365 Photo Challenge
What’s on your desk?
“Though the male can be noble in reason and infinite in faculties, he is also easily amused by shiny toys, especially ones that do dumb things on his desk.”
Patricia Marx
These are some of the thoroughly “male” items I found as I’ve cleaned out my desk over the past couple weeks. I’m curious what others have on their desks…
My home office is taking shape. Definitely saving money on gas these days.
Here’s a follow up to day 2. I’ve gotten my workspace to a comfortable point. You know, that place where it’s cleaned off enough that you can start working in it, but you know there’s more to cleaning than shoving stuff to the other side of the room. For now, the only angle of this room will be this one. Nobody sees the other side of the room.
So, for now, this is my commute to my new office where every day, I go to work in my PJ’s. Things could be worse. Things could be much worse.
Wishes at The Magic Kingdom. It’s always a challenge to shoot something from a unique vantage point.
Shooting fireworks is fun and I’m always fascinated by how well choreographed they are. It’s just a huge light painting in the sky. So cool!
Tonight, I got to watch the Magic Kingdom firework display from a different vantage point.
Order a print of this image.
Kudos to all the runners who completed the Run Disney Half Marathon today. And good luck to all who will be running the full tomorrow. I’ve been supporting my sister at Walt Disney World and am extremely tired from my 2:30 am start. Same time tomorrow so this will be short and sweet.
Getting to my first viewing position this morning was kinda creepy, but neat at the same time. If you ever get the chance to ride the Disney monorail completely alone – take it. It’s spooky but calming and peaceful.
Plus you just might get to see one of the theme parks before they open it.
My first accessory for every lens – UV filter.
Folks, if you’re serious about your photography equipment – even if you’re not a photographer by trade, but simply want to protect your gear as best you can – there’s no better investment than the UV filter for your lens. Any lens. It doesn’t matter if you’ve got the Canon 1DX, the Nikon D3X, a mirrorless camrea, a point & shoot or a camcorder – there’s almost always a UV filter that will fit your gear.
You don’t want to learn from experience that a simple lens filter could have saved some fairly expensive equipment.
I remember the one time I dropped my camera gear. We were on vacation and it was a simple camcorder (huge compared to the ones today) hidden deep in a backpack of other “toursity” things. I heard it fall off the stroller and crack the pavement. I thought for sure the camera was done for. The only thing that broke was the UV filter! It’s now the very first accessory I purchase whenever I get a new lens.
I cringe when I see a lens without one. That glass is delicate people. Take care of it.
You don’t want it looking like this.
Photo by Erica Marshall
I knew going into this that I wouldn’t create a piece of art every day. But it’s also my goal to improve my photography skills. I’m pretty happy with this one so I’ve made it available to order.
So I just had one of those “Holy crap! I’m my father now” moments. In this age of electronics and instant gratification, it’s not surprising that my son just wants to play video games all day. So I recommended that he find something else to do – maybe something outside.
But I started the conversation “When I was a kid…”
Am I officially old now?
On The Counter
It’s been exactly a month since my dream job was stripped from me (got laid off right before Christmas – corporate made the decision to shut the station down) and it’s been a real struggle for me. I suppose I’m still in the bitter phase. I’m bitter that it even happened. I’m bitter about all that I worked for being taken away. I’m bitter that I’m not in a position to relocate to all the opportunities that I know are out there. I’m just bitter.
I’ve decided to put all that energy into some new ventures that are quite public these days. I’m also getting condolences and well-wishes from people I’m now seeing for the first time since it happened. And for that I simply say “thank you.”
I certainly met a lot of people during my years at the station and a very good friend just wrote me this:
Hi Shaun,
Your Blog is doing well, I have requested to follow you on your adventure and sure that God will be guiding you every step of the way.
If you kind of think of it we are much like an automobile, the car does not have any idea where it is going, it is following your direction to get it there. Well we are God’s cars and only he knows down what roads he needs us to go, and thus drives us through the highway of life!
Thank you, Tony, for reminding me of the bigger picture.
How true that is. And how ironic that today’s sermon at church is my One-A-Day.
I head up the A/V team at my church which involves designing the pastor’s sermon graphics for Sunday. It’s become so second-nature to me now that I don’t really even pay attention to the content until Sunday morning. I assembled a slide last night and it hit me like a ton of bricks today during the sermon. It was like Rich was preaching directly to me.
Proverbs 16:9
A man’s mind plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.
So how ironic are the chapter and verse numbers? I’ll let you stew on that one…
Fresh Perspective
Have you ever stopped to look at something that you’ve seen a “million” times before? I mean really stopped to look at it?
Alright, I’m guilty of breaking my own rules…wait, this is my blog. I didn’t actually take this image today, but it wasn’t long ago (New Years Eve to be exact), but it demonstrates my thoughts on photography. I’m always snapping off frame after frame of, seemingly, useless images. I have a digital camera, why not?!
Taking these “useless” images has forced me to look at the world around me differently. In terms of photography, I’m always working.
Take a look around you. What do you see?
If you didn’t stop to look before, perhaps you will now.
Days are getting longer. Can’t wait!
As busy as I feel right now, I suppose I do need to take some time and relax. For those who know me, this doesn’t really fit my style. Every moment is a photographic opportunity for me. I was recently at my Father-In-Law’s retirement party and purposefully left my camera in the car. His office wanted a group picture and guess who they asked to take it?! So many people throughout my life have recommended that I put down the camera and enjoy the moment. But I’m enjoying the moment by photographing it – I can do both. I’ll relax on those 50-mile bike rides I’m looking forward to once the weather turns!
by the way, wonder if any of my cycling friends (or non-cycling friends for that matter) will spot the inherent flaw in this photo…
Organize: lots of work ahead for me. Update
So this is what 7 years of neglecting my home office looks like. This is where I used to do freelance and since I’ve kinda come full-circle, I need it again. I originally thought I’d take a before and after photo for this post, but clearly this is going to take me a while. I’ll definitely post an after image, but for now I’ve got some actual work to do.
One-A-Day for January ’14
Goal: Challenge my creativity daily and improve my photography skills
Saw this one coming from a mile away. Yeah, so the first one is going to be easy. As it should be – to get me started.
Everybody has their own set of goals for the year. Some are repeats from the prior year and others are new, but there’s always the standard few that deal with money, health and family. I think those should be a given – like the R-S-T-L-N-E they give you on Wheel of Fortune these days.
I’m doing something different that’s going to challenge me and strengthen my skill set along the way – both creatively and mechanically. I realize it’s going to be tough at times and there will be days that I just don’t feel like taking yet another photo. I’m certainly not going to create a masterpiece every day. There will be days when the photo just sucks in every way imaginable, but it’s going to be a great way to remember the year.
Here are some tips if you care to join me:
One-A-Day for January ’14
Cedarmeade Studios 