always find something interesting in the blog. I especially want to share with you a recent article from the blog with twelve beautiful examples of silhouette photography. Check it out!

The other main section of of Digital Photography School is the Forum. There are so many wonderful discussion sections that I haven't had a chance to visit them all. My favorite section in the Forum is the Games and Challenges section. There is a lot of ongoing photo "play" there. For example, one of my favorites is the Photo Scavenger Hunt where the last post asks for a photo of something specific (for example, "Show me a photo of a banana split") and the next person posts a photo of a banana split and asks for a photo of something else from the next poster. Another game that I like is the Alphabet Game, where each person posts a photo of something that begins with the next letter of the alphabet - for example, the first post might be a photo of an Apple, the next might be a photo of a Basketball, the next might be a photo of a Cat. (My 6 year old nephew helped me with those examples - thanks, Ian!)

Check out Digital Photography School - you'll be hooked like I am!

World War II Memorial

It is absolutely NOT my intention to make this a DC themed photo blog. Really! But lately I've been doing quite a bit of photography downtown. Yeah. Anyway - I'm working on a "project" for a friend that is centered on the new(ish) World War II Memorial. There are several shots of it in my recent additions gallery. (There are also some shots from Arizona still in there - I am working on creating a separate Arizona gallery...)

Here are a couple of samples of my WWII Memorial shots. Enjoy!