I've seen quite a few "Top 9" posts on my Instagram feed, so I decided to do one myself. So here you go, my Top 9 posts based on Likes *with Reach as tie-breaker).
Of course, my Instagram is kind of pitiful, with a mere 3,806 "Likes" on posts. But then again, I have less than 150 followers. It does seem to be growing though.
Check it out @lsqrd42
This house has certainly seen better days, and nothing but worse days in its future. It sits along the approach to the Old Chain Of Rocks Bridge, which carried Rout 66 across the Mississippi River from 1929-1968. This place is very overgrown, hard to see even with the trees and bushes bare. ..
This is specifically located just east of the levee that runs along the Chain Of Rocks Canal. Maybe 1/4 mile before the start of the bridge. I wonder about the history of the place, Anybody know anything??
Finishing 1971, here's the final edition of my ongoing series of reviewing the Top 40 songs from 50 years ago. I haven't always been on time (my goal was mid-month), but I have managed to make every month. Which is better than previous years.
So what was December like?
There were 4 weeks of December '71, and there were 54 songs that spent time in the Top 40. As usual, lots of great stuff. Overall, 1971 was an outstanding year, with 718 songs spending time in the Hot 100, and 290 songs making the coveted Top 40.
Over the 4 weeks in December '71, only 2 songs topped the charts: Sly and the Family Stone owned the first 3 weeks with "Family Affair", and gave way to Melanie with "Brand New Key" for the last week of the month (and the year).
Moving on: Here's the top 10 songs of the month, ranked by average chart position over the 4 weeks of the month:
Twenty (20) songs made their Top 40 debut, a couple of notable songs. Here they are (listed by entering position):
I try to update my cover photo weekly, preferably on Sunday, but sometimes on Monday. And add a (generally) short article talking about the selected image.
Check out the web site, I'd love to hear comments / suggestions. Either here, or at the site.
Happy Thanksgiving to all! Hope everyone has a great day!
Winding down 1971, here's the penultimate edition of my ongoing series of reviewing the Top 40 songs from 50 years ago. So what was November1971 like?
There were 4 weeks of November '71, and there were 57 songs that spent time in the Top 40. As usual, lots of great stuff, but a few that I'd thankfully forgotten. Still, 1971 was a pretty outstanding year!
Over the 4 weeks in November '71, 2 songs topped the charts: Cher's Gypsys, Tramps and Thieves was #1 over the first 2 weeks, and Isaac Hayes' Theme From Shaft was peak over the last 2 days.
Moving on: Here's the top 10 songs of the month, ranked by average chart position over the 4 weeks of the month:
Nineteen (19) songs made their Top 40 debut, a couple of notable songs. Here they are (listed by entering position):
I've been trying to change out the cover image over at my Web Site. And adding an article to the site with a little bit of backstory.
Here's the text from the article:
Not quite a throwback, but an oldie, from November 2017. Back then (November2017) there was a thing floating around Facebook: a challenge to post 7 Days of black and white images. The guidelines seem to vary but as presented to me: Seven days, seven black and white photos of your life. No people, no explanations. Well, that's pretty much right in my wheelhouse, so I was happy when my oldest daughter challenged me. I did add a couple of personal twists. All of the images were shot with my humble iPhone 7. All (well, 7 of 8) were processed on my iPhone. And all feature minimal adjustments. I spent the week in a B&W mood, even though it spanned a business trip to St. Paul, Minnesota. And this was actually NOT used as one of my 7 photos, but remains one of my favorites. You can see the 7 photos at my LsquaredImaging blog:
I'm always interested in feedback on the web site, by the way. Comment here, or there!
New cover photo at Lawheadphoto.com:
One of the photo sites I frequent (365pjoject.org) does ongoing themes or challenges, which can be fun, and sometimes inspiring. This was is the Mundane challenge, the goal to try to think of interesting ways to shoot what may otherwise be rather boring objects. This round’s topic was “fork”. Quite a challenge, for me, at least. How to you take an interesting photo of a fork? And have at least a tiny bit of originality…
I ended up trying several close ups, focusing on the tines, and shadows… Parallel lines in 2D, with curves… Anyway, I didn’t hate what I came up with. And Lo and Behold, it just won a 2nd Place badge at BetterPhoto.com, in September’s Contest (in the “Man Made” category).
