I'm writing this on my 53rd birthday and its time to reflect on the past year as it relates to this blog and what it meant to me and how well it was received by you my readers.  The goal of the blog was to encourage (force?) me to practice my photography by making sure I did something with my camera each and every week.  The only way one gets better at anything is to practice it and photography is no exception.

Commissary at the childhood home of President Jimmy Carter

I certainly got out and took more pictures than I would have had I not been doing the blog and in the end it was worth it.  I am in the process of creating a couple of different photo books to capture it all in a permanent fashion (no, I don't think the internet is permanent enough - print your pictures, people).  I can tell already that I am going to cherish these books as they will bring back fond memories of this year in my life and the events captured in this blog.

My biggest photo excursion this past year was when Amy and I drove the Blue Ridge Parkway on our way to Georgia to visit her folks.  Because a self imposed rule of the blog was that the pictures posted had to be taken within the past week, I ended up with more pictures to share than what I could post.  I intentionally left this week's bonus picture for use in this summary posting.  

Dandelion back lit by the sun.

I planned our itinerary for the trip around a two day stay near Mabry Mill with the sole purpose of photographing the iconic location and I never even put the results in my blog until now.  I hope you like it.  The other pictures shared this week were going to be main pictures for the blog but ended up being replaced by a different idea.   The study of a dandelion gone to seed was replaced with the blog involving the glow stick, for example.

Now for some stats about the blog.  The blog started out being very much about photography and some postings where true to the theme, like how to shoot a whiskey bottle ad picture (5th most popular posting).  

Picture of the moon through a telescope with Nikon D300

The blog also served as a journal of what I did during the past week which may not have been strictly about photography.  The most popular posting of all was one such post about our annual Christmas party, where the number of unique views exceeded 350.  For comparison, the second most viewed posting was also about a social activity with friends and received 180 views and the third most popular (145) was my hike up Mount Katahdin with my son Doug.  In total the blog had over 5500 views.

As for getting me to take more pictures and practice photography how did it do?  Well, since the blog began I have acquired 2 new lenses, a new camera and a macro lighting system (gift from Amy) to help with the motivation.  The camera obtained in late September has captured over 8000 pictures already and add that to the pictures taken with other cameras for this blog and more than 12,000 pictures were taken during the 52 weeks.  So I hope I've gotten better otherwise I've wasted a lot of shutter actuations not to mention the money on the nice equipment :-).

Lastly, I want to thank you all for visiting, especially those of you that came back each week.  If you did view this each week or almost each week could you leave a comment here or on the facebook link that brought you here.  Although I know or suspect who some of you are, I'm sure there are some loyal followers that I'm not aware of.  Thanks again.

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For this week's blog Amy and I decided to go to the Seneca Park Zoo.  We hadn't been for many years, in fact we think the last time we went was before Doug was born.  Given that the overwhelming majority of patrons had children between the ages of 1 and 5 in tow, our recollection is probably accurate.

The zoo is pretty small and is the perfect place for a young family to spend a beautiful sunny Saturday morning.  In our case it was a couple of middle aged folks seeking some photographic opportunities.

The zoo has 4 elephants, a polar bear (he was huge), white rhino, a tiger and two snow leopards to name a few of the many species we saw.  The tiger remained in the back of its relatively large cage and paced back and forth.  Its cage had a large amount of trees and shrubs and made getting a clean picture difficult.  The snow leopard exhibit was one of the last ones we visited and we arrived just as feeding time was beginning.  This caused the big cats to be much more active and gave me an opportunity to take several decent pictures.

I narrowed my favorite down to two pictures of the snow leopard and chose the one that was less of a profile and featured the eyes more.  I have posted the other candidate for your comparison.

I had both my 24-70 and 70-200 zoom lenses with me but kept the longer lens on the camera for the entire visit.  I wanted to get as close to the animals as I could with the available zoom and most of the pictures were taken at the maximum 200 mm focal length.  

I also wanted to make sure that motion blur wouldn't be a problem so I set the camera in aperture priority at 1/400 of a second and set the ISO to auto to make sure I got good exposures.  The D750 does an excellent job at exposure calculation and most of the shots were well exposed.

The ISO stayed at 100 for most of the shots as it was a bright sunny morning.  The two snow leopard pictures did require an ISO of 1600 due to their habitat being in deep shade.  The Nikon D750 handles ISO settings in this range with ease and the noise profile of these pictures at what used to be considered a very high ISO is almost undetectable.

This week's posting is the 52nd and final posting.  Next Saturday is my 53rd birthday and my 52nd year will be over.  I do plan to post one final summary blog next week and include a few bonus pictures that I took over the past 12 months that, for one reason or another, did not get posted.  I will have all the statistics on which posting had the most views and other fun facts.  Thanks for reading and looking at my pictures.

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With Amy still a bit hobbled by her pickle ball injury, Doug joined me on a mid-day hike around Quaker Pond in Mendon Ponds Park.  This location had already been covered in one of my earlier blogs but I wanted to return for another attempt at some good dragonfly pictures.  The trip last summer was shortly after obtaining my macro lens and since then I purchased the D750 camera and Amy bought me a flash system for macro photography.  I took it all with me plus my (relatively) new 24-70 zoom on the 4 mile hike around the pond.

