Last new year I made a resolution, I would take at least one picture every day for a year and post it on line. This is a so called “365 challenge” that is fairly popular among photographers. The number of photographs would’t be a problem, I usually take well over 1000 pictures in a year as a matter of course, many more if there are some good vacations. The real challenge was to take a picture EVERY DAY, even if I didn’t feel like it, even if the weather sucked, even if I had better things to do. I was under no delusions it would be easy.

And it wasn’t easy! Yeah, I took over 2500 pictures this year, but some days I took only a single picture, and some of those sucked! I posted at least one picture from every day here, there are 572 pictures posted and most of them I am proud of in one way or another. Sure, quite a few are not great art and a number are total throw-aways, but that is OK because I didn’t resolve to take a GREAT picture every day, I only resolved to “exercise” my creativity and to find something to take a picture of every day. Why did I do this? I hoped it would make me a better photographer, a better artist and I knew it would make me intimately familiar with my equipment, helping me get the good shots when I really want them.

I thought I would start 2012 with a retrospective of my 2011 365 challenge, with the top 12 photos. These are not the 12 best overall, but each represents the best image of the particular month. Selection was made by me, no one else gets a vote! Judging was difficult job to be sure, because as the artist I can’t separate the effort from the result, but I tried. So, without further ado…

January 2011

Starting was easy, but I knew that it would quickly become difficult to think of new subjects, so I started the year by assigning myself a “theme” every week. One of the early themes was “texture” and I tried to take interesting photographs that captured that theme. These vines growing up a tree in my back yard have wonderful texture, and I think they are perfect rendered in black and white.

February 2011

Another early theme was “dark” and I did a lot of experiments with long exposure. My Olympus E500 was not well suited to low light performance, but I ran with the noisy look in this photo and made it part of the style. I love the starbursts in the lights and the red trail left by the car moving through the scene. The who picture has a great, gloomy mood.

March 2011

“Action” was one of the themes I shot in March. I got a lot of good pictures from this and this is my favorite. That is william hanging in the air for a wonderful silhouette lay-up. I carefully positioned myself so that the sun would just peek out from behind the backboard, creating the sunburst through the rim. I really like this shot and think it could only really be improved if I cut down some of the trees in the background to make William’s outline cleaner

April 2011

The weather finally started to get consistently nice in April, and I started expanding my reach for photographs. I soon “discovered” with new eyes the incredible number of decaying old barns and sheds in the area. These were irresistible to me as subjects, something that would continue for much of the year. This is one of Meagan’s favorites, so that is why I chose it for this post. Wonderful details and textures help tell the story of this springhouse.

May 2011

Another great discovery was the number of historic bridges in the area. The engineering geek in me loves these as subjects. This is the Lehigh Canal RR bridge in North Catasauqua, and it is a registered historic bridge with fantastic riveted construction and a great rusty patina. I took this abstract shot capturing a skyward view of the structure and a bit of graffiti. The play of light and shadow and pattern really makes this shot for me. This shot was entered in the “Life in the Valley” photo contest from Dans, and was predictably beat out by pictures of cute kids and pets. Sigh…

June 2011

More barns. I picked this shot from June mostly because of the way the sky looks, very dramatic, and the very wide angle view of the barn provides some visual interest.

July 2011

This is, without doubt, one of my favorite images from the year, and based on the response on line, others like it also. I was driving along in the “Golden Hour” before sunset and saw this boat floating on a pond nearby, but well off the road. There were a lot of other interesting things around so I drove down the driveway, went up and rang the doorbell of the house to ask if I could take pictures. “Why?” came the response. “Just because I think your property is beautiful and interesting.” With this old rowboat with the peeling paint and perfect reflection, in great light, there was no way to take a bad picture.

August 2011

I was really in a groove through the summer. The pictures came easy as I could be out driving around and see subjects all the time. Long days made it easy to go back to locations when the light was good and get the shot I wanted. This shot was taken from my point and shoot camera while I was on a bike ride. It looked good in color, but black & white with a sepia tone really made it the picture I had in my mind.

September 2011

I drive past this abandoned office high rise every day on my way to work, and I have photographed it several times. The early fall brought temperature changes and heavy morning fog, and I just knew that the fog would add visual interest to the building if I could get the right angle. I had to drive around a couple of barricades to get close enough to the building to get this shot, but it was worth it.

October 2011

Winter came early in 2011, and I almost picked one of my pictures from “Octsnowberfest” for this month, but in the end I really like this self portrait. I was experimenting with off camera flash and trying to get a classic low-key portrait. The only think I don’t like is that I can’t figure out how I got so old…

November 2011

One thing I didn’t expect was that the challenge would get more difficult toward the end. For a while I felt like I had taken pictures of everything possible! The fact is I had taken a lot of pictures of the Bethlehem Steel ruins, some of which I really liked. What I hadn’t done was experiment with High Dynamic Range photography. This photo is actually the result of stacking 5 different exposures. The result is great detail in the deep shadows as well as in the brightest areas of the image. I love the “grungy” look.

December 2011

With the finish line in site, December was still very challenging, For sure through the year I put a lot more pressure on myself to produce “good” images. Every time I resorted to a quick snapshot of my top Louie I was frustrated for not being more creative or finding a more compelling image. This stepped up the quality of my best images in the last couple of months. In my mind, this might be the best photo I took because it tells an entire story with one image. I called this one “Faded Glory” when I posted it.

