Super-Duper Mega-Extreme Announcement: 30 Days of Photographs II Starts April 1st!!!

Have you heard of a Canon EOS 5D Mark II?

No?

Well I have. It's a terribly complicated camera that can screw up even the simplest smile-at-the-camera shot. It comes with an iron-clad guarantee that if you get the tiniest, most insignificant setting wrong, you'll end up with nothing but a big mess and nothing to post. I own this camera, and have owned it for about a week now. A week is NOT long enough to get everything including the tiniest, most insignificant settings, down.

Michael, on the other hand, owns a wonderful, great, safe camera, that he knows like the back of his hand. He can get any shot, at any time, even while half-asleep. I should’ve considered this more carefully when I recently invited him to participate in 30 Days of Photographs II, a sequel to the photo challenge that nearly killed both of us last year. Mike could take award-winning photos with a broken ballpoint pen and carbon paper, whereas my new camera gizmo just scares me.

And even though Mike and I have spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to tell people how much it is going to suck to try to post 30 half-decent photos, 30 days in a row, people don't quite seem to get it. This year we're joined in our quest by some wonderful bloggers who are willing to suffer with us during this photo extravaganza.

Joining us are: MikeWJ, Nicky and Mike, Mo, Meleah, John, aka nonamedufus, Bryan, aka Unfinished Person, Mariann, Malisa, Nora, LaughingMom, Tanya, Elizabeth A., 00dozo, Cheryl, Kristen, Pam and Katherine.

If I forgot anyone, or you are only just now tuning in and are craving some punishment, leave me a comment and I'll be sure to include you on the list.

Please keep in mind that this isn’t a competition. There’s no winner, no reward, and you will most likely lose whatever scraps of sanity you had left. If, however, you feel like making it into a competition, it is perfectly acceptable to try to compete with Michael at any time, because he will secretly be considering himself the winner no matter what, even though this is NOT A COMPETITION, Michael! Now, if you still want to play, there are some rules. These rules are set in stone, and you will be expected to wed them, bed them and make them your one true love. Cheating is encouraged only if you're good enough to get away with it, and if you aren't, you better make up a really good story to get out of the tarring and feathering.

The rules:

1) The challenge begins April 1st and ends April 30th.

2) You must post a single photo—one per blogger per blog, not two or three or 10—that has something to do with the day’s theme, even if, or perhaps especially if, it’s a photo of a cat, and therefore the unofficial winner of the day. If you miss a day, you can’t make it up later.

3) Post your day’s photo at 15:00 Eastern European Summer Time. Now, Michael was very rude about this on his own blog, and told you that if you can't figure out what time that is in your own time zone, you are a worthless sack of shit who will never make it in the real world. Michael is clearly a grumpy old man who can't do math. I will help you, all you have to do is ask.

4) Any photo taken since March 1st, 2012 qualifies for the challenge. When we say any photo, we mean any photo whatsoever as long as you took the photo yourself and it fits the day’s theme in some way, any way. Cropping, editing, color adjusting and photoshopping in a big mouse in a glass of wine are all acceptable things to do to make your photo more presentable.

5) All photos—especially the bad ones—may be accompanied by a witty, meaningful or utterly incoherent post of up to 250 words. Or no post at all, we don’t care. Michael has promised me to obey this rule, and if he can keep it to 250 words, so can you. We know most of you actually have a life, as opposed to Michael and I, and this rule is meant keep the posts relatively short in order to make it possible for everyone to visit as many of the blogs and possible, as often as possible.

And finally, the list:

Day 1: Silence
Day 2: Architecture
Day 3: From An Ant’s Perspective
Day 4: The experiment
Day 5: Power
Day 6: Tragedy
Day 7: Mirror
Day 8: A stranger
Day 9: Something I hate
Day 10: Waiting
Day 11: Wheels
Day 12: Fear
Day 13: Pleasure
Day 14: Forty-two
Day 15: Wood
Day 16: Ordinary matters
Day 17: Time
Day 18: Fire
Day 19: White
Day 20: Bird
Day 21: Moon
Day 22: Portrait
Day 23: Fish tales
Day 24: Crowd
Day 25: The future
Day 26: My toothbrush
Day 27: Nude
Day 28: Outlier
Day 29: Lines
Day 30: The Devil

And that's about it. If you have any questions, please ask Michael, and tell him I sent you.

I will see you all on April 1st! *

Super-Duper Mega-Extreme Announcement: 30 Days of Photographs II Starts April 1st!!!