I haven't had much time to spend with my camera, but I managed to grab a spontaneous portrait that I thought I'd share. I'm still experimenting with various croppings. 

Mike, Tight Crop  

Mike, Wider Crop  

This is a test post trying to isolate bugs that occur when submitting with Safari - sorry.

Puppy  

bold italic underlined strikethru.

 The primary problems appear to be the "Section" and "Story Picture" boxes - I can only click on the Section box if I click on the far right side - which extends way over into the navigation column on the right. Similarly, I can only click on the bottom item in the story picture list - although once I've clicked there, I can use the arrow keys to move around the list.

Safari's error console only reports: "Resource interpreted as script but transferred  with MIME type text/HTML. http://www.google.com/coop/cse/brand?form=cse-search-box&lang=en

No other errors are reported. 

Too Much Make Up! 

Reach for the Stars, Pardner!

I think he's too tall for you.... 

Hey, You! 

Ridin' a Harley  

Vroom Vroom  

Clown Car 

Roller Coaster  

I can't take credit for most of these, because I was busy, either competing or (during the parade) judging, my better half took most of them. (I will take the blame for composing them afterwards, though...)

 

Cold 

My daughter performed in her school's spring concert yesterday, and, of course, I took my camera. I was very excited, because I scored some front row seats for myself and my wife.

Unfortunately, I failed to consider the unfortunate conflation of tall music stands with short musicians - leading me into another experiment with cropping my photos:  Best seats in the house? 

Later, when we went out to celebrate at the local ice cream place, I discovered that the subjects of your photos ALSO have a say in how your photos are cropped: No pictures please!  

But, it wasn't all bad news - I discovered that future of photography is in good hands: Budding Photographer  

One comment I've received several times is that I need to tighten up how I crop my images. So, what I've done here is taken the same image and cropped it several different ways so I can ask y'all: what makes one better than the other?

First: Storm Damage - What the Camera Saw  

This is how I originally composed the image in the view finder. I was limited by where I was standing, focal length, etcetera, but also I was restricted by what I perceive as the rules of composition. Apparently, at some point the rule of thirds was seared (seared!) into my brain and I almost always place the object of interest 1/3 of the way into the frame, usually in such a way that the object appears to be moving (or just leading the eye) towards the center.

When I got home, I realized that I had way to much sky in the image, so I produced the version I posted to Photographica last night: Storm Damage  

Note that the image still adheres to a 2x3 aspect ratio and, sure enough, the cabin is pushed out of the center towards the bottom and right.

For the next version, I abandoned the 2x3 aspect ratio and simply cut more sky out of the picutre: Storm Damage - Panoramic Cropping (I called it "panoramic" because of the shape of the image, not because it's a panorama). Shaping the image that way forced me to center the cabin vertically but, again, horizontally I pushed it to the right, towards the 1/3 line.

The final version returns to the 2x3 ratio, but crops almost everything but the cabin: Storm Damage - Tight Cropping 

So, now let me ask all you wise photographers out there - which version do you prefer? Why? 

But the log cabins of Valley Forge National Park sure did: Storm Damage.

 

Ummm... How long are those things, anyway? We're safe, aren't we?

Reaching For You  

She's not sure what to make of her uncle the troll... Brittany

In fact, I think she's telling me I'm crazy... Brittany2

She's still quite the cutie, though: Brittany 3 - cropped

And, for no readily understandable reason, here's a picture of my aunt's dog: Phoebe

 This is the very first snapshot I grabbed when I got my new camera. Obviously, it's been colorized...

 Comments, please - especially on the 'shop job. I'm experimenting.

Seraphim 

 

Spring is here. Spring is here.

Life is Skittles and life is beer.

I think the loveliest time of the year is the Spring.

I do. Don't you? 'course you do.

(Bonus points to anyone who can identify the song...)

Flower No. 1

Flower No. 2  

Azalea No. 1

Azalea No. 2

Closeup

I found these growing in my mother's yard.

I just bought a Nikon D60 as a prize to myself for completing my martial arts training. (Yes, I guess that does make me a Ninja-Clown.)

Tulip Dandelion

 

(with apologies to William Cole)

I went to the Renaissance Faire.
The birds and beasts were there.  

The big baboon, by the light of the moon
Was combing his auburn hair.

The monkey, he got drunk he
Sat on the elephant's trunk.

But the elephant sneezed
And fell to his knees
And what became of the monk,
The monk?

What became of the monk?

Oh, and here's a Pirate Wench for no good reason at all.

So, after not posting for, what, a year or so, I have the nerve to drop a couple of quick shots on y'all...

Teddy #1

Teddy #2

Both were 'shopped to bring out details that were otherwise hidden.