How’s my 12 in 12 going? A New Photo and A Second Look.

Glad you asked. On a pure numbers basis, I’m five photographs behind. As a reminder, the goal of the 12 Significant Photos project is to plan and then make 48 photos, including one photo per season of 12 places. That means getting out once a week for a year with just four weeks off for bad weather, travel, etc. I’ve made 14 photos in the 19 weeks since I started the project. That’s pretty good given that I had a family trip in June that took me out of town for the two weekends bookending a week; plus, I moved my professional office right after that trip.

The real challenge will be making photos in summer. Summer never has been my season. Moreover, my hometown is under the second major heat advisory of the summer. The feels like temperature this week will reach 109˚F (43˚C). No one should be out in that heat.

Fortunately, we had a break in the weather on the actual 4th of July holiday. With a day off from work, I struck out early and made this photo of a plant I later learned to be teasel. A photographer friend told me about its fascinating history of being used to tease or card wool.

The other find of the week was my stumbling onto a different version of a photo that I thought hadn’t worked. In early spring, I was photographing a prairie that was mostly brown but had some hints of color from grass and wildflowers. I made this Intentional Camera Movement (ICM) photo.

Critiquing my own work is a real challenge. Since I liked this photo and was proud of making ICM work, I wanted to include it among the 12 finalists. But, after looking at it for a few months, it finally sunk in that it didn’t fit the other photos. My 12 in 12 project is to tell the story of The Parklands of Floyd’s Fork. The colors in the vertical photo above didn’t work; the photo was mostly brown and the others were about color. Some of that color was subtle and some was more striking. The brown, though, looked out of place. The horizontal one below, however, has enough of the sky and grass to be a better match for the colors. Plus, since I panned the camera horizontally, having the long edge at the bottom and top makes more sense.

Right now, this photo is the April 2022 entry in my project. What do you think?