I intended to shoot the fora and fauna around the new apartment (the Castillian is the name of these apartments), but managed to be outside without a suitable camera (read: not a phone) all three times that I saw the opossum, and the numerous times I saw squirrels, birds, and various other critters.
So it’s just the flora instead.
I must admit that this is a rather weak showing. I’m not sure what happened. I shot every day; I had a theme before I even started & so knew what I was looking for; I was careful with my framing and composition. I just didn’t capture much that I really like. (One exception being the featured image here, which I like quite a bit.)
Part of the problem: I started the theme intending to shoot from within the confines of the apartment, through the windows, or from my half of the shared front/rear porches. Alas, I quickly ran out of stuff to shoot from those vantages: the rear porch looks out onto the parking lot (and the fence in shots 2-4); the front windows and porch overlook a small yard with few plants and bad light most of the time. So I had to whip out the Zomb-E and go down by the pool, where there is a bit more of interest.
I wonder also if there isn’t a flaw in the conception of the 7/52, or perhaps I’m not taking it seriously enough. This will require some thought.
I’ll try to do better this week, as soon as I get over this slight sickness I have: the first in several years, probably owing to the vast swings in temperature over the last few days (Thursday morning: mid 50s, rain; Thursday afternoon, mid 60s; Friday morning: upper 30s; Friday afternoon over 70; Saturday morning: mid 60s; Saturday afternoon: low 40s, heavy rain; this morning: upper 30s), but diet and lingering moving stresses likely contributed. I should get over it in a day or so, thanks to a return to my usual diet and (hopefully) some relaxation. Fingers crossed.
These were made with the Vivitar 70-210mm f/3.5 Series 1 (Kiron, maybe) (first 4) and the Nikon 75-150 f/3.5 Zomb-E Series. Everything was in Aperture priority, at ISOs from 100-800. Processing took place in Lightroom 4, with a couple of trips into Photoshop CS6 to remove some perspective distortion, and took roughly 2 hours, including time to select the 7, fetch coffee, play with cats, etc.