Well, as Porky Pig says, “That’s all folks!” My 365 challenge is over, and I am very glad I did it. Thank you all for coming along for the ride, and for commenting, liking, and otherwise acknowledging my photos on the various social sites. Your support was key! Am I a better photographer today than I was 365 days ago? I certainly think so. I’ve been trying to decide on a new photo challenge for 2012. I definitely don’t want to do another 365 because I want EVERY shot to be purposeful and it just isn’t possible (for me) to make great art every day.

Another year nearly finished! Christmas day is here and as has become tradition we gathered with Lisa’s family on Christmas Eve for a wonderful evening of food and fun. I’ve made a gallery of all the pictures I took last night. Enjoy!

One of my son’s closest friends lost his father today. Shocking, tragic and unexpected. The boy is 15 and his father was only in his late 40′s, maybe 50, just a couple of years older than me. A terrible loss for the whole family, yet my thoughts keep turning to the boy. I know that being thrust into manhood and enduring one of the most difficult time periods in a young man’s life without the benefit of a father’s guidance is not unusual, but it is extraordinarily unfair.

My heart goes out to this young man. I hope that his family and his friends can help him through this loss and through life.

temperatures more often than not. Today was in the low 40′s, it stayed dry most of the morning, but we stayed around just long enough to get poured on as we left. Oh well, it was still a good time!

The actors in these reenactments amaze me with their dedication, knowledge and desire to share. most of them had spent the night in their period tents and actually live the weekend as if it were 1861 (with porta-potties, some concessions to the modern world are necessary).

The day started with a march down Main street in downtown Bethlehem. The soldiers conducted a recruitment at the end of the march and convinced a number of locals to “sign up”. Three of our boys from the scout troop decided to join. They lied about their age so that they could fight for the cause, but it’s OK, the war is only expected to last 90 days or so. That is what President Lincoln said. He seemed like a nice fellow, if a little awkward. He didn’t seem too concerned about the rebels, even though they surprised our boys in a couple of battles.

We visited the blacksmith shop on the way to the camp and watched them forge basic tools. They had a fire, so at least it was warm!

The encampment had everything you would expect, a quartermaster, cooks, tents, an operating table (yikes!) and all the other “comforts” of home. Check out the gallery for my favorite photos from today.

Since Christmas we’ve finished a basketball season. William was on the “Freshman” team and they had a very good season overall, winning something like 75% of their games.

I made two business trips to Denmark in as many months. I don’t really mind being there, but I hate the travel and being away from home and family. Winter in Denmark is also my least favorite time. Damp, cold, dark and dreary. In two different weeks I did not see much of the sun!

Most recently, William went to the Snowball dance at his school. I think he cleans up pretty well, don’t you? That is his cousin, Tara, standing with him.

More pictures in the gallery

Phoenix was wonderful, and in spite of 115 degree temperatures, it really is a “dry heat” and we found it quite tolerable. The Kipps have a nice pool and we all enjoyed the refreshing dips. While in Phoenix we went tubing on the Salt River, which was a lot of fun and nice and cool.

Sedona is a beautiful place, surrounded by and filled with rock formations from ages of mother nature’s work. We took a “Pink Jeep” tour of the Dry River Gulch and it was a blast, rough enough to be exciting, but not too scary for the average person. The downtown shopping area was also cool. While we didn’t visit any of the so-called vortexes, the natural “spirituality” of the beauty that surrounds you is something that you cannot escape.

Finally on to the true wonder of the world, The Grand Canyon. The road from Sedona to Flagstaff is not to be missed for any driving enthusiast. Fantastic switchbacks on a climb to a 6500′ summit with an incredible overlook. From Flagstaff we took a slightly longer route to the canyon that brought us in from the east, along the rim. We made a stop at the Little Colorado Gorge along the way and bought some Navajo jewelry. We stopped at an eastern overlook, and at my first real view of the canyon I admit to getting quite misty-eyed. No photograph or video, hi def or otherwise, can do it justice, it simply must be seen. Absolutely magnificent. I got myself up at 4:00 to catch the sunrise. From Grandview point, I was in solitude for much of the morning, climbing my way out as far as I dared, I set up and started shooting, losing myself in the beauty of the morning. Eventually I was joined by a couple of other shutterbugs, but everyone was silent, just watching it unfold. Truly unforgettable. We spent the morning at the canyon, and went back for the sunset. low clouds spoiled the view a bit, but it was still fantastic. Before heading back the next morning, we got one more view of the canyon, this time from a helicopter!

Off we headed back to Phoenix, with a stop along historic Route 66 for lunch at “Cruiser’s Diner”. What could be better? Back in Phoenix we had another full day to spend with our friends, relax, and enjoy some superb meals before heading home.

Where was Meagan in all this? She was in Ireland, Wales and England, but that’s another story…

Yep, it’s a wrap. Meagan officially crossed the stage to collect her diploma on July 20th and sealed the deal unofficially with a graduation party on the 26th (thanksto everyone who shared in the celebration!). Pictures from graduation are in the gallery.

Meagan is off to Ireland, Wales and England for some time with friends and before you know it, the summer will pass and she’ll be off to UD!

We didn’t hear much about the prom for several days since she left for the physics trip at 4 the next morning (yikes!), but it seems they all had a good time.

Another High School moment passed on the rapid march to college!