Day 2 & 3 of 2010's Project 365:

Yesterday, the Project snuck up on me, and so I was left scrambling at, literally, the 11th hour.

Not my best work, but it's a subject I love:



This clay/metal sculpture has been showcased at several of our residences over the years.

Today, Alex and I went photog-ing, like we do, and part of our conversation was about the role of a photographer. We live in a beautiful spot of the world, but just like everyone else around the globe, inspiration isn't always at our fingertips and maybe part of a photographer's role is to see things in a different way, from a different perspective, that others may not notice.

That's my today shot:



Growing up here, these have been a part of my landscape for a good long time and now I realize that they were subconsciously relegated to the back scenery. Today was perfect for seeing something "usual" in a new and different way.

Hello 2010:

I'm back!

Today is the first day for 2010's Project 365* and after a year off, I'm excited to get back into the Picture a Day, every day swing of things.

First one:

The Mystery, It May Be Solved:

A few days ago, I was telling Alex that I'd noticed a HUGE uptick on my flickr stats (where you can see which of your pictures are being viewed or learn what search words/phrases brought people to your photos). Unfortunately, I hadn't noticed it the day it happened (March 6th) but about 6 days later and so I can't see the particulars of WHY I got such a massive amount of views - 591! In one day! I get, on average, two to three hundred views a week and only when I'm consistently adding content. The periods I sit dormant, my daily viewership drops to 50 or less.

The lightbulb has gone off though, and I think I may have solved the mystery . . .



That rather crappy picture may be what caused the rush of traffic over to my flickr pages. As you can read, I made mention of The Yarn Harlot, Greg Kinnear and a little verb to describe the "style" of photography I was aiming for.

None of that was worth noticing though, until the other day when Greg Kinnear was on the Graham Norton Show talking with Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, The Yarn Harlot, about Kinnear kinnearing himself.

It's pretty damn funny!



I think a whole bunch of Brits in the studio audience went home and photo-googled "Yarn Harlot Kinnear" and found themselves looking at my husband handing in an American voting ballot, lol.

I'm Exhausted From The Explaining - In A Good Way:

The other day, my friend Alex took a picture of one of my cats. Blue is universally loved because of her crossed eyes and her goofy real-life cartoon-y features.

Enter flickr, and the world of outside perception. marakaramazov took a gander at Alex's picture and thought that Blue was taxidermied. No, really.

After Mara expressed her concerns, I did everything to assuage her worry, even linking to my real life pictures of Blue recently.

She loved a few of them, but others had her questioning my motives.

This one, she wrote "Sorry, but the cat look strange".

Yes, the cat looks funny, but so does my husband too! That's the point of the shot!

It has been really fascinating to communicate in two different languages (my English and her Spanish, but really my limited Spanish and her not-so-bad English).

That she cares so much about animals and their welfare means we share a universal language and I hope we can always communicate together.

I'd like to explain to her that Blue is not only very much alive, but shares a home with five other cats and a dog because we love animals, just like she does!

Is a cross-eyed cat a rarity in Latin-American countries? Heck, is a cross-eyed (bizco) cat a rarity in America?

While I'm exhausted from the research, I absolutely love the exchange!

If you were in my shoes, what else would you convey?

The Tree Whisperer:

Remember back when I wrote that one of my pictures on flickr seemed to be pretty popular, but I didn't think it was such a great shot?

You 'member, right? This one:



Last night/today, another one of my pictures got real popular, but this time I had a clue why.

Said picture:



In the comments for this one, a few people congratulated me for being on flickr's Explore page. Flickr keeps track of the daily top 500 pictures that have the most comments/favorites/combination of both attached to them.

Bear in mind that during an average MINUTE at flickr, there are approximately 5,000 pictures uploaded. Every sixty seconds! Being in the top 500 is pretty outstanding on its own, but there *is* a catch to it. Some photographers are very popular and consistently hit the Explore page. The more exposure your picture has (adding it to groups, having a lot of contacts that can view it, etc.) the greater your chance for getting noticed. Of course, it helps if your picture is good, lol.

In my case, I'm part of some local groups (Central Coast, Central Valley, etc.), of course the ravelry-related groups, a few groups pertaining to my camera brand, and lastly a smattering of groups with focuses that interest me (landscape, nature, etc.) If one of my pictures fits the description of that group I'll add it (not always, but usually).

When that first picture got popular, I didn't know why. Once the second picture garnered so much interest, I went looking . . .

Third picture down.

The first picture.

Over at Big Huge Labs, you can search to see if any of your pictures are listed on the Explore page. (Those links may not work if you don't have an account there. It's free and has many fun picture toys to play with so go check it out!)

That's how I just found out my March picture had hit the big time.

You can also look up other people! Sneaky-Pete, I know, but it is all in the public domain. Here's a shot by Mike Baird - a local photographer who is a wealth of information about picture-taking and local nature stuff.

Frecklegirl (Jess if you know ravelry) even hit the #2 spot one day last year!

It seems my forte is taking pictures of trees. I'da never guessed!

P.S. Over at dopiaza.org, you can create a Set Manager - based on the criteria you give it, it will generate a group of your pictures together. In my case, I have it look at my pictures' flickr stats to daily generate a set of my most viewed pictures.

"No on 8" Rally/Picnic in San Luis Obispo

If you have interest, there will be a rally/picnic to get out the "NO ON PROP 8" word.

Details:

When: This Sunday, November 2, 2008 at 2pm
Where: Mitchell Park in San Luis Obispo (Santa Rosa and Pismo streets)

More information can be found by clicking here.

It's the least I can do to help my fellow Californians in their fight for legal equality.

Local Yokel Activity:

Lately, I've taken a few outings around the area.

The weather went all kinds of kooky crazy hot the other day, so Alex and I hit up Pismo the other evening. I love me Weather because it makes a difference in pictures. Overcast, gloomy, windy, whatever. Hot at the beach is rare, so I was looking forward to the opportunity and it didn't disappoint.

Pismo Beach on October 7, 2008.

Another thing going on this week is that The Mike has barely worked so far. Monday he worked a short day and then was off Tuesday and Wednesday. I hate it when that happens, but at least he was willing to go out and about yesterday, so I could take pictures. Although it didn't pan out, he took me on a mystery ride for (what he was hoping would be) creek shots. Unfortunately, the creek was completely dried up. Also unfortunate was that he, not being into picture taking, didn't think stopping the car every so often was necessary. Almost all my pictures were taken from the passenger side while driving a less-than-stellar back road.

Upper Lopez Canyon Road.

Tonight was the monthly meeting of the SLO Camera Club. I'm glad I went, and I'm glad Alex went too. We both think that this club is not going to satisfy our "thirst for photography knowledge", but we do want to check it out a few more times to get a better feel for it. Alex, at 20, was definitely the youngest member. Me, days away from 40, was the second youngest member, lol.

Some pretty neat events are coming up, here locally, and I'm going to be checking them out. First up is an open studio tour (and while I had read about it online, a knitter came to the Sunday knit group and whipped out some postcards about her work.) Another cool thing happening here is gale force winds that should make for some awesome shots at the beach. Also, high tide hits around 8:40 tomorrow morning and I want to be there for that.

Like I said - there is plenty to occupy me, here locally, at the moment. Too soon, my time will be sucked back into work and tax deadlines and 'nose to the grindstone' activity. Right now I just want to breath in all that I love and enjoy.