366 Snaps Outtakes

This is our deck, from the side door, on a snowy New Years' morn. And the very first of the year's trellis shots. ======== One side effect from a picture-a-day project is that almost every day you generate other photographs you might reasonably have posted instead. I'm planning to share those this year. Before I went digital, I'd pick a film in early January and use it pretty much exclusively all year. Every three or four years that choice would be to shoot in black and white, because monochrome forces (permits) me to think about form and framing in ways that color doesn't encourage (YMMV, of course; this was my project). Last year's original plan, therefore, was to shoot predominantly in monochrome all year. On January 1, I didn't know it was a 365 project. For the record, the monochrome intention worked out just fine. ========== Since I didn't yet know this was a daily-photo project, I didn't know I'd be taking Oreo's photo on the first of every month. ========== This photograph is an outtake from my 2012 photo-a-day project, 366 Snaps . Number of project photos taken: 13 Title of "roll:" Oreo and Snow Other photos taken on 1/1/2012: none

This down-the-sidewalk-toward-the-porch shot is one of my staples. I'd post a similar photo as my April 19 project pic, and you'll see other variations in the outtakes. =========== A year ago the town was lightly dusted with new snow. I wandered around the yard photographing the coating from a variety of angles. I notice I cropped this and the daily to square. I'd never done that systematically before, but it became a common practice in 2012. ========== This photograph is an outtake from my 2012 photo-a-day project, 366 Snaps . Number of project photos taken: 13 (all with the same title) Title of "roll:" Did Someone Say Snow? Other photos taken on 1/2/2012: none

This farm's near Grand Ledge on M-43. Somehow I've never taken a photo I really liked of these buildings. Last January 3 I wandered into GL on an errand, and nearly every photo I shot that day was taken during that trip. They were, on the whole, just awful. Some days are photographic disasters. Y' get color today because this photo doesn't work well in monochrome. ========== The project photo was the first photo I posted with the to-be-recurring trellis theme, although our trellis isn't actually shown (and, as we've seen, I'd already taken at least one earlier trellis pic). I imagine I'll have more to say about this later. This was the day I started thinking of doing a photo-a-day, by the way. If you read the tags I put on the next few project pics, you'll see I was skeptical about my ability to follow through. ========== The Sony DSC-H55 actually shoots only in color. While this may seem to handicap a monochrome photographer, it's not significantly different from shooting black & white pics with a DSLR (or any film camera, for that matter). You do see the potential-photograph in color, but a mental translation makes appropriate adjustments. Then you use software to make similar adjustments on the computer. Although it didn't work out for this specific photo, I've rarely found it to be a problem. ========== This photograph is an outtake from my 2012 photo-a-day project, 366 Snaps . Number of project photos taken: 15 (mostly terrible) Title of "roll:" Miscellany Other photos taken on 1/3/2012: none

Today you get the original photograph that became last year's daily photo for this date. I'll talk about why in a minute.... C.J. Cherryh is my favorite novelist. Bar none. This series--everyone calls it after the first book in the sequence--has been her major project since Foreigner was published in 1994. At this time last year her fans were anticipating the publication of Intruder (thus the pic's title), which was released on March 6. We're now awaiting Protector , which is due on April 2, and CJ's calling her under-construction tale Peacemaker . BTW, Intruder's visible in the photo I posted for April 6 . ============== Some mornings you waken knowing what photograph you'll take. Last January 4 I snapped exactly three photographs: The first was out of focus, and the third framed the bookshelf differently (and de-emphasized Carolyn Cherryh's books). Since those defects remain problems, I've recovered the color original and posted it here. ========== This photograph is the day's original photo from my 2012 photo-a-day project, 366 Snaps . Number of project photos taken: 3 (all similar, and with the same title) Title of "roll:" Cherryh Bookshelf Other photos taken on 1/4/2012: none

This was obviously an office (or a storefront) once, but now it's just storage for a business whose front is on Kent Street (Portland's Main). Dunno why anyone would want to rent a tube. Got my eyes checked a year ago, and (of course) took along my camera. I wandered around downtown Portland before my appointment, taking pictures of buildings and doorways. ========== What's with this "roll" thing, Joel? Well, it's like this. Every day I dump each camera's photographs into a folder on my computer, with folder titles like this-- 20120105-Downtown Portland-Cybershot-JPG-12-1354 --the date, a description of the contents, the camera, the file format used, number of pictures, and a sequence number. These sit on my laptop for a few days before I get around to burning them to CD or DVD, then copying them to a server. (About half of them have also been saved to Google's cloud.) I call 'em "rolls" because I need to call 'em something. I suppose that's my film heritage showing through. (FWIW, scanned pix get the same treatment.) It's a system; it works for me. YMMV, of course. ========== This photograph is an outtake from my 2012 photo-a-day project, 366 Snaps . Number of project photos taken: 12 Title of "roll:" Downtown Portland Other photos taken on 1/5/2012: none

The sign claims the door's open, but the place has been abandoned; thus the rental sign. Sad to report the storefront is still empty, as the building's quite attractive. ========== This photograph is an outtake from my 2012 photo-a-day project, 366 Snaps . 366/2012 project discussion here .