So, I'm browsing Facebook, see a post from a musician I foolow announcing a new album coming out soon. There's a comment the asks if the new release will be on CD. There's a reply from the artist, presumably answering the question.
I click on the reply, and get nothing except an announcement from Facebook that "some replies may have been filtered out".
I don't know what idiocy their algorithm uses, but ho can the original poster answering a question be irrelevant????????????????????????????????????????????????
I see this with distressing frequency.
I'm still running behind, but only 1 day later than last month... so...GOOD (enough)... Here's the next in my ongoing series of reviewing the Top 40 songs from 50 years ago. I've been doing this version of the review for over a year now, plan to continue indefinitely.
So what was October 1971 like?
There were 5 weeks of October '71, and there were 58 songs that spent time in the Top 40. As usual, lots of great stuff, but a few that I'd thankfully forgotten. Still, 1971 was a pretty outstanding year!
Despite there being 5 weeks in October '71, only 1 song topped the charts: Rod Stewart's Maggie May. A brilliant, brilliant song.
Moving on: Here's the top 10 songs of the month, ranked by average chart position over the 5 weeks of the month:
Folks local to St. Louis may remember a news story from October 5th about a 44' boat going over (or partly over) the Chain of Rocks... Seems they missed the Chain Of Rocks canal. Fortunately no one was hurt. I was surprised this morning to see that the boat is still there! Almost 3 weeks later. I took a few shots, from the shore and from the Old Chain Of Rocks Bridge. I guess they're still trying to figure out how to salvage it safely, I doubt they're wait till spring when the river will move it along.
Just a little something shot yesterday, a quick wander in the woods where my grandkids were playing soccer. Currently the cover photo at LawheadPhoto.com, more information on the articles page.
Cool and overcast day, hinting at rain, but not raining. Quiet, still, calm... A wonderful opportunity to just stand and absorb the moment.. Pere Marquette State Park.
This was taken in October 2019, I decided to rework it yesterday. Only slightly different from my original processing, though. I checked my archives, and it does not look like I posted it back then. so here ya go!
I've taken another step in my photo journey., and now have an "official" photo web site: Lawheadphoto.com. It's still I just started pulling it together over the weekend, but the key peices are coming together. Check it out, let me know what you think!
I don't plan for LawheadPhoto is not going to replace this blog, nor Happenstance Photography. Nor my Instagram page. It'll just be another forum to show my work, and hopefully foster some connections with people.
I hope to "see" you there!
After doing this for June and July, I forgot August. Oh well, here's a look back at September on my Instagram account: lsqrd42.
I really upped my activity over the past 2 months. From March through July, I averaged 0.67 posts/day. That jumped to 1.23 in July and 1.68 in August. Why? Well, I discovered mid July that you can now post from a computer. Not sure when they added that but I just discovered it. And that changes everything. I'm not sure if it was because of the increased posting, or some sort of critical mass, or what, but I added quite a few followers in September, which got me to a level where I can get analytics from instagram. COOL!
Here's my top 5 posts for the month, ranked by "Likes". Listed in chronological order (oldest to newest):
So, late yesterday (it's the last day of Se[tember), BetterPhoto has announced their July contest winners!
I only had 9 entries for July (same as July), but got some recognition for 8 of them: 4x Editors' Pick, 3x Stall Favorite, 0x Finalist and 1x Second Place.
Here ya go:
I decided to post this because it harkens back to those days, when I was all too often disappointed in the results when I got my film back (or processed in my basement darkroom). A poorly executed photo of a concept that was fuzzy at best. But there's a little sense of charm... maybe?
