Hello to all my Flickr friends and hopefully soon to be friends, this is cg. Photography has become my hobby for the past 13 years now, I bought a Nikon P100 and the world appears in 3x4 format everywhere I look. As I have said, "Since picking up the camera everything is cropped in my mind, framed in my heart and focused in my soul." Once I realized that the same frame changes minute by minute my motto is "Chasing the Light" to get the best frame possible. I have so enjoyed getting to know many not as much in words but in photos and if the photo says a 1000 words then I have been in a lot of deep conversations with several on Flickr. Thank you for all the likes, comments and invites to groups and adding some of the shots to your personal galleries.

As I said I began shooting on January 1st 2011, I had been looking at Webshots and figured that would be a great way to archive my shots. Then in October of 2012 the site sold and all the photos were downloaded to some archive in the sky and if you had not been really busy you lost them all. Lucky I had mine all on a back up hard drive. So I began looking for another site, I later ran across Fotofanatic which was a great learning place. I could put my photos on and get a score to how it was seen by critical eyes. I learned light, crop, colors and clarity in a wonderful school of hard knocks, much different than the always kind Webshots. Fotofanatic fell into dire straights and closed doors end of 2015 and then the search was on again. I had followed many to Flickr from Webshots in late 2012 but just could not figure the ins and outs of this sight, now with nothing better to do I sat down and began to study the mechanics of Flickr. I found that you had to get involved, join groups and be social within the group. I really enjoy the people of Flickr and worry that one day this will close and what I will do. So after working the sight hard for 2 years, I have around 2 million views which is nothing compared to many I follow that may have 15 million views. The priceless part is to know someone has smiled when they open your photo, to have touched a memory, to tickle a funny bone, or to strike a curiosity in a subject. Thank you Flickr (April 2019) for being a huge part of my life these past 6 years, with close to 5.5 million views now which is a snowball affect of more you post and know the more views from others come along. I had a bit of a set back with Flickr in May when the house I lived in flooded during the May 2019 flood of the Arkansas River in the Tulsa to Fort Smith area. Things are building back slowly with a total now of 6.7 million views thanks to a few In Explores and a album feature, along with some other outstanding view numbers on certain photos. Thanks to all that got me through the dark period of June 2019, now I am back to light from the dark. I feel the time off helped a lot with new perspectives in my photography. Moving on now to the end of 2019 and looking forward to 2020, 2020 is all about vision seeing clear and I truly believe that many that may have had obstacles in the way will now see clearer than ever before. You know the old saying can not see the forest for all the trees, the truth lays right in front of us but our brains tell us one thing when we see another. I love the Slider Sundays group because of that fact, I can take a photo and bend the light and colors just a little and you will see a totally different thing than what was really in front of the camera lens. Well here is looking at you 2020 in a clear and crisp new way.

2020 has brought an extra twist to the table of photography. With 45 days of stay in home during a "pandemic" that has encircled the world, photos are mostly limited to in the area of house and yard. I do go out some but not like on a normal day. I am not as worried about the virus as I am the busy bodies that want to report people out and about. End of April and most of the spring is done here in Oklahoma but things are looking to get back to normal now.

The fall of 2020 got things back to normal in Broken Arrow, school is back in session, the football practice and band practice is going, The convenient stores do not mess with the masks and people come and go as regular but people still wear the mask at the box stores that carry the orders from out of state. So great to be able to get normal candid shots on the street again.

2021 begins already a couple of snows in the area and now (second week of February) the coldest days since February of 2011, bitter cold weather. The camera does not like subfreezing weather, I am not much fan of single digit weather either that is Fahrenheit temps. I guess we will look for the early signs of spring but still count the days until September.

