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Tuesday, March 20, 2012

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! *
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69 comments:

  1. Take a photo - make an intro for it.  Sounds logical I guess.  I guess I better get a new battery for my camera as my other one is toast.

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  2. Oh, geez - 1500 Eastern European Generic Time is going to be much, much, much earlier where I livem isn't it?  Ugh.  Do I have like a few hours leeway?  Like have to have it posted by the bizarro time?

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  3. Sorry to be the resident idiot...but I'm wonked out on Ambien at the moment.  Do we send out stuff to you to post up here - do we post it at our own blog?  Do we go over to Mike's house and demand food?

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  4. Who the hell would photoshop a mouse into a glass of wine? Anyone who did that should be locked up.

    So basically if I've caught the gist of this, it's all a big competition and beating Michael is the primary aim? Good, glad I've understood.

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  5. Well, I'm with you except with the Eastern European Summer Time...and wait a minute, I just went to Michael's blog and that's not what it says there! I see. The competition already has begun. ;)

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  6. Yeah, a battery for the camera might help. ;)

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  7. OK, I've gotten here by way of Bryan (unfinished person) and Michael and heck, I'm game! I think I'll avoid the whole Eastern European Summer Time vs Mountain Time controversy by posting at midnight :-D

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  8. Rules are set in stone, remember? The idea is that everyone posts at exactly the same time, so it would be advisable to pre-program the post the night before.. I'll gladly help you figure out what time that would be if you tell me where you live. ;)

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  9. Oh no, Mike is definitely the resident idiot here. You post the photo on your own blog, at whatever time corresponds to my 15:00 EEST. Then we all show up at Mike's and demand food. And drinks. Never forget the drinks.

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  10. Yeah, who the hell would do that?? Someone who's seriously messed up, that's for sure. ;)

    Don't you worry about Mike, beating me is always the primary aim. Beating Mike will just be an automatic added bonus since I'm going to beat him.

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  11. Now you've put it like that everything is surprisingly crystal clear.

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  12. Welcome to the circus, Tanya, good to have you! You're allowed to post at midnight only if you happen to live in Australia. But then you'd have to post at midnight at the END of that particular day, to coincide with the rest of us...  It might get complicated. How about you just post at:

    5 a.m. if you observe Pacific Standard Time (PST)
    6 a.m. if you observe Mountain Standard Time (MST)
    7 a.m. if you observe Central Standard Time (CST)
    8 a.m. if you observe Eastern Standard Time (EST)
    1 p.m. if your observe Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)
    3 p.m. if you observe Eastern European Time (EET)

    See, much less complicated, no? ;)

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  13. I feel as if I've already won this non-competition, and it's a good feeling. But you're wrong about one thing, young Ziva: I don't know my camera like the back of my hand. I know it like the front of my hand.

    Ew!

    Anyway, if anybody asks me any questions about this thing, I'm going to tell them to read the U.S. Federal Tax Code. That ought to shut them up.

    And stop whining about your new camera. You know full well that all you have to do is replace its batteries regularly. It goes out and finds great photos for you while you sit at home drinking Finnish vodka and catching up on re-runs of Modern Family.

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  14. Midnight, and the kitties are screaming....

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  15. Wait, so so participants have to post at *exactly* 1500EEST? OK, so that would be 06.00 MST, hence 05.00 PST... Crud, if we've "sprung forward" an hour already, where does that put me?

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  16. She's a ruthless bitch, Bryan, I'm just warning you.

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  17. Dammit, there goes my first photo idea: A dead mouse floating in a glass of wine. Nothing more silent than that.

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  18. Everything it always crystal clear. Sometimes, you just have really dirty glasses.

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  19. Shut up or I'll cut your balls off, don't you dare call me names again.

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  20. I'm actually in U.S. Daylight Savings Time, so that would be 04.00 PDT? I'd hate to DQ in this non-contest over the time stamp :-/

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  21. You realize you're going to have to choose side's now, right? Will you be posting at 6 am MST, or 15:00 EEST? Pick wisely. ;)

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  22. Double dammit, there goes my idea for 'The Experiment'.

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  23. My camera will do no such thing. In fact, it mostly just sabotages every shot I'm trying to get. Which means I'll still beat you, but with an evil camera, which is twice as difficult and will earn me twice the glory and fame.

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  24. I've already taken the daylight saving time into account in that list, so just pick your time zone and pre-program your post to publish at that hour. :)

    And if you have issues with the early hour, take them up with Mike, he wanted to post that early, it's all his fault. ;)

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  25. If MST is 6 a.m., then PST would be 5 a.m., unless you live in Arizona, in which case it's also 5 a.m., but really, really hot.

