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Tuesday, April 10, 2012 at 7:46PM The trail continued upwards into the clouds. Maybe not being able to see the climb made us forget how much farther there was to go. The mountains in Vermont are a great place to work out those climbing legs.
Saturday, March 31, 2012 at 7:42AM May you see the sunrise today,
From the place you were meant to be,
Make wherever you are that place in your heart,
And the day will be wide open to your possibilty.
Monday, February 13, 2012 at 5:48PM 
Photo by Thomas Hawk
Recently I was honored to have one of my pictures included in the ebook version of Plus One Collection. A project started by Ivan Makarov to raise money for charity by having photographers on Google+ donate their pictures. Check out the Plus One Collection Google+ page. And, buy the book! The proceeds are going to Kiva, an organization that makes micro-loans to impovershed people around the world.
The limited edition print book includes 193 single page photographs. All 520 photographers who contributed to the project will be included in the coming ebook and app, due to be released later this month.
Green Mountain Fog
I'm happy to have been able to donate a picture to the project and would have loved to be in the print book, but with the wealth of excellent phtotographers on Google+, it's nothing to be ashamed of to be a part of the ebook only. I keep thinking that maybe there was a better picture I could have contributed, but I think my wife is right when she says I should quit second guessing myself. Besides, I saw the wonderful photographs included in the project, and I'm proud to a photo of mine has such inspiring company.
On the right is my contribution to the project, taken during a hike in the Green Mountains of Vermont, last October.
Don't forget to go buy your copy!
Saturday, January 14, 2012 at 9:02AM On Google+ there are a number of Daily Themes for photography, everything from "Transportation Tuesday" (#TransportTuesday) to "Fido Friday" (#FidoFriday). There's something for every interest.
On January First, I started a 365 Project, every day posting one photograph. In the summer, I don't have a problem just going outside and taking a picture, but in the winter, there just aren't as many easy opportunities, and it takes a bit more thought (because it's cold outside, and I don't like it as much as I used to). So, I've been working on inside pictures.
;)
I couldn't find Major Matt Mason, so I settled for GI JoeThe second day, I set up a shot where I took a picture of a GI Joe Christmas ornament, and a Apollo 11 themed beer stein. I haven't had any sort of studio setup in my house for a long time, and I threw together a shot with an old movie camera for side lighting and white foam core to bounce light back in from the front. I didn't have a black background, so I used my black fleece jacket for a backdrop. The picture took a few minutes to set up and a couple minutes to post-process in Lightroom, I was pretty happy with it had it up on G+ in short order.
When you post a picture to G+, it goes to Picasaweb, Google's picture site. Looking through your pictures you can see how many views each one has, and I look once in a while out of curiosity, to see what has gotten attention. Many pictures I've posted have sixty to a couple of hundred views. For some reason, this picture has almost eight hundred! What is it about this shot that drew so much attention? GI Joe? NASA? I'm seriously interested, because in my mind, it isn't the best work I've ever done, but I definitely like that people are looking. I can't/won't change my vision to suit the world, but I will keep in mind what piques people's interest (if I can figure that out).
Monday, January 9, 2012 at 6:46PM Sunset's fire on a winter's eve,
Barren and still, the hibiscus' stand watch over cold, hard ground,
Seedlings hold the promise of spring, and rebirth.