Spring of 2021 is still vacillating warm to cold with a chance of winter mix early Tuesday morning, 4/20/21. Spring has brought on the ever drastic drop in Covid cases for Oklahoma. Oklahoma is fully opened, concerts, ball parks, and festivals back on. Oklahoma was the first state to get along far enough to offer vaccinations to all Oklahomans and everyone else that wants from outside of Oklahoma. Great to see this in the rear view mirror but I do wonder what is next up on the radar, the main thing is to study to show yourself approved and understand what you may face now and in the up coming months. As a far as photography, learning more on adding textures, as I continue to seek out Macro Mondays, Crazy Tuesday, Window Wednesday, Wall Wednesday, Thursday Monochrome & Gorgeous Green Thursday, Fenced Friday, Looking Close on Friday, Flickr Friday, Smile on Saturday, and Slider Sunday themes each day.

Wow, already have into 2022, the big day has come and gone 2/22/2022. The winter has now released Oklahoma and it will be October before we see another low 40s at night. Still using the B700 Nikon but got an eye out for replacement, I am thinking going more compact with the Nikon A1000 but not sure if I can drop back to a 16 mega pixel sensor again. I took the year of 2022 off from the X projects and have been working more on the Sliders Sunday and Flickr Friday shots more than any others. I still do all the others but my interest is more towards these two groups this year. I have had several photos go into In Explore...70 in all and of the 70 I think only 5 was worthy, recently Red and Yellow as one of the best to go in, along with Hitting the Hay Early and Contemplating, but I am happy to have had all 70 in which has help immensensely in getting almost 12 million views as of mid 2022.

2023 update has been a quiet year in my photography. The daily themes have kept me busy and kept me staying in tune with my cameras. Still the Nikon B700 Coolpix for most of the shots, while the Canon ELPH190 IS Sureshot for my macro work. This is definitely a budget set up... at the time I purchased them both for under 500. The Canon was a fluke deal at Walmart open box sale for 25 dollars. Usually by now I have a favorite photo of the year but still working on that really sweet shot....maybe today it will happen. So far at the end of November 2023 I have had 22 shots featured in "In Explore". Along with the many new friends made on Flickr that has been the highlights of 2023, the downside is missing some of the old friends that have dropped out of Flickr or dropped out of the world all together. Still they touch me with the pixels that go on forever on the internet.

2024 a most interesting year, the summer has been mild compared to most Oklahoma summers. Where I live there has just been enough rainfall to keep the land green, just hit 100 a few times instead of weeks on end with no relief. Of course it is a political year and it has been a over the top this go around. August has had so many twists and turns that just to say the least it has been crazy. Photography wise I finally got a real camera, no more point and shoot Nikons, I got a Z50 which is a great basic mirrorless camera. A 50-250mm lens and a 18-50mm lens came with the camera. I still would like to add the 50mm macro lens the next purchase chance I have for the many macro shots I take. I now have 14 million views, I was hoping to have more but it seems I peaked out 6 years ago when I was having 6,000 views a day now it is down to 1500 views a day, but it is all fun in still doing the daily challenges of Macro Monday, Crazy Tuesday, Window Wednesday & Bokeh Wednesday Too, Black & White Thursday with Donnerstagsmonochrom, Looking Close on Friday, Fenced Friday & Flickr Friday, Smile on Saturday, then finishing with Sliders Sunday. The Sliders Sunday has personally challenged me more than any other group by post creative work with a photo and still be artistic in view. If you want a purpose to pick up the camera look into any or all of these groups.

I purchased a macro lens to go with the Nikon Z50. This lens is teaching me to learn photography all over again. The lens is great glass, a Laowa 65mm F/2.8, 2:1 macro with focal length of 6.5 inches. The catch it is totally manual no electronic connections at all. Plus side it saves on battery usage, but with no IBIS handheld is tricky, then manual focus in the 1:1 and 2:1 mode is very shallow focus but when you breath right it catches great frames. Insects are a trip getting the focus and clicking it without movement. I have never used multiple shots until now so out of 10 one will be focused. I am going to try and keep the lens on the camera all of October and see how it goes, I joined up with October 2024 - A month in 31 pictures just to make me seek a shot daily.

As always "Chasing the Light"..... (cg clark of clarkcg photography) but to most is is just plainly ....cg

To the attentive eye, each moment of the year has its own beauty, and in the same fields, it beholds, every hour, a picture which was never seen before, and which shall never be seen again. by Ralph Waldo Emerson