World Photography Day celebration showing (of your images)

So, today is World Photography Day. Apart from some official contests, there’s a yearly challenge on flickr to show a collection of your favorite shots in a number of different categories in celebration of this. While I’m not a fan of every initiative on flickr and don’t care too much about the contest aspect of it, I really like the idea and it’s not only fun to participate, but also to look at what other people pick as some of their favorite shots.

So I thought I would suggest trying something similar here, if there’s any interest. Because the categories on Flickr are somewhat strange in my opinion (with plenty of overlap and vastly different sizes in audience etc.) I thought it would perhaps make sense to structure them as a combination of categories from the current forum structure. Of course there’s no way of making perfect categories ever with things like this and there will always be something which either fits in several of them or none at all, but please take a look at my suggestion and let me know, if you think anything should be added, so I can adjust it if necessary.

Abstract, Macro & Still life

Architecture & Landscape

Documentary/Street & People

Nature (including domesticated animals, gardens, plants at home)

Sport, Action & transportation

The idea is the following:
- everyone can post 1 up to a max. of 5 images
- please put all of your images in one post and even if you add one later, try to do that by the EDIT function and not in a separate post
- you can post one image per each category or several, it doesn’t matter as long as the overall number of shots is not greater than 5. The categories are only there as a framework. If something doesn’t fit, please post it anyway.
- of course it’s great if some of your images are relatively recent (say the last year or so) but it’s no necessity. If you know about an image in your archives you absolutely love to post for a certain category, don’t hesitate to use that.
- if you can and want to, it’s highly appreciated if you add a couple of words about why you chose a particular shot.
- it’s not intended as a contest, but as a celebration of images, so of course let others know if you find something particularly great or fascinating.

I hope some of you are interested!

So, here goes... (ready to embarass myself by not finding anyone to join in 😱):

Abstract, Macro & Still life

A spoonful of bokeh! by simple.joy, on Flickr
It's not much in terms of a creative idea etc. but I just love the rendering of this lens and felt inspired by it to try and make the most out of a spoon and a bit of experimentation with light.

Pas tel deux by simple.joy, on Flickr
Interestingly enough this was shot with another (unmarked) Agfa enlarging lens, however I'm pretty sure this is a variant of the (quite common Heliar-design) Colostar series. It's not a very sharp lens, but for some reason it was in the right place at the right time, when I've attempted to create some pastelly looking images for a weekly theme in that vein and turned out to be perfect for the job. I get that people might roll their eyes at gear-obsession like that, but sometimes the right lens in your hand might inspire and encourage you to keep experimenting and go further than you would have otherwise. I don't experiment with pastel colors too often (I usually prefer stronger colors/contrasts) but after a couple of experiments I certainly want to do that more.

Documentary/Street & People

Known for taking close looks... by simple.joy, on Flickr
This is not my typical category... and it shows, of course. The only photographs of people I show online are self-portraits, which makes sure you won't see the best photos I was able to shoot in that genre. Regardless I enjoyed experimenting with B&W processing and can say that a.) I feel like it is at least somewhat successful in capturing me as a person and b.) I've learned quite a bit about what I would want to do, if I ever decided to try and capture more shots of people.

Nature (including domesticated animals, gardens, plants at home)

You know wasp up! by simple.joy, on Flickr
One of my first tries with a really great microscope objective. There's still lots to improve, but feel like it's a significant step forward, compared to most of my other shots in the area of macro-photography of insects (which I've only a limited interest in). I certainly feel excited knowing what kind of detail I'll be able to extract, once I've improved a couple of aspects of my setup, as well as gained a little bit more experience with those kinds of shots. I'm also in awe of the elegant design these creatures exhibit, even though I usually don't enjoy their company too much... 😅

Unreal beauty by simple.joy, on Flickr
This was created for a theme on flickr called "backlit" and is a quite unusual approach for me when it comes to flowers. I'm happy with how strange and 'otherworldly' it looks. Made me feel like I found another worthwhile approach to try, particularly for flowers like that (which I perceived as pretty challenging before).

I am surprised this didn't catch fire, since the group here seems to really like sharing photos. I'll jump in even though it's late in the day, using your categories, though as you note, there's many ways to categorize. I decided to stick with images I've taken close to home. I've traveled fairly widely and have collected some decent images from exotic locations, but in this thread I'll just put those in driveable distance because photography for me is integrated into my everyday life.

Abstract, Macro & Still life - my son's dining table, edited to create an old film effect

Architecture & Landscape - A waterfall in the next state east, Nocallula Falls.

Documentary/Street & People- Street shot in the French Quarter, New Orleans, a place I go often and a great place for street shooting. I sometimes meet up with forum friends to shoot together. If you've never traveled with one of your forum friends in person, you're missing something.

Nature (including domesticated animals, gardens, plants at home) - dead water lilies and sunset at the lake down the road

Sport, Action & transportation - My grandson's soccer game (he's the one on the far left) - my sports shots sometime stop action that ends up being humorous like this one. Soccer is sort of like dancing and stopping the play in the camera can create stories.

Thank you so much for giving it a try. It's possible that I wasn't able to able to describe the idea properly, but whatever... I'm really glad you joined in and shared your wonderful shots.

This is really special in terms of colors - they create such a great and interesting mood - and I also love the variety of shapes. Really well done!

This is a spectacular looking waterfall and nicely framed with some green around it. The ones where you can get behind the water like here are the best. Reminds me of iceland. Great to hear that you have such nice sights close to you. I'm pretty lucky with that as well.

A truly outstanding shot in every way... love the colors, but also the wonderful silhouettes and reflections. A real treat for the eyes!

The interesting thing about your soccer game shot (in my opinion) is that the ball is hard to spot, which makes it look like some of the kids are trying to fight each other. 😅 They all look very determined, but not really dangerous, so I have high hopes friendly sportsmanship prevailed. 👍

Excellent work throughout - thanks for sharing some of your 'close to home' favorites!