I'm not quite sure why good news often comes in waves, but there was certainly some good surf this past week.  Every now and then...and I don't mean too often because it would make me a narcissist, but I will admit to Googling myself.  Still sounds dirty, no matter how you say it.  I do it simply to see if any of my pictures have been used in blogs, websites, or any other random corner of the net. Just to be prepared, I am already studying copyright laws country by country just in case I have to go to court in Uzbekistan to get a cease and desist order for using one of my flower pictures.  Those crazy Uzbeks!  Anyway... I digress.

The nuts and bolts of it is that I came across one of my shots from the National Geographic Animals We Love assignment on the CBS News site.  Many things can bring a smile to our face and I will include one of them: seeing the NG yellow rectangle on one of my images.  That's cool.

http://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/animals-they-love/5/

On top of that... thanks to the geese for the props.  Made the NG Daily Dozen:

http://yourshot.nationalgeographic.com/daily-dozen/2014-06-26/

And.... Popular Photography's Best of May:

http://www.popphoto.com/gallery/your-best-shot-gallery-may-2014

Now to keep shooting... and wait to get wet from the next wave.

Like the Professor from the TV show Futurama says, "Good news, everyone!"

When I'm Old...All images copyright Mike Melnotte

Not only did I get sent the final product of my greeting cards from Palm Press this week, I was lucky enough to take 1st place in the Our State Magazine's 2013 Photo contest for the "People" category.  Many thanks to my beautiful daughter.  She has been the ultimate model for me because she follows directions, is beautiful, and more importantly... she has to help or I will withhold dessert until she's 20.   Here's the link: http://www.ourstate.com/reader-photo-contest-2013/

On top of all that... I had one of my submissions to Popular Photography selected for the Best Of October.  

http://www.popphoto.com/gallery/your-best-shot-gallery-october-2013

Some weeks are better than others.  This is a good week.

Cheers!

Mike

With over 300,000 members and 1.6 million photos posted on the National Geographic Your Shot web site, I would like to think that I stand out just a little bit with my photos, but I know statistically that's kind of hard to do.  Well... I'll call it luck, or general "good fortune", but I was contacted by NG  recently about those very pictures.  I was asked to be one of three Your Shot contributors to participate in a Google+ Hangout to discuss one of the recent photo assignments, Explore Our Changing World.  I was more than happy to take a day off of work to be on a webcast with two senior photo editors and Corey Richards, one of their finest adventure photographers.  To be discussing photography and hearing about what goes into a NG magazine assignment was humbling, fascinating and exciting all at the same time.  Plus... I never lost that tickle at the back of my mind that said  "don't say something stupid, this is going on youtube  for forever, you know".  I think it came out OK.  If you'd like to check it out...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nuy33P1CT84