So, last Thursday (January 21) was apparently Squirrel Appreciation Day. Bah humbug. I'm not a fan of the furry fellows, as they raid my bird feeders and run off the birds.
Oh well, I figured I should be a good sport and shoot one of the irritating guys... so here ya go, a couple of days late:
As we move into January 2021, my "50 years ago" Top 40 review moves into 1971. My gut feel is that '71 was note quite as good as '72 or '71, but still very very good. So what was January 1971 like?
During the 4 weeks of January 1971, there were 54 songs that spent time in the Top 40. As usual, lots of great stuff.
Three songs made #1 during the month. Only 2 songs topped the charts though. George Harrisons "My Sweet Lord" held the first 3 weeks, continuing from the end of 1970. And Tony Orlando and Dawn took over the last 2 weeks, with "Knock 3 Times".
Here's the top 10 songs of the month, ranked by average chart position over the 4 weeks of the month:
Continuing the series of images from my 365project entries over the past 6 years that received a designation of "Popular" and/or "Trending". I'm posting them to Instagram, trying to (as much as possible) match the day of the month. Here's where I've posted batches.
These were posted to my instagram between December 28, 2020 and January 4, 2021, the dates below are when they were posted to 365project:
So, I was working on the post for January 1971's Top 40, and "discovered" the song Games, from the band Redeye. It didn't ring a bell, so I looked it up on YouTube. Pretty decent, pure 1971 pop. Games peaked at #27 in January 1971
Certainly worth a listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLB0hnpW6R0
A simple image, but one I rather like. Taken during a mid-day walk at Drost Park in Maryville, IL:
Continuing the series of images from my 365project entries over the past 6 years that received a designation of "Popular" and/or "Trending". I'm posting them to Instagram, trying to (as much as possible) match the day of the month. Here's where I've posted batches.
These were posted to my instagram between December 23 and December 27, the dates below are when they were posted to 365project:
So, last Sunday, my daughter texted me that her family had seen eagles at Ellis Island that day, and that they were arriving back in the area. So my wife and I decided to do an eagle watching outing the next day.
Of course Monday dawned socked in by fog. But we decided to head out, with the expectation that the fog would lift as the day progressed. When we arrived at Ellis Island, it was thicker yet, no chance to see much of anything. We took the opportunity to fill up with some Missouri gas (which is $0.20/ gallon less than Illinois due to taxes), bounce back across the Alton Bridge, and decided to head up the Great River Road and see if we could see anything.
When we got to Pere Marquette State Park, we could see across the Illinois River to the far shore, which was an improvement. And we did see one juvenile Bald Eagle. It was hanging out in a tree by the river, but as we got close, it took off, did a circle over the river, and returned to the tree. So I was able to get a series of decent photos:
So it wasn't a total loss, and we enjoyed the time.
Yesterday was bright and sunny and warmer (high 40;s), so my son and I headed back over to Ellis Island for a hike. We did see 1 eagle; passing by high overhead. I took a quick shot just to prove it was there:
I'll declare Eagle season open!
So, one of my photography goals for 2020 was to continue a focus on their ongoing themes. I selected 9 ongoing challenges to target:
So how did that work out?
Of the 9 targeted challenges, there were 101 editions which were completed in 2020. I entered 74 of them (73% rate) which is slightly below 2019 (80% participation in the 9 categories targeted that year). I was selected as Finalist 33 times (45% of entries), and was voted Winner 6 times. That's a slight improvement in Finalists (up from 42%), and doubled the number of winners from 2019. So all-in-all its pretty good.
My best challenges were: Album Cover Challenge (7 finalists, 1 win), B&W Themes (6 finalists, 1 win), ETSOOI (6 finalists, 0 wins), and EOTB (6 finalists, 2 wins). My worst were: 365-monthly (1 finalist in 7 entries), Song Title and Scenes of the Road (Each with 2 finalists, and 1 win), and What Would You Do (2 finalists).
I also tracked 7 other ongoing challenges at the site. Predictably, my participation rate and my finalist rates were both lower (56% participation, 30% finalists, 2 wins).
Not bad, and an improvement over 2019.
So, what about 2021? I'm not sure. I will continue to do challenges, but will probably tweak the ones I focus on. I've been disappointed in the way that Would You Do has evolved, with focus shifting away from darkroom techniques towards adding elements. And Scenes Of the Road has shifted, after a bit of "controversy" over whether it sould be Scenes OF or Scenes FROM, and what those terms meant. Anyway, I'll probably deemphasize those, and step up on Macro, Minimalist and/or Mundane.
