How appropriate that the final challenge for this year should be look back at our photographs taken during the year and show the best ones here. Coincidentally I have also been taking part in a Weekly Photo Challenge on Flickr which means I have 52 good photographs to choose from.
I’ve mentioned it before but I’ve never been a fan of the gallery in WordPress. I just don’t think it shows my photographs the way they should be seen. In full size and not jumbled up into a small messy mixed up rectangle. Now I know you are not going to look at 52 photographs so instead as suggested I will include one for each month.
January
At some point during this article I was going to include the Lighthouse and why not now. It was at the time I was so P****d Off with people stealing my images that I ruined a perfectly good photograph by sticking a very obtrusive watermark right over the front of it.
February
It was a no-brainer for me. Of all of the photographs I took in February this one of a blue tit sitting on a branch just had to be included. It was a lucky capture. I still had my telephoto lens on the camera (Sigma 150-500mm), turned round and the blue tit was on the branch almost next to me. Sometimes the best photographs are not always the planned ones.
March
One of the things I was determined to do this year was move away from landscape photography in an effeort to challenge myself. Not only in using the features of my camera but also thinking what to photograph and planning the day. I’m proud of this one. I watched the duck for some time and new it would eventually fly up onto the bank, especially when I put some food down. Split second photograph but well worth the effort.
April
Well nearly May to be precise. I really like this photograph. The stark contrast of the tree against the yellow and blue just makes it stand out.
May
It’s May and birds are busy feeding chicks. I managed to capture this Robin with an insect in it’s beak. I was still searching for a solution to my images being stolen and decided to frame everything in a matching colour frame. Didn’t seem as obtrusive as a watermark…
June
Still trying to stay away from landscapes. This was an experiment in close-up photography. The more I look at this the more I realise the frame was better than the photograph
July
New camera. I had switched to the Pentax K-30 and was really impressed with the results I was getting. Living on the coast as I do means that I can always get a wide open space to capture the sunset. But a sunset on it’s own can be quite boring. The metallic sculpture near my house reflects the sky and sunlight in amazing ways.
August
Still determined not to do so many landscapes this year. Looks like I’ve switched to wild-life. Not entirely but this was too good to miss. A really fast shutter speed and I’ve managed to capture the wing feathers in detail. All in part to the faster shutter capabilities of the Pentax K-30. I also decided to ditch the frame. It should be about the photograph…
September
Back to a landscape. At this time of the year it’s good to get out and walk. I had been meaning to visit this isolated church for sometime. Built in the 15th century, it is no longer used as a regular place of worship.
October
October was a busy month as well as visits to Gloucester Cathedral and lots of wildlife photography I managed to fit in another visit to Valle Crucis Abbey. This time I managed to arrange my visit when the leaves were still on the trees, giving that lovely splash of Autumn colour
November
I’m in Glasgow to visit my Father before Christmas. This is another one of those building I’ve been meaning to photograph for some time but never got round to doing it. Boy it was cold. I’m standing across the river from the concert hall on a clear winters night. After 2 and a bit hours walking along the riverside photographing various buildings and structures I couldn’t wait to get back to the car and my hotel. That’s when I found out that the car-park exit barrier didn’t take £2 coins. This side of the river is very isolated but on the concert hall side there are a few hotels. fortunately there are also several bridges across the river and I managed to get change in a hotel.
December
My final image is from a stormy day on the coast where I live. A fast shutter speed and the Sigma 150 – 500mm zoom lens enable me to capture the waves as they cross the rocks which are just hidden by the incoming tide.
All of these photographs were taken for the weekly photo challenge on Flickr and I’m pleased to say there will be another challenge next year. The rules are quite simple;
One photograph each week, which should be added to the Group Pool and have a tag for the appropriate week. Weekly discussions are available to post your photos and there is a Monthly Competition open to all members. Winning entries will be showcased on the group front page.
Fancy having a go then visit 52/2013 – Give Us Your Best Shot. A basic Flickr account is free.
Well that’s it for this year. I’d like to thank all of you who taken time to follow my ramblings or have contributed comments and likes throughout the year. It is appreciated.
So as we head into the New Year I thought I’d share this quote attributed to Dave Beard, a baseball player
“Many years ago I resolved never to bother with New Year’s resolutions, and I’ve stuck with it ever since.”
That only leaves me to wish you all a Healthy and Happy New Year for 2013 – Mike
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Say It With A Camera 
Beautiful selection and presentation of your photos. I agree, they should be shown in full scale. Looking forward to seeing more of your great photos in 2013. HAPPY NEW YEAR!
BE ENCOURAGED! BE BLESSED!