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  26. See what I'm talking about?

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  27. Triple dammit, there goes my idea for Something I hate. (I would've called it "Hate it when that happens," though...)

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  28. I hope it does. And I hope we do it before #18 and that everyone remembers to bring their camera.

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  29. I'm actually starting to get confused.

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  30. YAY! And no, I don't have issues with the early hour (I know how to pre-schedule) and besides I don't want to have any issues with anybody at all before we even start :-)

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  31. Yay! This way we'll all get to admire all the pictures all day long. We'll be like one big happy, dysfunctional family. It'll be great!

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  32. I am so excited about this - however, I do NOT have any kind of fancy or complicated camera. In fact, it will be a miracle if my photos aren't all blurry. 

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  33. Looking through my notes it looks like I originally planned to use varying takes on the drowned drunk mouse idea for every theme. I'm going to have to rethink that.

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  34. Meleah, you don't need a fancy or complicated camera. And no one will notice a blurry shot, it's what's in the photo that matters. ;)

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  35. This is giving me an anxiety attack and I'm not even doing it.

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  36. Have a glass of wine, sit back and just enjoy the photos, Linda. The anxiety should go away soon. If it doesn't, you need a massage, have Alex give you one. ;)

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  37. It won't be great. It'll be exhausting. I'm already exhausted. Will somebody please bring me a cold beer?

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  38. Well, I guess I won't be photographing Ziva for "Silence."

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  39. Time zones, daylight savings time, eastern european time, australian time, pacific mountain icelandic volcano time, Miller time... good Lord, this is getting complicated. I think I'm just going to post the same picture of my cat every hour on the hour for the entire month.

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  40. I approve of this initiative!

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  41. I do not approve of this initiative.

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  42. I think that I've had all the fun that I can handle just reading the comments on yours and Michael's blogs tonight. SO I'll be preposting my completed 30 photos that I took this morning before reading your list, having already figured out the topics for every day. Since I'm posting early I'll be using Vogon Standard Time which means that I'll be a tad late for the party at Michael's house. Save a dead mouse for my neighbor's cat and chill some vodka for me. K?

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  43. Tanya/Dog Eared CopyMarch 21, 2012 at 3:24 PM

    So, I'm in! What now? Do I post links back to a home page, or just note what blog I'm using, or... how does tracking every particpant's photos work?

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  44. This thread's way too perky for my tastes.

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  45. Mike and I will send out an email to all the participants when we get a little closer to April 1st, explaining exactly what to do. But if you'll let me know what blog you'll be posting at, I'll add you to the list of participants in this post. :)

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  46. Okay, I'll save you a dead mouse and chill some vodka, but I have to say, it's not really fair to the rest of us if you post in Vogon Standard Time. And don't tell me you'll be posting poetry, too? None of us others will even stand a chance, dammit.

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  47. But your cat's evil... I don't think she'll even show up on film.

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  48. I guess I really need a vlog for the poetry to have its full effect. Since I have no idea how to vlog, having barely figured out this blog thing, I declare myself winner and also President of the Galaxy. You may rise.

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  49. Alright!  I'm on board!  Fair warning: I'm going to try to get one of my cats in every single photo.  That was no joke.

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  50. Awesome! Please tell me you're bringing out the razor and shaving a cat for #27?

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  51. This is so not going according to my plan. Thank god I have this helpful book right here with the words "Don't Panic" printed on the cover in large, friendly letters. 

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  52. I divulge nothing!

    ----- Reply message -----

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  53. Okay, this sounds like a ton of fun! I saw it on Unfinished Person's Tumblr. I'm in!

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  54. Sorry, due to WP.com commenting problems, I've had to move to Tumblr and now can be found at http://unfinishedperson.tumblr.com.

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  55. Gotcha, I fixed the link in the post. :)

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  56. Perfect, welcome to the crazy! Let me know what blog you'll be posting at and I'll add you to the list of masochists. :) (You can let me know either here in the comments, or on my email: ziva042@gmail.com.)

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  57. Thanks. I'll be here for at least April :). So I won't be moving again. Whew.

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  58. I'm actually starting to get confused.

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  59. Great, now I'm not only committed to winning this non-competition, but I'm also hosting a barbecue WITH an open bar. I just hope this doesn't turn into one of those parties that ends up with the neighborhood on fire.

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  60. Now you've put it like that everything is surprisingly crystal clear.

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  61. Well, I'm with you except with the Eastern European Summer Time...and wait a minute, I just went to Michael's blog and that's not what it says there! I see. The competition already has begun. ;)

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