So I've embarked on September's theme...close to you.

Not "macros", or "closeups", or "within 1 meter", or anything like that. I'm posting the first 9 images for September here early on the 10th, and I've been thinking about how exactly to phrase the theme.

The idea, of course, is for me to get better at something. Monochrome August was a great success...I couldn't imagine it having gone better. But I'm not really interested in being a master of photographing things shorter than my finger.

For some reason I had thought that the idea of being close was a good one. Maybe it was Bacharach. He is a brilliant songwriter. But I think the idea is that getting a closer look at things will give me a little better perspective. I don't necessarily have to be very, very close. But closer. That's my goal.

So I got closer to to these leaves, leaning over the side of a rickety, mostly rotted dock above a fairly disgusting lake. Worked out well, as it happened.