As we approach the end of PhotoChallenge.org‘s first full year, I’m quite satisfied with the work you all have accomplished. Last year at this time, I was announcing the beginning of this blog, and helping you all transition from following them at my personal blog, to here. I won’t detail each Challenge we’ve facilitated now, but I will point out that we started off strong, on the heels of 2007′s December Challenge.

Throughout this year, I’ve had some ups and downs with the administration of this blog. Each bimonthly Challenge has had a very different level of participation. I know that there are many variables that have caused this; poor topic selection, poor advertisement (on my part), but most of all, I’ve simply not engaged enough with you, the reader and the participant.

It’s not like the tools aren’t right there for the grabbing. We have a great Flickr group, to aid in communicating and tracking the Challenge submissions. To aid in this effort, I’ve added a Twitter account, just for following the PhotoChallenges, throughout the year.

This past year’s pattern of Challenges has been a bit unique. We’ve done one Challenge, every other month. Plus, we’ve had the 2008 Challenge, of which only one person has participated all year long (and it wasn’t me!). The bimonthly Challenges have been profitable, though. I’ve seen some great work by many of you, and several who I know had to push themselves to accomplish the task, grew tremendously.

I love giving back to the photography community. I’ve never attended any photo classes. I grew/grow as a photographer because so many great people out there, in real life and online, opened up their lives and shared what they had learned. Attending photowalks introduced me to quite a few of you, and that contributed as well. The point I’m making is that I have learned and grown because other photographers gave back, and I gleaned from their experience. That’s why I do this. Even if I have a bad month, I’ll still be here for even just one photographer.

So, as I sat down to evaluate how I can do a better job, for you, I decided that I would seek some outside help. You may have caught the post, inviting anyone who wanted to step up and lend a hand. Someone did.
That someone is Jeremy Brooks. I’ll let him introduce himself, and tell you a bit about his own photography, later. I’ll leave you with this; Jeremy has been not only one of my biggest supporters, here and in general, but he has also been one of the most active participants in all the PhotoChallenges, thus far.

So…

• Come back soon, and catch Jeremy telling us all we need to know about him.
• Check out the 2009 Photo Challenge announcement!
• Get a quick start on the first bimonthly challenge, the January Challenge!

This field of yellow flowers grows just down the street from my parents’ home. Whilst shooting for the April Challenge, I saw this across the street. As we emerge from an odd winter, this field helps usher in a desired spring.

As I’m sure you’ve noticed, I haven’t posted a 2008 Challenge shot in a while. I hit a lull, but now I’m back.

This past week, I realized that my commute to work is early enough that I can catch the moon low on the horizon. So I drove one of the days, without my carpool. I hit the beach, just south of La Conchita, near the Santa Barbara and Ventura County lines.

This is what I came up with. I’m kinda proud of this shot. As I was setting up my tripod, I realized that there are usually special guidelines for shooting the moon. I couldn’t remember what it’s called, but the details came back to me.

Bummer, I missed last week’s submission. Forgive me?

This week’s shot is from the Carpinteria Harbor Seal Preserve. I took the family there to view the newly born baby seals. This is a great time of the year to go see the baby seals on the beach.

Today’s submission to the February Challenge launches my new color, blue.

When I’m driving home from work in the morning, I get to see some gorgeous sunrises. I stopped today and took this one, looking back east, over the mountains. The focus wasn’t the best, but I was mostly interested in the sky’s beautiful colors at this time of the morning.

I’m also submitting this photo for this week’s 2008 Challenge. My community stretches a bit during my work week. I work an hour’s drive from home, and my drive is quite pretty.

2008 Challenge, week 5

This week’s photo submission to the 2008 Challenge is represented by one quite simple view to my community, our city limit sign.

2008 Challenge, week 4

So, this week has been completely soggy here in Southern California. It has rained SOOOO much. I wanted to capture our muddy agricultural world.

2008 Challenge, week #3

This week my community is in Mammoth Lakes, CA. I’m up for a short week with the wife, kids, and my parents. I was certain I took a beautiful clear shot of the mountains earlier today, but when I went to process it was no where to be found. Bummed out, I took this one after the storm had rolled in. It turned out OK though.

Way to go! Here’s just a sample of some of the great work that’s been done so far, and it’s only the middle of week 3.

The USS Ronald Reagan sailed into the Santa Barbara, CA harbor this week. Santa Barbara is the adopted port for this beautiful ship, since it was the adopted home of the former president.

This event is a huge event for Santa Barbara. The ship had been on “float” for quite some time, and the naval personnel hadn’t seen their loved ones for a while. This was the first time many got to see their family and friends for a long time. So, there were families from all over the US, here to welcome their sailors home.

This image is my 2008 Challenge submission for week 2 of 2008. This week, the USS Ronald Reagan was a major part of my community.