Will the seal roll off the rock and into the sea?

Chair. Window. That's all.

Scott Thomas, whose blog lives just around the block at Views Infinitum has announced another photo assignment for us established or wanna-be photographers.

He wants us to find at least three of our best photos that we are particularly proud of.  Photos must have been taken between November 1, 2010 and October 31, 2011. 

He suggests:  Maybe it was a new technique you learned, a favorite vacation photo, a unique photo of something/someone or a photo which has a special meaning for you.

Red poinsettia leaf on snow

Of course, I wasn’t going to play.  I have told myself sixteen times sideways that I’m not doing any more photo assignments or challenges.  No.  Unless they jump out from behind a tree with such insistence that it’s not possible to even whimper the word “no”.

And guess what?  This one shanghaied me this morning.  And I’ll bet it will shanghai a lot of you, too, because, gosh darn, isn’t it fun to go back and look at some of our old, forgotten photo-children and make their acquaintances once again?

Lone tree in January along Keweenaw Bay

There is a problem with the word “best”.  You go try to decide which photos you’ve taken that you like the “best”.  It’s like trying to choose a favorite color.  Or a favorite dinner.  Or a favorite child.  Life offers too many magnificent shots to choose “favorites”.

But, OK, I guess it’s possible.  The trouble is I couldn’t limit it to three in 100 years.  I couldn’t limit it to three photos in three months.  So here are eight of my favorite photos from January-March, 2011. 

Before she jumps in a hole in the ice in Portage Canal in January...!

Please don’t trust me, though.  A lot of you said you really really liked the photos from yesterday’s blog about “Somewhere over the Rainbow”.  I mean:  Sing it again, Judy.  Sing it again, Iz… 

I kinda liked those photos, but almost didn’t show you.  Because 1) no story appeared to go with them, and, as you know, I am passionately in love with stories and will sometimes throw photos over the cliff if no stories accompany them, and 2)  They kinda looked like ordinary photos of the bay and canal.  You know how you look at things everyday and they suddenly seem ordinary and–ho hum–why would anyone really want to see them?

But yesterday I thought:  someone will want to see them.  And apparently many of you did!

Delighted little winter girl

There were so many photos in the January-March 2011 blog file that I loved.  Which to choose, which to choose?

I finally let the heart decide.  The heart LOVED the chair and window.  (Never ask the heart why.  It just does.)  It loved the red poinsettia leaf on snow.  It made me gasp last winter, the contrast of deep red against white everlasting snow.

Finding the right magazine (Niece Jillian discovered in local bookstore)

The lone tree overlooking the Keweenaw Bay is gone.  The Road Commission pulled up its old roots and cast it to the swamp during a road construction project in the summer.  (This might not have been in my favorites file…but now it is.  Because it lives no more, except in my heart.  And maybe yours.)

The joy on the faces of the two winter girls thrills me every time.  So much joy!  I want to feel that much joy in the “dead of winter”, don’t you?

A seagull. Just because I love him.

The array of magazines with my modeling niece as a bride has always made my heart flutter, like the pages of a magazine in wind.  (Photos of vegetables in grocery stores amaze me, too, but we couldn’t start including all of those.)

I liked the seagull photo for some reason, too, although right now I can’t remember why.  **grin**  Oh, yes, the light was “perfect” that night, and real photographers think of light as the alchemy of photography.  I am kinda learning this.

A seal. Just because--how could we not love him?

Finally, the seal from our California trip.  Oh what a face!  Oh what posture!  Will the seal roll off the rock and into the sea? 

Do you want to see some of my other faves from April-August?  OK, I’ll stop after that.  Promise.  Will try to post the next batch tomorrow or the next day.

And all you bloggers–you’ll love this challenge, I promise!  Let me know if you have a dire time deciding, or if you can easily and effortlessly choose your three favorite photographs for an entire year.