Blinding

It was soooo bright in Stratford-upon-Avon today, this was the best I could do without ND filters. No, honestly - that's totally true. It has absolutely NOTHING to do with me forgetting to alter my camera settings after going into the Guild Chapel, and only realising several shots later that the street photos I was taking were three stops overexposed. No, it doesn't.

On the plus side, when you spend all day Blipmeeting with Hillyblips, HildasRose, BlackTulip, AH14, Technophobe, LooseCanon, Ellaphant, OldJoe, and the extremely patient and forebearing Bliphusbands Rob, JJ and Adrian, you want to post a shot you don't think anyone else got. And I am quite confident that no-one else in the group was this stupid - so there you go: my unique shot to mark a warm and bright but very enjoyable Blipmeet.

I'd actually marked this for deletion (asyouwould), when I suddenly thought Actually, I like it, in an odd kind of way... - so I processed it a bit and still thought it had something. Or other. When I showed it to R, it was pretty clear that he didn't like it - and as you know I do trust his judgement in these things. But hey - it's my journal, and I'm allowed to go off piste every now and then - right...? I've posted the dozen more sensible shots I kept from today in my Stratford album on Flickr, if you're interested, starting here. One of them contains a back view of Anthony Sher and Greg Doran, of whom I could very probably have got a front view if I'd just manned up and asked when I saw them strolling towards me.

I'm beginning to think there may be one or two good reasons why I shouldn't attempt to make a living doing this....

Anyhoo - on to the Mono Monday results for this week. There were some very creative entries, and a good number of strong shots which I really liked - though I have to say that not all of them sat very comfortably within the theme! I had to make five passes through the entries to narrow down my choices, and as ever there were other shots which very nearly made it into the HMs. But to my eye the clear winners this week are:

GoranZebuhr - I really don't know what to say, except I'm green with envy that I didn't take this. The composition, focus and exposure are perfect. So that's how it's done!

Barking - a completely different mood, but charming and effective.

Hanulli - there were many irresistible dog (and cat) noses among the entries, but this takes the heart for also having the cheese that was being smelled - and for making me laugh.

Nickimags888 - I love the composition of this, and the strong, contrasty processing.

winchwench - I like the slightly harsh, matte processing, and I think the square crop works very well here in terms of composition.

And my Honourable Mentions this week go to:

weeflecky
greg_lovett
chantler63
Technophobe
kellynicol61

Last week will be my last hoorah at the helm of this challenge; the theme will be Sight (go on - that's easy, surely!), and the tag will be MM136. See you then, I hope!