Greg Shchepanek

 Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year  It's one more week to Christmas Day and I want to wish a happy holiday season to you all. 2024 has been a lack lustre year with the pandemic still hanging around. I have high hopes for 2025 and am looking so forward to getting out and photographing what I can find out there. I really want to revisit some orchid locations and re-document the flowers with my new camera gear. My first adventure for the new year will probably be me chasing Snowy Owls in the Richmond area, something I look forward to each year, the owls are a beauty of nature that has their arrival in the Ottawa winter months. They are usually up in the Arctic but they fly down as far south as New Jersey in search for easy food. Each year they can be seen perch on hydro poles and in the farmer's fields I don't get very decent photos but it is a marvel to see they beautiful birds in action down here in the south. This Christmas I will be spending time with family and friends...

 Less Earnings This Week  Species of Birds = $5 Say's Phoebe ( Sayornis saya ) Salton Sea, California, United States. Pulse = 1777 Entry 2 = $5 Red-breasted Nuthatch ( Sitta canadensis ) Jack Pine Trail, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Pulse = 2137 Compared to last weeks cash earnings of thirty four dollars in prize money, this week proved to be a ho-hum placement of entries. The bird photos did receive the highest pulse and the highest ranking of 256 out of 662 entries. These are my most popular bird photos on other sites. The other quests I didn't fare as well but this was probably due to late entries that resulted in less views. As for my Mr. Green Frog he did not so bad in Best Photo category ranking 327 out of 1008 and he is still generating much attention on my Flickr account. Hoping he will place well in the Flickr Photo of the Year contest. My Amethyst photo didn't do as well as I thought it would ranking 666 out of 828. This week I am participating in six different ques...

 Time for Photo Competitions and Quests Winter Animals = $20 Snowshoe Hare ( Lepus americanus ) Shirleys Bay, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Pulse = 1287 So far I have tallied up $34 dollars in prizes for my contribution in Quests through 500px photo website. I was surprised to receive anything at all. I have to admit it is pretty fun to be participating seeing that I don't regularly join in to win. It is truly very interesting to get the feedback on the popularity of my photos. I will be participating more frequently in the new 2025 year, it gives me something to do and to wrack up some prize money is always a bonus in my books. Here are my submissions in the photo quests and the money won.  Bubbles = $10 Pulse = 1077 "Minimalism" Monday = $4 Pulse = 762 Seasons = $0  Pulse = 1492 Pulse = 1173 It's something new to do and it doesn't hurt to submit and like I said it is flattering to get the pulse on each of the photos. The next round of Quests are : Your Best Photo; P...