Feeding birds generates volunteer sunflowers. You'd think they'd all be similar sunflowers, but it's pretty clear that the birdseed providers just sell us whatever seeds they can get. By summer's end we have tall and short sunflowers, large- and small-faced sunflowers, impressive and nondescript sunflowers. This one grew in a planter, and the planter's (ray-like) spikes in the background somehow managed to survive until January (of last year). All in all, I rather like the effect. This could be considered a daily-photo outtake, too, since it came from the 1/6/2012 folder. The photograph doesn't really work as monochrome, but I rather like it with color. So I offer it here for your edification. Whatever. ========== This photograph is an outtake from my 2012 photo-a-day project, 366 Snaps . 366/2012 project discussion here .

I love this picture--it's got an interesting perspective and absolutely perfect light. I got to the store, saw the opportunity, pulled the camera from my pocket, and took the shot. Then I posted another as my daily.... ========== This photograph is an outtake from my 2012 photo-a-day project, 366 Snaps . 366/2012 project discussion here .

These planters are, as you'd likely guess, inside our garage. I'm a little surprised I didn't post a version of this pic on one of my uninspired days. I didn't have any specific idea in mind for the day's pic, but knew I wanted to shoot something in the yard. So I just wandered around and photographed random things. On the other hand, I pretty much knew when I took it that the damaged apple would be the photo I'd post. The store picture was an incidental aftershot, unplanned but delightful. ========== No, I don't plan to write essays every day. I just have a backlog of things to say right now. I'd watched other folks do 365s, and one takeaway was that the project would unexpectedly complicate my life. There'd be days when I was uninspired; there'd be days when LIFE would overtake the project and I'd need to slip a snap in somewhere. So I decided to establish a handful of real simple rules: * Daily. * Black & White. * No descriptions. * Monthly camera changes. * Photograph Oreo on the first. If I do this again, there'll be different rules. But they will be few, and easily followed. ========== This photograph is an outtake from my 2012 photo-a-day project, 366 Snaps . Number of project photos taken: 17 Title of " roll :" Yard & Mulliken Other photos taken on 1/6/2012: none

Here's the original of the sunflower photo I posted a few hours back--in color, and showing the clutter I removed by cropping the photograph. I guess that's a partial explanation. ========== This photograph is an alternate take from my 2012 photo-a-day project, 366 Snaps . 366/2012 project discussion here .

This sunflower's not in our yard, but (like yesterday's photo ) it lived and died in a planter. The planter in question decorates the sidewalk in front of our post office. Note that I've cropped this photo to square, as I did the 366 pic. I'm not entirely sure why I began doing this with the new year. Here, by the way, is the original photo . ========== Last January 7 I shot eight Saturday morning photographs on Mulliken's Main Street, seven of which are good enough I'd be willing to use them to illustrate something if I had a need. The daily-- Creative Taxidermy --is basically a shot down Main Street's sidewalk from in front of the library. I should point out that the buildings in the background are nearly a mile distant; the tele foreshortens, and can be misleading. While Creative Taxidermy's unattractive building seems to belie the firm's name, he's been at this location longer than I've lived in this town. Apparently he does good work, as he opens his door every morning, and seems to be thriving. ========== This photograph is an outtake from my 2012 photo-a-day project, 366 Snaps . Number of project photos taken: 8 Title of " roll :" Downtown Mulliken Other photos taken on 1/7/2012: Joan and I visited her mom at the farm (123 shots, using the Sony; a sample ). I also took 12 photographs to illustrate eBay auctions, using my D300. Finally something here!

This unusually tall lily was visible through our picture window for nearly a year. The finches often used it for a perch, which I found delightful. So'd the cat. (This photo's got a technical flaw--the lower left corner's not properly squared off--but I could have fixed it. Otherwise I really like this pic.) ========== A year ago I tried for an action photo of the cat (that effort failed) and wandered around the yard just clickin' away. Got a couple good outtakes, but chose to publish a dull image of a downspout. (To be fair, Aunt Owwee liked it.) Not sure what got into me.... ========== This photograph is an outtake from my 2012 photo-a-day project, 366 Snaps . Number of project photos taken: 25 Title of " roll :" Cats, Yard Other photos taken on 1/8/2012: none.

