Take my hand in this Top 200 Photo

photo #33 is:

Much like the Nam photo that was #40, in this photo I am taking advantage of the effects wide angle lenses have on their subjects. Things closer to the lens look much larger (compared to a normal lens) than those further away. Like the candle photo, this one only ended up with this many views because it was used on a website. In this case, it is Pixel-Peeper, a site that contains example images to see how well lenses perform. On that page I linked, this photo is, at the time of this writing, the number one image on there. This has led to this going from an obscure photo to being the most-viewed photo in my 365 project. This is annoying in the sense that I feel I have lots of photos in my 365 which are much more creative (like The Last Supper, or the last five photos), but neat because, as an artist, I want as many people to see my work as possible. So if this leads to more views on my 365 photos (and it has) or of my stream in general, then it can’t be that bad.

A powerful Top 200 Photo

photo #34 is:

I opened the battery compartment to my Fujifilm camera and dumped the batteries out. I was going to throw them in the charger when I realized I really liked the arrangement they’d fallen into. So I decided to practice with my camera’s macro mode and shoot the photo. For a while it was one of my favorite macro shots. And it’s one of my few photos to be used on another website thanks to the fact that it was licensed under the creative commons.

Back to Hawaii for this Top 200 Photo

photo #35 is:

It was one of those trips to Hawaii without Danielle. I was really bored so I went out onto the beach since my hotel was right across the street from the beach. I found this long concrete pier that had a crowd of people on it. I figured I’d go check it out. Essentially, people were waiting until the waves stopped, then jumping into the water. It was a good 20 feet or more to the water below. The reason for waiting for the waves to stop is that otherwise they’d slam you into the concrete pier. Also, you had to launch yourselves a ways out because you didn’t want a wave to arrive as soon as you’d landed. I was standing behind two girls (who you’ll see in photo #29) and they jumped in one-by-one. I love shots of dynamic action like jumping because it tends to look really cool. I missed her friend, but I got her jumping in.

Computers in today’s Top 200 Photos

photo #36 is:

These were the computers I was using in 2005. The one on the left was running Linux. The Laptop was running Linux. The computer on the right was running Windows XP. I no longer have any of those computers, monitors, speakers, or mice. They all either broke or were replaced. The longest lasting was the computer on the left which was my print server until recently. (/2011/02/11/replacing-the-fileprint-server/)

More stroboscopic photography for this Top 200 Photo

photo #37 is:

Galileo postulated that in a vacuum (in other words with no air drag) that any two items dropped should fall at the same rate regardless of their mass. I didn’t hold both of these scissors at exactly the same height, so to compare you have to look at the distance each travels per unit of time. Of course, it is right (and has been tested in space).

To the fair for this Top 200 Photo

photo #38 is:

I have forgotten whether I was inspired to go shoot at the Maryland State Fair at night by a magazine or if I came up with the idea on my own. I really enjoyed all the photos I took that night and it has inspired me to go and attempt lots of other night shoots. I like the look of the lights at night and how they cast different shadows and give the objects different appearances than during the day. I also played around with different shutter speeds to be able to see things differently than with the naked eye.

Dave’s back for this Top 200 Photo

photo #39 is:

There are three differences between this photo and the previous similar one: Dave is not stifling a laugh, Dave is wearing a shirt, and it’s in color. But it has a bunch more views. What does that mean? Do people not like topless Dave? Do they hate black and white martial arts photos? Or is it Dave’s serious face? Or maybe it’s just completely random.

Nam is back for this Top 200 Photo

photo #40 is:

This photo, again, is from before Nam was afraid of my photography. I was in town for the Lunar New year and just doing some kid photography of him by getting to his height to take the photos. He was interested in my camera and started getting closer and closer so I had to keep zooming further and further out. So I ended up at 17mm and that makes his head larger than it would otherwise be because of where it is in the frame. (Somewhat ameliorated by the fact that I shot this photo on a crop-sensor camera)

Mai again in today’s Top 200 Photo!

photo #41 is:

I think this is now the third time Mai has appeared on this list. I speculated about her smile, but I’m not really sure what it is that flickr loves about my portraits of Mai.

We’ve finished another twenty photos and are now, at the time of this writing, at 819 views for this photo.

Snow in today’s Top 200 Photo

photo #42 is:

This is a photo of our cars in the parking of the Apartment Complex we used to live at. It was probably right after the snow had finished falling. We used to think that was a lot of snow. Now (after the 2010 storms) we know better.