Short & Sweet + Blog Grammar

We have a short post today, with some sweet pictures by four great image makers. Boy, am I a poet or what.

Karl Williams made this beautiful shot of Scotland’s Rowardennan Loch. That’s a mouthful. I’d much rather photograph it than pronounce it.

I really like the composition. While Karl went for the traditional mirror image by dividing it in half as far as north and south goes, he opted to make it a vertical which you rarely ever see with mirrored images. I also like the fact that it is not a perfect mirror in the sense that the reflection is soft and willowy. Well done! â€œRowardennan Bonsaiâ€ â€“ Rowardennan, Loch Lomond, Scotland by Karl Williams

Peter Lui made this great close-up of a Green Sea Turtle. It is impossible not to love the way it is being accosted by small, beautiful fish. The colors available in underwater photoraphy are so amazing.

Green Sea Turtle being cleaned by tangs in flight, Turtle Towers, Kona, Hawaii

John Paul Caponigro is a landscape artist extraordinaire. There is nothing I’d rather photograph than sand dunes and what you see in John Paul’s image below, is one reason why. There is no way not call this image art. Great subjects and great photographers guarantee great images. John Paul Caponigro-Suffusion

We close today’s guest photographer segment with something you rarely get to see, ducks in a tree. Of course Wood Ducks do perch and nest in trees, but Black-bellied Whistling Ducks seem to love these old dead branches that hang out over waterways. I think it’s great the way every duck in the image has a different pose. Extremely well done by Jake Peredes! Landing_mayhem Black=bellied Whistling Ducks Jake Paredes

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Blog Grammar

Blog writers always think they know everything. Some of us actually do, lol. In early 2014 I was reading another blog where the author complained about other blog writers and the poor grammar and writing skills they used. I found that I was guilty of some of the things he complained about….and several others that he did not mention. In a brief article that I wrote at the end of a post called Birds On a Stick, I proceeded to confess my sins of inadequacy, by listing many of the writing snafus I produce. There is nothing more freeing than having enough humility that you can make fun of yourself, and hopefully do so before you give someone else the chance. The link to the post is below, but I have copied and pasted the article below that.

From Birds On a Stick https://nelsonearthimages.wordpress.com/2014/02/01/birds-on-a-stick/

Article:

I was reading some criticism of blog writers the other day, and many of those criticisms could easily relate to me.

One complaint was that the writer in question used too many contractions. Not very classy I guess. I use contractions perpetually. I do so because that is how I speak. My goal is to write in a similar fashion as I speak. When you do see me use something like what is, instead of the contraction what’s, that is intentional on my part. It means that if I were speaking, I wouldn’t (would not?) have used the contraction in that circumstance. I do occasionally use the wrong word. There, their, and they’re is a good example. That is a mistake on my part. I know better, or should I say I no better. Just another example. I also write things like…Just another example as a sentence. I do that on purpose because I want to. It is often how I talk. I occasionally misspell words. You may ask, how can you possibly misspell a word with the great spell checkers today? Sometimes I misspell words just because of the fact that I am an excellent speller. Of course I always misspell words when I don’t (do not) spell check them. Your grammar is often incorrect. While that is sometimes due to ignorance, it is generally because I don’t care. My goal isn’t (contraction) to be a great technical writer…it is to be an interesting one. You use parentheses ( ), quotation marks ” “, and extended periods……way too much. That is true, and it will not likely change. I do it because it says what I want to say. It helps make my point. I once (or twice?) used an apostrophe as a plural instead of in a contraction or as a possessive. That is true. While traveling this journey of words, I have also been known to occasionally dangle a participle, or end a sentence with a preposition. He was on his bike, and he fell off (preposition).