The 12 best images from the blog for 2021 as chosen by me, Guitar Ted. All decisions are final! (HA!) Not that this is a contest, but I have my opinion which may or may not align with yours. Here they are listed in order from January onward and a couple may have some commentary to go with them. Enjoy!
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| January: Two horses seen on an early gravel outing in '21. |
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| February: Intense cold and snow forces me to take refuge in the shop doing work on a commuter project. |
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| March: Image taken for a four season art project I am doing. Scene from eastern Black hawk County. |
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| April: From one of my favorite Black Hawk County roads, Schenk Road. |
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| May: Spring on Petrie Road's Level B sector. |
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| June: A day lily along a rustic section of road in Cedar Falls. |
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| July: An early morning ride with N.Y. Roll |
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| August: Seen during what will likely be my final Gravel Worlds appearance. |
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| September: A fleeting moment where the light was 'just so' on a ride in Black Hawk County. |
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| October: I got hooked on early morning rides this past few months! |
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| November: A scene from my Turkey Burn Ride. |
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| December: More shop scenes. A relic from Trans Iowa v5 here. |
That's a wrap on the top pics from 2021 here. Thanks for reading!
They're all beautiful but imo September is the hands down winner. It seems to capture that tingle of excitement you get when you're heading out on an early morning ride.
ReplyDelete@Phillip Cowan - Thank you! Yes, I would agree that it is perhaps one of my best shots, maybe ever, just because the opportunity to grab it was so brief and fleeting. The light completely changed within a couple of minutes and that scene was gone.
ReplyDeleteI guess that's why I love those early morning rides. The situations you find yourself in are highlighted more by the super-special lighting during that time of day. Evening qualifies as well.
Obviously, EVERY moment in a day or night is like that, but we do not notice how fleeting these moments are - perhaps - because we do not note the passing of time as keenly as we do when the lighting is like it is during early mornings and late evening times.
Or maybe I'm just full of it! Ha!
No, you are not full of it! While I am not personally a "picture taker", my wife and son both are and have been for several years. My wife is just a very good amateur taking pictures of most everything and my son has become a semi professional as a second job in a studio with another guy, doing portraits, weddings, graduations, city pics, drone shots of a farm during harvest which he's sold a few prints of, but mostly real estate photos inside and out of various properties that are on the market, which he seems to have gotten very good at. Thank the lord for the invention of the digital camera, mostly self focusing unless you need to, no film to process, and instant gratification, plus instant deletion of the klinkers. Even the best of the pro photographers admit to taking hundreds of shots of something and only having a few turn out worthy, plus one hundred percent agree that dawn and morning or sunset are the best times for light. And these days there's also Photo Shop or some such where you can tweak your shots for light and contrast if need be or eliminate wires, poles, signs, etc. or turn color photos into black and white, sepia or whatever sends ya. My favorite photo of yours is still the one you reposted of the bike lying on the road, lights on with the sun just peeking over the horizon, great shot!
ReplyDeleteAm also interested in this four season art project of yours. Reminds me of an older indie movie I saw called Smoke, a slice of life flick involving photography and good cigars with Harvey Keitel and William Hurt. Worth a look or a relook if it can still be found.
And as always no need to post this one. Happy Holidays to you and yours, in spite of a rather unhappy year.
Rick
All are good, I like October because early morning rides are the best and January because you can feel the cold in that one. Thanks for posting them.
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed those!
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