[pepperberry farm]

closing out my February contributions here

[aslyfox]

I'm sure the next challenge will be up soon

March - Wide Angle Shots (35mm equivalent or wider - pick one lens for this challenge)

Read more at: The 2020 Monthly Challenge - Page 2 - PentaxForums.com

a little bit difference in this one Pick one lens

I will probably do with my DA 21mm Limited

since I am using K3 II or KP

[Sir Nameless]

February final. It's been a fun month!

[Sir Nameless]

@robgski thanks for reminding me that we were invited to talk about lessons learned. Here's my 2 cents. Maybe we can continue the discussion even as we begin posting to the March thread?

What I set out to do this month:
1. Shoot in mono (well, obviously) and practice with the appropriate tools (Silver Efex mainly)

2. Get to know my new-to-me K35 and M200.
3. Explore low key and high key.

I can't say I've walked away from February with any huge revelation in these areas. It did reinforce the idea that having some objective in mind when going to work does in fact lead to progress. I think I was able to move the needle a bit on all three, and, as is usually the case, realize how much I still have to learn.

My biggest lesson was an unexpected one. Two of the images I posted here in this month's thread got Explored on Flickr. First time that ever happened, and it happened twice in one month. The first one popped in at two-hundred-and-something, got more likes that I ever got before for any photo, and got ~4000 views. The second one blew that out of the water.


I was kind of flabbergasted. I liken my flickr page to a back-alley one-room unmarked art gallery in the bad part of town. Nobody goes there. And I don't shoot for likes on social media. But there it was. Some things I learned from the experience.
1. The photo that went "crazy" is one I shot off-the-cuff, as I was getting into the car. 10 seconds of work tops. And not much labor went into post.

2. 200-something likes is a lot when you're used to sub-20. But taken in the context of the number of views it got, far less than 1% of the people who saw it liked it enough to save it to their Likes album. Chew on that a bit. That realization quickly deflated whatever puffing-up my ego was starting to attempt.

3. I don't think it was my best photo on Flickr.

4. Even though I have hardly any presence on social media, and I purposely don't promote my work or shoot for likes--having notifications of people liking my stuff does things my brain that I'm not fully on board with.

5. Explore is an algorithm. It doesn't necessarily pick good photos. My work got attention because a robot found the sequence of pixels in my photo interesting, and gave it exposure to a large audience. There isn't any more to it than that.

Anyway. It was an interesting experience which motivated me to ignore the bots and get back to the business of seeing the world around me more deeply.

Cheers, friends, and here's to the arrival of spring later this month! Happy shooting!

[ashurbanipal]

My final one for February. Not happy with the framing, but this was rushed during a family visit. However, this month overall was a good learning experience for me!

[ChristianRock]

That was a very fun month Even if I didn't post as much as I wanted, I learned from you guys. And I'm glad some of the work even caused some pictures to be Explored great stuff.