Monthly Theme day - Best photo of 2012

Each month, on the first, the City Daily Photo community choose a theme, and we try to interpret it as best we can.  This month, the community is taking a break, so there's no official theme for January, but traditionally, we've done a retrospective - a 'Best of the year' photo.  Gerald at Hyde Daily Photo has put up a Linky that gathers the 'Best of' posts.  Sharing that is the main reason I'm posting today. 

I myself didn't have a prolific year, photo-wise.  I found my motivation somewhat lacking, and missed quite a few days.  No New Year's resolution to do better; I want to be more regular, but I'm not really sure where my inspiration has got to.  In that spirit, I found the October Monthly Theme to be an unusual source of inspiration.  I took a lot of photos of this slowly moving water, and then struggled over whether I should post-process any of them.  In the end, I decided I liked this one, just as it is.  I can see the man hole cover with bits of sand on it, and of course the water too.  Reflected in the water I see trees, my house, clouds, the sky and even a crow!  Serendipity meets persistence.

Is it my very best photo of 2012?  I'm not sure how to decide that, but it strikes me as the one I'm most proud of.

Bathing beauties

I was the passenger whilst driving to the community garden plot and saw these birds cooling off in a bit of water.  Someone down the street had the sprinkler on and the kids were cooling off there.  Some of that water ran down the street and the birds were cooling off here.  It pays to have the camera with me!  The heat wave is supposed to break today.

F Number	7.1
Lens ID	LUMIX G VARIO 14-45mm F3.5-5.6
Focal Length	45.0 mm (35 mm equivalent: 90.0 mm)
Exposure Time	1/250
Exposure Program	Program AE
ISO	100
Exposure Compensation	0
Flash	Off, Did not fire

Weekend reflection

This photo is 2 weeks old; the snow is all gone now.  But the sky is the same in the photo as it is outside my window, and I thought I'd contribute to Weekend Reflections with this.  Imagine my surprise when I saw what James posted!  This photo is my favourite pond down in Vale.

James at Weekend Reflections collects photographs containing a reflection from round the world. About a hundred photo bloggers post a photo containing a reflection; beautiful work. Click the link and go see!

F Number	8.0
Lens ID	LUMIX G VARIO 14-45mm F3.5-5.6
Focal Length	14.0 mm (35 mm equivalent: 28.0 mm)
Exposure Time	1/80
Exposure Program	Manual
ISO	100
Exposure Compensation	0
Flash	Off, Did not fire

Terraforming

Humans are builders, but there's something magnetic about a stream and a bank full of stones that just cries out for a dam to be built. OK, so it's probably not terraforming as we think of it, but these two brothers are changing the earth together just the same.

Thunderstorm

It's been hot. It's been dry. Very little in the way of rain lately. We do get the occasional thunderstorm though, usually when it's time to weed the garden!

This is me, being a little kid (barefoot as usual!) playing in the water in the gutter on the street. Ten minutes later, the street was dry again.

It was still hot. But now it was humid!

Balance

Walking along the Cowhorn Creek, looking for critters. Frogs mostly, but fish, crayfish and the occasional duck are also attractions down here. Dad is a bad influence, because I walk on fallen logs looking for hidey-holes and it isn't long before the little one starts walking along trees that have fallen in the creek itself. He's smarter than I am though - he has a walking stick!

Balance is everything in life.

Water

Got some rain yesterday. The first real thunderstorms of the season rolled through. Lightning, hail, wind and lots and lots of water. That seems early to me.

Hiking in the snow

There's still some snow down in Vale, but it'll likely be melted this week. This is a very pleasant walk when it's dry; when it's wet like this, it's a hike! Good thing the little one wore his boots. He can walk in the rivulets of melting snow. Too bad his Dad wasn't quite as prepared!

Street pond

Last week we had our first big snow storm of the season. People to the south of us (New York City, Washington DC, even Louisiana!) got snow but the major storms missed us until now. It's hard for the city to find a place to put the snow, so a lot of it ends up on the corner, out of the frame to the right.

It being late February, it warmed up above freezing, so the next storm dropped rain on us instead of snow. With the snow bank taking up a whole lane of the street, it was pretty difficult for the water to get past it. So it sat there. Here, actually, in my driveway.

It turns out that the angle I was at made for an interesting reflection, which qualifies this for inclusion over at Weekend Reflections. Thanks to James for continuing this very interesting series!

Hydrant flushing

Once or perhaps twice a year, the city comes round and opens the valves on the fire hydrants, to flush out any accumulated minerals in the pipes and to make sure they operate properly. Spring cleaning, if you will.

Our water system is very old, and our water contains a lot of dissolved minerals; manganese, I'm told, is predominant and accounts for the reddish colour that can be seen in the standing water at the base of the hydrant.

When the city is flushing hydrants, don't wash your clothes, or they'll get that slightly red tinge, too. Necessitating another round of spring cleaning! By the way, our city water supply is artesian, very pure and quite tasty compared to some municipal water I've tasted.

Ice cave

Not a very large ice cave, to be sure! This is the remnant of the snow bank in front of my house. The water has eroded a tunnel through it; a very common sight. It takes a very tall snow bank to support a tunnel this wide though (it's about a yard / 1 metre across.)

I had a hard time deciding whether to show this or not. I see these things all the time, but there are people who haven't. When I took this, I knelt down on the kerb, put my head and camera down into the tunnel and snapped off a few shots. It's quite bright although it doesn't seem that way in the photo, and my camera isn't an SLR, so there's some parallax between the view I got through the eyepiece and what the lens captured. It was too bright to see the LCD, so I didn't know how I did until I got inside. Almost like shooting with film again!

Anyway, the melting snow all along the street is providing plenty of water to keep these supplied. Another week or so and these snowbanks will be only a memory. Spring comes quickly!

One other thing: I had some difficulty with the title. I love Babooshka's continuing series called 'Odd Shots.' I think this is a candidate for that title!

Leaves and rain

Taken at the end of my driveway. It was raining; enough that there was a current carrying leaf litter down the street. It caught my eye for some reason and here it is, a memory from my childhood schoolboy, walking to school in October.

Great Escape

It was another so-so weather day, and the water reminded me of the day at the Great Escape, so I decided to post a sunnier photo!

I couldn't resist the colours in this one, and I somehow managed to catch the little one at just the right moment.