The day was pleasant for the most part considering the morning started out with rain and I had begun to wonder if I'd get any outdoor photography in for the week.  At the south end of the pond there is a small foot bridge and the area opens up and offers a full view of the marshy pond.   Before swapping my 24-70 zoom lens for the 105mm macro for the remainder of the hike, I took a series of shots to create a panoramic of the pond.  For my photography friends, I used the panoramic stitching capability added to Lightroom 6 to create the image from the 7 frames shot hand held in the portrait orientation at 36 mm focal length.

It is this area where plenty of dragonflies can be seen but they tend to spend more time over the water and on the plant life in the water and never get close enough to shore for a good picture.   We did manage a few reasonable shots before moving on. 

Once we were back in the wood lined path bordering the pond we came upon a couple of dragonflies that appear to be enjoying each others company.  I took several pictures of this scene and as I tried to move for a different angle they flew off and did so without disengaging.  Pretty amazing.  I figured one of these shots was sure to be my top billing for the week.  That was before I started looking closely at the rest of my pictures.

I really enjoy trying to get a good shot of bees or other insects working around flowers and when we came across a rather large bee working a flower, I couldn't pass it up.  By this time I had my macro lens on and the flash unit attached so I turned the flashes on and took a half dozen shots or so before moving on.  I never noticed the little ants that were also on this flower. 

I'm not sure this ant is really attempting to defend his territory from the much larger bee that is coming in for a landing, but it sure looks that way and makes for an interesting story and as such gets top billing for the week.

The rest of the pictures in the post were ones I found interesting and thought you might enjoy seeing. 

Some were taken with the flash and others were not.  The small yellow flowers with the nice defocused background was originally shot at f/20 (a setting for large depth of field on the macro shots) and subsequently retaken at f/3.0 for a much improved photo.  The little white flower with banana shaped stamens was interesting because I don't recollect ever seeing one before.  The blossoms are about the size of a nickel.  Does anyone know what those are?

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This weekend was the Civil War Reenactment event an the Genesee Country Village and Museum.   Doug and I went to the event with cameras in hand.  Due to an injury to her calf muscle while playing pickle ball at the department picnic on Friday, Amy was unable to join us.  We were not the only ones thinking this would be an event worth photographing; one could see cameras of all types hanging from the necks of a large percentage of museum visitors.  

I bumped in to a co-worker with a PentaxK1000 around his neck and several rolls of film attached to the neck strap.  He said he hasn't made the plunge to digital and doesn't plan to until necessary.  I personally thought that time had already arrived.

The first battle was scheduled to take place at 11:00 AM in the south field, giving us time before hand to walk through some of the camps that the soldiers were living in for the weekend.   Given the huge thunderstorms we had Friday night, the fact that these reenactors spent the night in historically accurate accommodations was a sign of serious dedications to their chosen hobby.  Add that to the scorching heat of the day and the wool military garb they wore for battle and one quickly realizes how much the men and women enjoy what they do.

The first battle simulated the Union soldiers attempting to overtake the earthworks held by the Confederate soldiers.  The cannons of the Confederate army were louder and lower pitched than those of the North, at least it seemed that way.  The position we took up to observe the battle had us situated behind the advancing line of the North with the defended earthworks about 100 yards or more off in the distance. 

When the cannons were fired directly at us we could  feel the air compression hit us.  I cannot imagine the energy an actual cannon ball would have once launched from one of these.  The battle lasted about an hour with casualties on both sides.  Young boys served as stretcher carriers and moved fallen soldiers from the front line to the rear.  It was hard work in the heat of the noon sun but the boys seemed to enjoy the assignment.

This battle was followed by another skirmish in the village proper later that afternoon.  This battle simulated similar battles that took place during the final months of the war as Lee's army attempted to hold ground against Grant's overwhelming forces.  We were much closer to this fight than we were with the field battle and I must say those old muskets are very loud.  After one particular volley that took place right in front of us my ears were ringing for a few minutes. 

After this I did take note of the earplugs being worn by most of the actors on the battlefield.

I gave this week's pictures the same washed out sepia/color treatment that I used for the maple syrup blog that was also a Genesee Country Museum event.  Picking a picture to take top billing this week was difficult.  None really stood out as awesome photographic composition and several were good choices for documenting the event.  I thought of using the shot of the Confederate flag for a couple reasons. 

This particular flag was actually flown by the 21st regiment of Georgia during their battles.   The other reason for picking it would have been political and this blog is about photography and not politics so I settled for one of the battle scenes.

Below is a couple of pictures of Dave and Pete, brothers that play basketball with me every Tuesday and Thursday morning.  Dave is marching with sword in hand and Pete gives me a smile and poses for a picture.

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The crowds at Corn Hill Arts Festival.

