30 Days of Photos - Postscript

This is kind of like the long goodbye. We had day #30 of 30 on Monday. Then we had Outtakes Day on Tuesday. And now a final word about the whole exercise.

It's over. Thank the Lord. Last month I was among 18 bloggers who participated in something called 30 Days Of Photos. Who knew it took so long for 30 days to pass?. But like an oversized kidney stone, they finally did. Yes, at times it was painful. I mean some days the themes being proposed were, um, to be polite: challenging.

And what's with this 30 day business? I also posted a couple of preludes, this postscript and on day 31 a little overview of some of the photos that weren't used. That's 34 days of photos you wise guys.

But it was an interesting exercise. Bloggers who I knew I got to know better. And bloggers who I'd never heard of before I got to meet and know them, too. We had American bloggers, Canadian bloggers, Brit bloggers and Finnish bloggers. A veritable United Nations of focus pullers. Imagine. World peace through picture taking.

Ziva and Mike, our task-masters, came up with some whacky themes for all of us to interpret photographically. I think they did this after a night of doing schnapps shooters and herring hors d'oeuvres (isn't that what Finns subsist on, Ziva?) And the exercise took its toll on some. One participant decided to accept a job offer instead of participate and dropped out all together. Another said she broke her leg walking her dog and was unable to post any more. Wish I'd thought of that. Bet she wishes she thought of that sooner. She only came up with the excuse on Day 24.

The rest of us muddled along, posting pictures, visiting each other and leaving witty comments on each others' blogs.

Now some of these people posted beautiful pictures. Others wrote witty and humorous descriptions of their photos. And the very talented did both. Sometimes even on the same day.

Cheryl, for example, posted 30 days of gorgeous pics many of them of nature. And at the end of our little group grope she worked up a beautiful collage of a photo from each of us. She also drew up several badges for us. Here's the one I chose...

And I'm gonna keep it in my sidebar as a little meme memento as it were. Thanks Cheryl!

Me? I used my trusted iPhone camera for every single photo. And I was actually surprised by the quality of those photos. Well some of them any way. But I had fun and I think overall that was the whole point of the exercise.

Aside from that we learned all about each other, where we live, our kids, families, Nora's cats and, yes, even beavers.

I've never had more comments, visitors or page-views. My blog stats exploded. And I should thank all you guys for stopping by and chatting about my photos.

I've created a page up there with the others for this little exercise where all my posts can be found tagged 30 Days of Photos. Lord knows why you'd want to be reminded. But for those of you with a little sadomasochistic bent, good on ya!

Speaking of sadomasochistic, when all is said and done, Ziva - who had threatened us all at the outset - never had to get her whip out. And I was kind of looking forward to that.

And for the very last time. Here's a list of the great folks who, like me, had nothing better to do with their lives in April:

Ziva, Mike, Nicky & Mike, Mo, Meleah, Bryan, Mariann, Malissa, Nora, Laughing Mom, Tanya, Elizabeth, 00dozo, Cheryl, Kristen and Katherine


And they know as I do that, as Rod "Aristotle" Stewart once said, "every picture tells a story, don't it?"