It took me a while, but I finally have all the photos from A Year in Pictures up in a set on Flickr. Complete with tags! So if you want an easier way to browse through them all than paging back through my blog archives, now you have it.
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This is almost certainly the best photo of St. Paul’s Cathedral I’ve ever taken, and it’s mostly because of luck: I was coming home from research during the Midnight Never Come trip, and the sky had cleared just enough in the west to let the sunset light through. But the air behind the dome was still filled with clouds, and this brilliant contrast was the result.
It seems a fitting note to end this series on. 🙂 I missed a single day in the Year in Pictures project — November 10th, because I failed to schedule something ahead of time for the day I’d be traveling back from World Fantasy — so you get one extra today to make up for it. I’m proud of myself for missing only one (though frustrated that I didn’t have a perfect record); this turned out to be, well, precisely as big of an undertaking as I expected it to be. I’m glad I did it, though: several of you have commented repeatedly to let me know you enjoyed certain pictures, which reassured me that I would not be the only person interested in a public series of my photos.
Stats in the end: 260 five-star pictures posted, 172 not posted. (Not counting my shots from New York and DC, which haven’t been edited yet on account of Lightroom needing to update for my new camera model.) That latter number is . . . ye gods. A goodly way toward being able to do a second round of this, though boy howdy no I am not doing that any time soon. Maybe in a few years, when I’ve traveled to other places and gotten more fresh material — many of the 172 unposted are very similar to ones I did post. Though really, travel isn’t as necessary as it used to be: one effect of getting more serious about my photography is that I see more opportunities for it right in my own back yard. Even so, there’s nothing like visiting a foreign country to give me an itchy shutter finger. ^_^
I hope you all enjoyed this, and many thanks to everyone who commented along the way!
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To close out the year, another light in the darkness: this time, it’s lanterns at Yasaka Jinja in Kyoto.
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Sometimes my favorite bits are not the big, coherent, famous ones, but the unimportant little details off to the side. I don’t know what this inscription in the Roman Forum belongs to, or what its significance might be; I don’t need to. The thing itself is enough.
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I don’t know why this sloop has red sails, but it made for a different “ship on the water” photo than most of the others I’ve taken — and I do like me some “ship on the water” shots.
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Since the last time I visited the Tower of London, they’ve added a bunch of sculptures: mesh statues of the kinds of animals that used to be kept in the menagerie, and these steel-band figures of soldiers on the walls. This crossbowman is cranking his weapon on the wall walk along (I believe) the eastern side.
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One last shot from the Wieliczka Salt Mine. I’m not positive that this is the Virgin Mary, but given how heavily Catholic the area is, that’s my bet. (It’s her or St. Kinga, in all likelihood; there’s a legend associating St. Kinga with the mine.) She is, of course, carved out of salt, and the lighting makes the most of the translucent quality.
Merry Christmas to all those who celebrate it, and I hope the rest of you have a splendid day, too.
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I am fudging ever so slightly: while I like this shot, I don’t consider it to be one of my absolute best. But it’s from a display of Christmas lights at Edaville in Massachusetts, and is the most fitting thing I could post for Christmas Eve.
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A final shot from the incredibly photogenic Fukushu-en in Naha. The little bridge over this stream had statues of sages on each of its posts, each one unique in design.
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Last night was the longest night of the year. This morning, I give you the oculus in the ceiling of the Pantheon, glowing like a miniature sun.
