paintbrush study 2

paintbrush study 2, originally uploaded by Five eyes, All Rights Reserved.

Wow! An amazing victory from the very first sitting Administrator of our group for the March Brackets. In fact, it was a landslide win, with Mary pulling ahead within mere hours in the final round.

Where are you from?

Holland, Michigan, a smallish city that is lucky enough to be on Lake Michigan

What is the story behind your Brackets photograph?

I was hauling a bunch of stuff down to my basement one afternoon last summer, and my arms were too full to switch on the lights. That turned out to work in my favor because, once down there, I was struck by the beauty of the natural light coming through the ground-level windows. I dropped all my junk and ran back upstairs for my camera and tripod. This was the first shot I took, because I loved the way the light was hitting those paintbrushes strewn there exactly as my husband had left them. After I took a few like this, I rearranged them into more “posed” shots, which turned out sort of cool, too, but I always liked this one best—for both its unplanned arrangement and the natural lighting that seems to give it the feel of a painting.

What type of equipment do you use?

A Canon Rebel XTi. I’m slowly adding lenses—now happy to have both a telephoto and a macro—but this shot was taken with the kit lens.

What type of photography do you enjoy shooting?

I really do love it all—scapes, people, nature, macro—but probably gravitate most toward “simple things.”

How long have you been into photography?

I’ve always taken pictures, but have only become totally obsessed with the art of photography since receiving my Rebel for Christmas in ’06 and joining Flickr shortly after that.

This is the first time in our history that a sitting administrator has won the Brackets. Tell us what it felt like to go from one round to the next.

Absolutely unreal. I’ve had a few votes here and there in former Brackets (different photos), but never made it out of the Qualifiers, so when I did this time, I figured it was just a fluke. Very exciting and humbling to see my photograph advance each time, coupled with an acute feeling of unworthiness because of all those amazing photos out there.

You were the first person to post to a challenge at PFO when we opened, and you were also the first person to ever win a challenge at PFO, before you became an administrator. Tell us something about the early days at our group.

That first day was just wild! I wasn’t on the PFO team, but had been invited over for the kickoff. I thought the PFO concept was really cool and different, and remember sitting there watching Criz count down to start time and having fun being a part of something new. The concept had a sort of “brackets” feel to it, with a winning photo advancing through challenges ‘til it won a Platinum. I was excited, then, too, to have my first entry advance along the way—with no idea how work-intensive that brackets design was for the moderators. They understandably tweaked (overhauled?) the way the game works, and I joined the PFO team just a few days later.

I’ve enjoyed watching it all evolve since that original design, as Criz works hard to take the ideas of team members and players into consideration. It just keeps getting better, I think.

What words of advice do you have for new photographers?

I’ll just pass along the great advice a photographer gave to me: Take at least one photograph a day, even if it’s of your bedside lamp before you go to sleep. Read your manual front to back, always keeping it handy. And join Flickr.