Is carrying a camera with me most times part of the routine? Yes.

Did I make an effort to stop what I’m doing and shoot when my eyes and mind were open to the images around me? Definitely, yes.

I’ve created a set on Flickr to capture the highlights. Need to add more images since I should be pushing 170 now nearing the halfway point for the year!

I haven’t even touched the area of revisiting and scanning old printed photos yet. But I will. I know there’s gold in those boxes of envelopes with prints and negatives!

I didn’t always have the greatest gear over the years, but I think the earlier photos will show flashes of skill, inspiration, and luck that led to the work I’m doing now.

Did I miss anything?

I find watching the water like looking at a fire–soothing. And elemental. Maybe it appeals to a primitive part of my brain.

Didn’t make it that far. Barely left the park for two hours. Took many blurry photos. My excuse is I’m still exploring the new camera and lenses. The ratio of hits to misses isn’t all that different than it used to be on film. But the feedback is more immediate. I can walk home, download, view, and think, “I could go there again tomorrow and try again.”

Man, could have used that quick turnaround in the past when I worked in the bush and often went months between batches of processing and seeing the images. I’ll dig into some of the hits from the frozen wasteland later this year. Because I did get some beauties. But by the time I saw how things turned out, I’d be waiting for next year about the same time to get similar scenic and light conditions.

One thing I know. I need to get back there, Northern Manitoba, during the winter with modern gear, visual skills, and the advanced patience I’ve developed since I was there last!

Oh, the fish boat hulls, one of my favorite shots of all time, in the top 10 for sure.

See all the 2011 365 day photo challenge images at http://www.flickr.com/photos/kris_obertas/sets/72157625726150186/

Here’s my moment of clarity. If I am going to take more photos through 2011, I’ll have to look for more obvious subjects, closer to home. Because there really is no way to plan a destination type shoot (which I love) during most days when I have a daily routine that comes first.

So I’ll be looking at things along my usual routes sure. But I’ll also be stopping to view and shoot things I may have walked by before on the way elsewhere. Hence my first shot of the set, taken at the Kitsilano market with its rows of cut flowers and plants. As the seasons and flowers change I’ll have a colourful, vista to explore in depth through the year.

Got there a bit too late so my shooting time was limited as the sun ducked behind a building to the South. The sun popped out again for a few minutes but my camera was getting confused by the low light so I did what I could then headed off.

I suppose tomorrow I’ll have to include a link to the page where I’m posting my challenge photos. Not too impressive a collection on Day 2.  But I’m a working on it…

I may or may not tidy it up with straightening and cropping and other forms of tonal and color correction. Eventually I’ll be getting into older print and slide photos, but that involves an extra scanning step. So to start I’ll focus on my collection of digital photos and pick from there and the growing inventory of shots as I keep shooting.

The other part of the challenge involves a blog post a day. Not necessarily here always although this will be the conduit for the project. I have other blogs I use occasionally and a few in mind to set up. Given that it is January 1st, I should get on it!

I need the writing practice too. I need to get more productive with my freelance work during my after work hours. If I don’t exercise, my prose gets weaker and flabbier. I lose my mojo. And I struggle when faced with a blank page.

That is not a problem lately. I’ve become more proficient at starting and getting the ideas down in rough form then editing ruthlessly, then writing more, then editing again, and repeating until a deadline stops me.

I write at work. The job is less marketing now, and more sales and service related. I practice my copywriting for development and I write for cash when I find paid work. My job may be on the bubble again, so I need to ramp up searches for work as an employee or a freelancer and to get more done on the backburnered projects I’ve been nursing along or ignoring completely.

No matter how I look at it, more writing and more doing is in order again.

Here’s my tentative plan:

Wake up alive…no, no, no! For the conference…

10.45 - Marc Canter - Bringing Social to Software

(Marc’s Voice is one of my regular blog stops. I always learn there.)

11.30 - Monique Trottier and Friends - From Book to Blog or Blog to Book

(I’m interested in the latter as a way of sharing pieces of a novel I’ve started. Seems that writers don’t have to toil in isolation anymore. I have a lot of bits to weave into the story. Can’t see the harm in posting slices that don’t give away the farm. Maybe publishers and agents see it differently. I’d best find out.)

1.30 - Alan Levine - There Are 50 Web 2.0 Ways to Tell a Story

(I love exploring the universe of software and Internet tools and utilities. Even if I don’t play with them all, I enjoy seeing what people’s creativity turns loose in the world. This should be fun.)

Kris and Alex - The Other Side of Two Dimensions

(photography related, that’s all I need to know. And I’ve enjoyed Alex W-H’s work for years.)

3.30 - Jeez, can’t call this one yet. They all sound good.

4.15 - Aieeee! Another toughie. I’m split between Jean Hebert and Jacqueline Schoemaker Holmes. I’d like to understand more about the mobile world and what Jean has discovered through his research. I’m also curious about Jacqueline’s work. Call it professional interest. I’m doing AdWords work for a local entrepreneur selling an online dating ebook. He took the same subject and is building a business around teaching people how to navigate online and offline dating.

Friday had me interested in PhotoCamp but I don’t know how that is going to play out yet. This is my first unconference so I’ll just relax and see what develops. Meanwhile, I may duck into a Bootcamp session or two. In particular, I’ll be at Linda Bustos’ Traffic, Stats, SEO 101 session. I know the topic but I’ve worked with Linda remotely and never met her in person. And this is her area of expertise so I bet I will learn new ideas.

According to Barbara Sher, author of Refuse to Choose, some of us are “genetically wired to be interested in many things.”

Check.

“Because your behavior is unfamiliar-even unsettling-to the people around you, you’ve been taught that you’re doing something wrong and you must try to change.”

Check.

Here’s my favorite parts. “What you’ve assumed is a disability (check) to be overcome by sheer will (check) is actually an exceptional gift (cool).” And, “You are the owner of a remarkable, multitalented brain trying to do its work in a world that doesn’t understand who you are and doesn’t know why you behave as you do.”

Now, I can’t be the judge of remarkableness as I’m too close to the situation. That’s a fairly subjective thing, deciding what’s remarkable. My friends are less diplomatic. I’ve heard, “You’re weird!” often enough to be partly convinced. But again, in comparison to what?

I’m guessing a lot of blogger types are people that may fit the profile. Expect further reports as I dig into the book. Does she have scientific evidence and more than a collection of anecdotes or is this a great idea for selling a book?

 Then paralysis set in. And I’ve done nothing of note since a couple of aborted blogs that languished and filled up with comment spam until they died quietly, without ceremony.

This time will be different. Really. I want to attend Northern Voice in late February 2008. Attending blogless would be silly. So I’m rolling them out and starting to chip away at posting. Free Range Brain will be home base and cover topics that don’t fit elsewhere.