I spend the winter waiting for daffodils, many of which line our sidewalk. Sometimes I get prematurely impatient. ( Promised you sidewalk shots . There will be more.) ========== This photograph is an outtake from my 2012 photo-a-day project, 366 Snaps . 366/2012 project discussion here .

At Island Park in Grand Ledge--one of the photographs I figure I didn't really intend as a monochrome shot a year ago (explanation at the 366 project discussion; link below). Works nicely in color, I think. ========== This photograph is an outtake (or not; see the comments) from my 2012 photo-a-day project, 366 Snaps . 366/2012 project discussion here .

Bought my breakfast at Sophia's in Grand Ledge a year ago, with a vague plan to get a photo on my way home. Took a few pics at the island park, most of which I probably didn't intend as black & whites , then headed home. These barns--one's actually a collapsed corn crib, I think--are close to Grand Ledge. In fact, I've posted a photo of them before , some years back. I imagine there used to be a home at this location, but the farmer now lives across the street in a very attractive ranch house. But I didn't use any of the GL pix. Since Joan and I are serious readers, our upstairs room is full of books and magazines. The house is small, so I sell on eBay and Amazon just to clear room on our shelves. The photo I posted to 366 Snaps documented the sales prep effort. ========== This photograph is an outtake from my 2012 photo-a-day project, 366 Snaps . Number of project photos taken: 26 (but see my comments about Second Island, above) Title of " roll :" GL & around home Other photos taken on 1/9/2012: 6 color photos for the auction using the D300.

Hmmm. Not much to say about the 366 project today.... Some days you know exactly what photograph you want to take. You take that pic, and a few insurance shots, then post the original. Last January 10 was like that. Never left my front yard for this shoot, which consisted of just five photographs. Two of 'em tried to capture the morning sun on the neighbors' mailboxes; they're pretty much identical and are (disappointingly) much better in color than black & white. (The boxes showed up again, very differently , a few days later.) ========== The posted daily shot (it's below) captured the sheds and silos beyond the houses across the street, and was exactly the photo I intended. (There's a problem with that, as Windsor Di pointed out: Since I knew there was a small tree in the foreground, it didn't register as an undifferentiated blob when I looked. Expectations can blind folks to obvious problems. Should have moved and re-composed the shot.) ========== This photograph is an outtake from my 2012 photo-a-day project, 366 Snaps . Number of project photos taken: 5 Title of " roll :" Potterstreet Other photos taken on 1/10/2012: none.

This is the photograph I was setting up when I noticed the signs on the trees . While this pic works in monochrome, it's better in color. You may notice that there's another home--a double-wide modular, actually--in the neighboring lot. It, too, is abandoned, and appears unlikely to survive for long. But it's not especially photogenic. We'll be seeing that barn again .... ========== This photograph is an outtake from my 2012 photo-a-day project, 366 Snaps . 366/2012 project discussion here .

I had an idea for a specific photo on January 11--of a deserted house on Dow Road, north of Little Venice. I took an eccentric route to the site, though, and collected a handful of farmyard shots on Strange Highway before I got to the abandoned place. I also took a pair of really odd photographs of my then-quite-new car. These trees are near the Dow Road property, and caught my eye while I was shooting another photo . ========== "Your rules say 15 daily photographs. Why?" Experience. Three are too few; thirty are more than I usually need. When I used film, a typical twelve or twenty(-four) frame film roll would yield one or two photographs I liked, perhaps three absolute disasters, with the rest acceptable but unexceptional. Some days were (are) better than others, to be sure, for all sorts of reasons. The pattern holds true when I shoot digitally, except that on a typical day I shoot more pictures. My rules were intended to keep the project simple. Restricting myself to relatively few photographs made it more likely I'd actually get out there with the camera. As you'll see, though, I treated this "rule" as a guideline. Many days I shot six or eight pix; on other days I'd shoot over 200. This depended on my mood, and the day's opportunity. The month's camera had some impact, too. ========== This photograph is an outtake from my 2012 photo-a-day project, 366 Snaps . January 11 was the day I finally realized that the 366 Snaps outtakes were worth preserving. So I created a folder and started stuffing it with photographs. At that point I wasn't sure what I'd do with them. Number of project photos taken: 15 Title of " roll :" Near Mulliken Other photos taken on 1/11/2012: none.