On a beautiful warm Saturday in July, Kristina joined Amy and me on a visit to the Corn Hill Arts Festival in Rochester.  This was my first visit to the very popular festival that attracts thousands of visitors each year and with the weather as beautiful as it was the place was destined to be packed.  Earlier in the week we read an article in the paper that mentioned the festival's plans to encourage alternative forms of transportation, including by bike.  In order to make it easier for people to ride their bike to the festival they were offering a manned bike coral for free.  Once we saw this and figured out a way to get a 3rd bike into our vehicle for transport to our planned starting point at Henpeck Park, we knew
this is how we would get ourselves to the festival.

RCA mans the bike coral.

We did not know where the bike coral was to be setup but it was extremely easy to find because it was setup right on the trail we were on as we approached the Corn Hill Neighborhood.  The folks from the Rochester Cycling Alliance were running the bike coral and doing an excellent job and we hope to see them do more of this in the future.

Chainsaw art.  Very cool.

The festival did indeed draw a large crowd and, with over 375 artists displaying their wares, there was plenty to see and do.  We walked walked around and looked at a variety of booths; Amy and Kristina checking out all the jewelry booths while I looked at the pictures being sold by the various photographers at the festival.
Mounted canvas was a very popular medium for displaying photos and most of the pictures being sold were breathtaking.

One picture in particular caught my eye as I was passing the artist's booth. The picture was hanging

A variety of homemade hot fudge for your Ice Cream

on the inside wall I had passed her booth and had I not looked over my shoulder I wouldn't have seen it.  It was a picture of a couple of moose in a bog with Mt. Katahdin in the background in vivid fall colors.  I turned to the photographer and said "Baxter State Park, right" and commenced to inform her that I was there 5 weeks ago and hiked the mountain.

Amy and Kristina enjoying lunch.

After being at the festival for over an hour, we decided to get some lunch.  We ate in the food court area where there were a variety of vendors offering things to eat.  Once we were done consuming the delicious food, I mentioned that I wanted to check out the Fairy Houses that were on display near the food court.  These were community created entries into a contest themed around the works of children's author, Tracy Kane.  Some of these were quite elaborate and it looked like fun projects for a young family.

One of the Fairy Houses on display.

After we were done checking out the Fairy Houses we planned our exit strategy to get ourselves back to the bike coral and commence the 11 mile ride back to the car.  It was at this time that Amy and Kristina found just the right pieces of jewelry to purchase and they were able to leave the festival having purchased something from a hard working artist.

Not part of the festival but very cool graffiti

Of course, before we could leave we needed to consume some Ice Cream and the picture I took of my lovely companions enjoying the frozen treat had to be chosen as a representative photo of the days festivities.

Becky, this one is for you!

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HDR processing of the cascade just above Lucifer Falls.

Lush vegetation lines the trail.

I mentioned how the weather forecast changed my plans for a hike in the Ithaca area and ended up resulting in some nice black and white photos for last week's blog.  The delay in making our way to Robert H.Treman State Park was worth it as the weather was gorgeous with temperatures in the low 70's.  We left the house as early as a day off will allow and arrived at the park shortly after 9:00 AM.  We hiked from the bottom up using the Gorge Trail and returned on the opposite side of the river on the Rim Trail. 

Low angle shot framed by a fallen tree.

The southern Finger Lakes region, particularly around Ithaca, is well known for its gorges and waterfalls.  The most famous of these is Watkins Glen that we covered in a posting from last fall.  This particular park has a nice hike with several steep sections and, when taken from the bottom, one is rewarded with a final climb along side Lucifer Falls as it tumbles 115 feet.

Doug now has a wet t-shirt to deal with as he dries his feet.

About half way up the trail we came across an interesting area of the river where a tree had been uprooted and provided for some interesting shots.  Doug decided he wanted to cross the river and walk a bit back downstream to get what he thought would be an interesting picture.  Not wanting to discourage his budding interest in photography Amy and I watched as he removed his shoes and socks and waded across the calf deep water to reach the other side.  Amy did get a bit nervous when Doug rounded the bend and did not reappear for several minutes. 

Amy hiking the trail.

He made his way back without incident until he tried to figure out how to dry his feet to put his shoes back on.  He decide that he could use his t-shirt to dry his feet and this was an excellent idea until he dropped his t-shirt into the river during his attempt to dry the first foot.  I've often thought that taking a small towel on photo expeditions involving streams and waterfalls would be a good idea.  Now I'm convinced.

Lucifer Falls from the Rim Trail.

Although the Gorge Trail on the way up offered the best opportunities for waterfall pictures from the river bed, the elevated views from the Rim Trail were also quite breathtaking.   The view of Lucifer Falls from the Rim Trail is actually the best angle for this waterfall because all vantage points from the Gorge Trail are from the side of the waterfall and you don't really get a sense of scale.  The stone staircase with people on it to the right of the falls in the picture shared here really gives perspective on the size of these falls.

Shot from a narrow crevice in the rock wall.  Doug's idea.

If you ever find yourself in or around Ithaca, New York I highly recommend a visit to Robert H. Treman State Park.  If you don't have the time to hike the trail, park at the top parking lot and it is a very short walk to the top of Lucifer Falls.

B&W treatment of one of my waterfall shots.

One of the many lilies that lined the trail.

Swimming hole at the state park as seen from the Rim Trail.

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