What's funny is that this photo has been better received than my actual NF-SOOC entry for the day, and has even made it to the site's "Popular" page! So there you have it!
I'm running behind, but the month hasn't ended quite yet, so I'm calling it GOOD (enough)... Here's the next in my ongoing series of reviewing the Top 40 songs from 50 years ago. I've been doing this version of the review for over a year now, plan to continue indefinitely.
So what was September 1971 like?
There were 4 weeks of September '71, and there were 55 songs that spent time in the Top 40. As usual, lots of great stuff. 1971 was a pretty outstanding year!
Only 2 songs topped the charts in September '71, but that is 1 more than August. Paul McCartney opened the month with a 1 week run at #1 with "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey".Donny Osmond took over and spent the rest of the month at #1 with his version of the Goffin/King written "Go Away Little Girl". The song made the Top 15 three times between 1963 and 1971, and was the first song to het #1 twice by two different artists. That said, I'm not a fan. Actually, that's an understatement. Donny Osmond's version of "Go Away Little Girl" is a perfect example of where early 70's pop could go wrong. Oh well, at least I'm not bitter.
Moving on: Here's the top 10 songs of the month, ranked by average chart position over the 4 weeks of the month:
I picked up a new ap for my phone camera today, after a couple of recommendations at one of the photo sites I frequent. It's Slow Shutter Cam... and it allows you to take slow shutter speed photos (just like it says). It is the first paid ap I have ever bought for my phone!! But it was cheap, so I'm not complaining.
Anyway, I took a few shots with it today, here they are:
So, it's the last day of August, sp BetterPhoto has announced their July contest winners!
I only had 9 entries for July, but got some recognition for each: 4x Editors' Pick, 1x Stall Favorite, 3x Finalist and 1x Second Place.
Here ya go:
Late August... Hot humid, thick.
Fallen tree, Ellis Island, West Alton, MO. Ellis Island is actually a peninsula between the Mississippi River and a large backwater area that is part of the Riverlands Migratory Bird Sanctuary Wide angle, focal length is 14.5mm, or 22mm equivalent (at 35mm).
Stones...
Along the Spokane River, just outside Spokane, WA, October 2003
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I think it is interesting to look at what critics said in the past, about music that has gone on to be iconic. One key source for me is a book I bought in the early 80's: "The Rolling Stone Record Guide". My nearly 40 year old copy is quite battered, missing the front and back covers, and a few pages in between. But its still around.Let's take the occasion of Charlie Watts passing to see what they were saying about the Rolling Stones back then. Comparing the early 80's viewpoint with the Rolling Stone Magazine list of Top 500 Albums of all time from 20 years later (and nearly 20 years ago!)
The stones placed 10 albums on the 2003 list, here's the top 5, with selected commentary from the 1983 book:
Charlie Watts, drummer for The Rolling Stones, died today. The Stones are probably second only to the Beatles in term of stature un the world of Rock and Roll, and gave us numerous iconic songs. And Charle Watts was their drummer since 1963. He was 80. RIP for him, condolences to his family and band mates.
We’ve lost some big names in the past few weeks: Dusty Hill (ZZ Top - 7/28), Don Everly (Everly Brothers - 8/21) and now Charlie Watts (Rolling Stones - 8/24). I suppose it is one of the inevitable parts of life. As we get older, our childhood heroes get older still. I was listening to Everly Brothers yesterday, switched over to the Stones today.
What’re YOUR favorite Stones songs?
Here's for the next in my ongoing series of reviewing the Top 40 songs from 50 years ago. I've been doing this version of the review for over a year now, plan to continue indefinitely.
So what was August 1971 like?
There were 4 weeks of August '71, and there were 55 songs that spent time in the Top 40. As usual, lots of great stuff. 1971 was a pretty outstanding year!
One one song topped the charts over August's 4 weeks: The Bee Gee's "How Can You Mend A Broken Heart". It was #1 for 4 weeks, spanning the whole month.
Here's the top 10 songs of the month, ranked by average chart position over the 4 weeks of the month:
