TNMC

The one thing that stands out to me about doing a 365 day photo project is the ups and downs.  There are weeks where I can do no wrong.  My camera sees gold everywhere.  And then there are weeks where it all comes out grey and bland.  I'm asked frequently if I'll do this again.  My answer depends on what phase I'm in.

Lately it's felt like a down cycle.  Part of it is the feeling that I've exhausted my supply of available shots.  In other words, I need to start trying to manufacture some pictures.  My lack of pleasure in shooting lately tells me I need to push myself more.  Instead of waiting for something cool to photograph, I need to create something.  The down side of that is that it takes more time to work that way and time is my most precious commodity.  We'll see what happens next.

Today's shot is a combination of luck and creativity.  This monkey belongs to my youngest son.  I've always found its sad eyes to be a bit disturbing.  So that thought has been in my head for quite some time now.  Today he dropped it between the car and the house and I went back outside to retrieve it.  When I picked it out of the snow I had a sudden flash of inspiration.  I placed it behind a fence and put those creepy sad eyes to good use.  Maybe not a genius shot but it's pretty good.

On a technical note, this shot convinced me I need to invest in some ND filters.  I wanted a shallow depth of field for this shot but the glare off the snow was so severe that it was impossible to do without blowing out the background completely.  I had to close the aperture quite a bit to keep that from happening.  But doing that makes for a much more focused background.  Using neutral density filters I could have shot it the way I wanted.  One more item for the shopping wish list.