Believe it or not up until Thanksgiving I hadn’t touched my camera since I finished up the Photos to 40 project.
On Thursday my sister asked me if I’d mind taking some portraits of her kids for her. I’d done portraits of her whole family the previous year and enjoyed it immensely, so I was glad to agree. Her kids are extremely photogenic, so it’s always fun to make portraits of them. Here are a few of my favorite.
Well, the fourth quarter – and the project! – is complete. It took me a bit longer than I’d planned to put together this recap. To be honest, I think I enjoyed being done a bit more than I had expected!
Regardless, I finally did open Lightroom again this afternoon, and started the process of sorting through the last 95 days worth of images and picking my favorites. I didn’t think it would be too difficult, as during the last quarter I really felt that I was just going through the motions a large part of the time. I was surprised to find how many images I had made that I still really, really like. Here’s the ones that made the final cut:
As always, I also went through and picked my three favorites for special attention. I challenged myself this time though, I wasn’t allowed to have any images of the girls in the final three. Otherwise Candy Corn, Spider Seat and Darby Daydreamin’ would have definitely made the cut, as would Round n Round, Cellist, and Laid Back. You can see why I had to satisfy myself with only including them in the collage above. 
So here are my three favorite images from the last quarter which don’t contain either the big one or the little one.
A sunset at sea.
Our kilted guide trades his bagpipe for a fiddle.
An early reward for a project nearly completed.
I’d love to hear what you think about the images from the last quarter. Did I miss your favorite?
I’ve been wondering what I wanted to do for my final image for some time now. I’d thought of an image of a road – either the end or the beginning, or perhaps a calendar. Those have all been done by other Project 365ers though. So I got to thinking, what made my Project 365 different? The fact that it is tied into – and ends on – my birthday.
Then my lovely wife made a joke about not having enough room on my cake for all of the candles. So, since they didn’t fit on the cake, here they are. It’s quite a pile of years, isn’t it?
A stack of candles too large for the cake.
Several people have asked me if I’m going to keep posting images. To be honest, I’m not sure. I probably will in some form, but definitely not on a daily basis. If nothing else, I’ll be coming back in the next few days with a wrap up post and a fourth quarter recap. We’ll see where we go after that. I may continue on with a weekly project, or I may turn my sights on other goals and challenges, such as the half marathon I’ve just begun training for…
I realize the Photos to 40 project isn’t actually over yet, but it’s close. Very, very close. Only one image to go after this one in fact, that image being tomorrow on my actual 40th birthday. Since I’ll be too busy celebrating my birthday to celebrate the completion of the project, I figured I’d have a celebration this evening. I’m sure you’ll forgive me for toasting success a day early 
An early reward for a project nearly completed.
Throughout the project I haven’t done too much post processing on my images. A bit of clarity and white balance here, a crop or two there. Aside from a handful of black and white conversions that’s been about it.
I played around a bit with yesterday’s image, and rather liked the subdued color scheme I ended up with. That got me interested in processing again, so I set out this evening to do some more experimentation. The processing for tonight’s image is a modified version of Lightroom’s Antique Grayscale preset. I think it delivers an appropriate feel for the subject matter.
A hand rolled cigar in a glass ash tray.
Many moons ago we went on vacation in the Adirondacks. The place we rented for the week had an enormous stuffed dog pillow which we absolutely loved. We came home and immediately found one for ourselves. We dubbed him Darby, and he’s been a fixture in the house ever since.
He’s great fun when horsing around, but he’s also a wonderful place to stretch out for a quiet moment and daydream – as I caught the big one doing this evening.
The big one daydreams with Darby.
I can’t believe that there’s only four images left in the project. It’s amazing that the little archives list over there on the right side of the page now runs from November to November.
As I was editing today’s image in Lightroom I scrolled back through the images in the archives. The only thing more surprising than the fact that there’s so many of them (360!) is how time has flown through the year. Images that I distinctly remember shooting just a day or two ago turn out to have been six, seven or even more months old. Crazy.
As for this evening’s image, I turn one last time to All Hallow’s Eve for inspiration. Specifically, the loot captured by the girls last night which I found on the counter when I got home. I promise, I didn’t swipe more than a piece or two while making the image
The big one's candy haul.
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