2008 Photo of the Year

Hopperesque : National Gallery of Art
2008 Photo of the Year

As part of the City Daily Photo community, this month's theme is Photo of the Year. This was a fun year for me and my photography. I had a number of photos that turned out well, but the photo above received the widest acclaim and so it is my 2008 Photo of the Year.

Title: Hopperesque
Taken: National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.
Date: June 19, 2008

In terms of my favorite entries of 2008, I liked these two: Violation? and Ode to Fall. I also enjoyed several serials I did about Richmond, Virginia; Washington's Cherry Blossom Festival; the Pentagon 9/11 Memorial; and a trip I took to Washington State.

In addition to my photo of the year, there are a few others that turned out well in 2008. I've included them in a slideshow below, along with a little Pink Martini to accompany them.

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Happy New Year everyone! Here's to 2009 and another year of great photography.

To see Photos of the Year as chosen by more than 150 City Daily Photo bloggers from all over the world, click here.

Photo of the Year

Lotus Blossom and Bumblebee, Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens

There are photography bloggers all over the world who participate in a "Daily Photo" group. They take and post pictures from their daily comings and goings and post once a day. (Seems pretty obvious, right?) Some of the photos are really extraordinary, while most are just common, every day, typical stuff you'd see around town. I'm not sure what the rules are; that is, if you can only take one picture and then you have to post only that picture or if multiple pictures can be taken and then you choose one. Regardless, they're out there. (In my links on the left, I feature Silver Spring Daily Photo, because I live just across the border in D.C. from Silver Spring.)

On the first of every month, these DPs have a theme they shoot and post on the first day of the month. I don't know who picks the theme or if they vote on it. (Can you tell I'm woefully ignorant about the whole DP thing?) For January, their theme is "Photo of the Year 2007." They each chose the photo they took last year that they liked best. All of this is a long winded way of saying, here's my photo of the year.

I've really enjoyed all of my picture-taking adventures since acquiring my little point-and-shoot for my birthday in May. It may not be the fanciest camera nor the most technologically sophisticated, but I've been amazed at some of the images I've captured and the tricks I've learned (mostly by utter dumb luck and error.) My goal, by the end of this year, is to take a photography class and upgrade to an SLR.

As for my photo of the year: I took this at the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens in southeast D.C. I'm especially proud of this picture because it wasn't easy to take. This lotus blossom stood a good six inches higher than me and was about two feet away. I literally teetered on the edge of the lotus pond and leaned over as far as was reasonably safe to snap this little beauty. The added bonus was the bumblebee over the blossom. Nature couldn't have been more cooperative if I'd been God Herself!

Happy New Year, friends and fellow photographers! And thank for sharing with me your world as seen through your eyes. And thank you, especially, to those who have ventured over this way and left comments. You're my inspiration to continue generating eye-worthy images. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Here's to 2008 and many more marvelous images!