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Some people like the gallery, I don’t, Thank you for your comment
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Great work, Mike! I agree on the gallery thing. Thanks for the tip on the Flickr group, I think I’ll do that this year instead of the WordPress one. Happy New Year to you too, my friend!
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To be honest Frank I do both. Keeps me active.
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Yeah, Mike, I thought about doing both. But the WordPress challenge has a weekly theme, and I’m working instead on a daily post on that platform to see where my camera takes me. From those images I will post on the Flickr challenge, which is my favorite platform for my pics anyways. Happy New Year my friend!
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Your pictures are beautiful. Thanks for the recap and for the pingback. No resolutions for me either
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If I really had a resolution it would be to not have resolutions. i never keep them, anyway.
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Lol, I should have done what you did & given up on the painful gallery formats! I also can’t stand them! 12 photos with captions would have been a lot quicker to sort… I think my post has over 40 revisions & I’m still not happy with it… Currently the photos are in the wrong order & have my 2 additional ones in it twice!
Thanks for the pingback 🙂
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As I use live writer it was so much easier to get my photographs how I wanted them. I really do not like the gallery.
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PS Love your photos!!
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PPS I’ve come to the same conclusion as you re the watermark. It’s sad to have photos stolen without credit, but watermarks ruin the photos, and enough people ‘like’ my photos to make me happy 🙂 So many of these are amazing, I need to experiment with fast shutter speeds tomorrow with the parakeets in our garden 🙂
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Thank you for your comment about my photographs.
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Twelve of your very best Mike. A great idea too. Hard to pick a fave out of this superb bunch, but, you know me, Blue-Tit…….Brilliant. Happy New Year Mike. See ya soon.
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Probably be FOI, unless I manage to make it to The Spinnies or Conwy
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what lovely captures! My favourite is the december picture although I like the october one too! happy new year
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October is one of my favourites…thank you for your comment
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The collection that you picked for your viewers is excellent. There are some photos that I have never seen. Somehow I missed that you also post in Flickr. I have 3 favorites here. The mallard drake showing both wings extended in flight (I know how difficult it is to focus and get the split second timing), the barren tree among the yellow flowers, and the metal structure with the setting sun- the colors are truly beautiful. However, I had to look really hard to decide on those three pics. One question -did you matte and frame in Photoshop? I will look you up in Flickr for I am anxious to see all of your wonderful photos.
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PS: I forgot to wish you a happy New Year and lots of photo opportunities and great scenes to capture.
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Yes Yvonne. I created the frame in Photoshop. It wasn’t too hard to do
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January and November are my favorites but they are all lovely!
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Thank You
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PPPS
I’ve created a Flickr account and joined the 52 week challenge! Now I have to work out how to use Flickr! I’m going to have to get a house keeper so I can keep up with all of these!
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Flickr is relatively easy to use and gets easier with practice. I’ll see you next year for the 52 challenge.
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PPPPS. This is getting silly
My favourite photo is December. Is this a HDR photo?
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Not HDR but it did have a touch of NIK Color Efex Tonal Contrast
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It is really stunning, I’d love to have it blown up to A0 size on the wall 🙂
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Very impressive…very glad I stopped by! 🙂
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Nice to hear from you, I’m glad you liked them.
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Wow Mike…just WOW. Well actually I love the August shot…it is amazing…the clarity. people stole your photos ?? I mean I know it happens…but want to know a secret ? I think if it ever happens to me i will secretly be pleased that someone thinks a shot is that good they would steal it.
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It was getting ridiculous Jo, especially when they were being used for commercial purposes. I did reach agreement with a few sites to license photographs, otheres I issued DMCA Take Down and in one case had a Facebook Page closed for a really bad breach of my copyright.
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I have a photographer friend in town who went after someone who was using his image for commercial purposes. It is terrible that they do that i do agree. How do you track your images down to find this out Mike ? The Facebook page…can I ask what they did and how you got them shut down. I think it is awesome that you did that BTW.
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Google is your friend when it comes to finding if your images have been used elsewhere. Their bots eventually get round to indexing nearly eevry site on the web, including the images so I use Google Image Search. There is a plugin for Chrome and Firefox which lets you right click an image and do a Google search. I usually monitor activity on Flickr and my blog and use that as the starting point.
With Facebook I found images being used on an FB Page. I sent the owner a standard request (I have a legal sort of template) asking them to remove my images and pay me compensation. Basically I got back a reply saying “Get stuffed”. I used that reply and proof that I owned the images to get FB to do DMCA take-down. I expected FB to remove the images, they took down the whole page which had over 3000 followers. The owner of the page then came back and asked me why I had done it….
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Great shots!
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breath taking photos…Mike…for real
~Happy New Year~
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What a spectacular year of many adventures. The lighthouse , with the serene beach, priceless!
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