Photographic excellence at Wikipedia

Hanford Site scientists feeding radioactive food to sheep

My first book experience with Lightroom 4

Regular readers of this blog, if they existed, would recall that I undertook a photographic project in the spring, giving up all of my lenses but one for Lent. I found the project to be enjoyable and productive, and—as threatened—I’ve put together a book of the project.

The book is now available for purchase, but that’s not the reason for this post. I’ve had my copy of the book for a few weeks now, and I’m happy with how it turned out, but I generally wouldn’t recommend it for others to buy. My project was a helpful undertaking for my own development. But the result was a bunch of single images that I was very pleased with. It was not a cohesive whole, either visually or thematically. You can find better photography books to spend your money on. (Also, my share of the book’s sale price is truly minimal—probably less than if you bought someone else’s book through that Amazon affiliate link!)

Instead, I’d like to write a few thoughts on the book-making process, as I experienced it.

There was a hole in my mind

I knew that Crash was a weird movie about people who have a car accident fetish, and I heard that Crash won a ton of awards.

But until tonight, I never realized these were two different movies.

Thanks, Reddit.

Jersey Shore: The Professor and Mary Ann

Here’s “the rest”: The vacation pictures that didn’t fit any of the past few days’ galleries.

After Hours (best viewed large by clicking the image)

Jersey Shore: Birds

I previously posted series on Snowy Egrets arguing over a mate and a Great Egret, but here’s the rest of the wingèd crew.

Northern Cardinal, preening

Jersey Shore: Neon & Neoff

Jersey Shore: Figure Study

At Cape May Point State Park, a cooperative Great Egret posed for me on a pier. I think I may have interrupted his Tai Chi routines.

Jersey Shore: Boardwalk

More scenes from vacation in Wildwood, New Jersey.

Marbles Championship

Jersey Shore: Egregious Behavior

This is the first of several posts showing photographs from our recent vacation to Wildwood and Cape May, New Jersey.

While looking for Red Knots at Cook’s Beach, on the bayshore north of Cape May, we observed the following scene involving a female Snowy Egret, a male who attempted to court her, and another male who objected to the first male’s advances. The dialogue is an interpretation by yours truly.

"Hey, baby, I like the way you wiggle your toes when you fish. You come here often?"