Vertical Puddles

By SkyRider

2:00pm (well, almost)

Sadly I had to be back in the office for two so didn't manage to get the shot quite on the hour.

Hitting a landmark number gives you a chance to take stock without appearing self-indulgent.When I first signed up to blipfoto it was in the hope that it would make me a better photographer, buth in the way that the discipline of turning in a photo every day would force me to be creative but also in the sense that a supportive community will tell you what might be good and bad about a particular shot - it's easy for the photographer to get so close that they're no longer able to judge the image dispassionately.

It's not worked out that way. The friendly, supportive community is so friendly and supportive that you always seek to buld people up - great for self-confidence but less good for identifying bad habits to break. In practice the photo-a-day discipline has led to better snapshots rather than crafted photos as there's a bit of a rush to get the image up on the day whereas a photo I like better will be set aside until the weekend so I can have the time to work on it properly and not be rushed (that's my excuse, anyway).

But most of all, it's been fun. I've talked to people I wouldn't have otherwise met, been challenged to try things I wouldn't otherwise have tried and learned an incredible amount from peoples' journals. Thank you all.

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If you feel you want to leave a comment, include a link to a photo of yours that you feel particularly chuffed with and explain why you think it's so good. To set the ball rolling, here are my top ten of the last two hundred:

Arrival of the bride: I really like the 'implied bot not stated' nature of this. The scene is familiar enough to let the viewer join up the dots.

Baby geek: I love the way the baby is transfixed by what's happening on the phone. I had to clone mummy out to get the effect though. Incidentally, this is the same baby.

Beware the angle grinder: My first outing with studio lighting. Everyone was going for the smooth portrait but I tried a few more off-the-wall experiments, most of which were, frankly, pants. I really liked the rim-light effect on this one though.

Cyclist: It took well over a hundred panning shots to get one that worked. I was over the moon when I found I'd finally kept someone in focus. In retrospect, I didn't need such a slow shutter speed - the stop light shows you the distance I was panning for.

Gone to seed: I was originally frustrated by this as the lens didn't allow me the depth of field to get both seed and down in focus at once. It's grown on me now though - I like the way it looks like nature's fireworks (thanks Tanksamillion for the phrase).

Penguins in space! With bi-planes! Visit number three to the studio, but the model didn't turn up so we had to get a little inventive with the prop cupboard. I'm particularly fond of the use of a reflector as the moon here.

Plane: This one's all about the space.

Serenade: I'm not a natural street photographer - I'm nervy about people not wanting their photos taken. Fortunately here both men were lost in their own reveries and didn't see me.

Snow on trellis: I happened to look over the fence into next door and just spotted this. I like the repeated patterns and the proportion of snow to wood - it's neither too snowy nor too woody.

Sorrentine artist: I know that SOOC photos have their fans (why? The camera's doing some processing too, you know...) but for this photo it's the post-processing that makes it work for me. The original wasn't nearly as arresting.

Looking forward to seeing your choices...

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