Cheatin' Rebel

If truth be told, I didn't want to do the challenge almost immediately after I started it. In fact, on the first day, I almost forgot about the challenge altogether, remembered it just as I was getting ready for bed.

I was brushing my teeth when I thought about the Rebels United Photo of the Day challenge for May, known by the hashtag #RebelsUnitedMay2018POTD. When I was finished, I wiped down my sink, pulled out my smartphone, and photographed a flowing tap.

The theme for the day was Water.

The objective for this project was simple: a theme was provided for each day of the month. You had to post the image on Instagram, with the day, theme, and the hashtag. For my first day, with the water and faucet shot, I wrote Day 1: Water #RebelsUnitedMay2018POTD. That was all.

I'm used to a POTD challenge. Last year, a camera never left my side. I never missed a day in shooting something new. With the exception of my week in Cuba, I posted to Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Flickr every day, on the day that the photo was shot.

By January of this year, I needed a break from my D-SLR, and didn't touch it for several weeks. By the end of April, when I saw the May POTD challenge, I thought I was up to it.

But I really wasn't. And so, for most of the month, I cheated.

On Day 2, Urban Scapes, I didn't have time to shoot any photos. Instead, I searched my photo database and came upon a photo of the Ottawa skyline, which I had captured several years ago. Only a careful eye could tell that the trees in the foreground were too full for May.

No one seemed to notice.

I made sure that any of the photos that I chose were not previously used on Instagram. I didn't want to duplicate my work. (I have some scruples.)

Day 3, Looking Up, was a photo that I had shot more than a month earlier.

Day 6, Abandoned HDR, was taken a couple of years ago but had now applied an HDR effect.

Day 9 was a black-and-white version of a photo I had previously shared on Facebook and Twitter.

Day 11 was also a black-and-white version of a photo I had shot more than five years ago.

Day 13 had been shared on Instagram, before, as a Mother's Day tribute. Not only did I not take that photo, but I was also about one year old at the time. It's not even one of my photos.

Day 15 was several years old.

Day 16 had been shot on the same day as the Day 6 POTD.

Day 18 was a photo that I've used on a Wordless Wednesday, years ago. I applied a Prisma filter to it and cropped it, this time.

Day 19 is old.

Day 20 was shot in May, 2015, in NYC.

Day 21 had also been shot in New York, but in 2010, at the Bronx Zoo. Lots of people asked me if the bird was spotted in Ottawa, and whether I knew what it was. To date, it's my most-popular shot for the project.

I chose this bird, a southern African racket-tailed roller, because it was pretty and because it seemed different from the ducks, geese, chickadees, and other birds that are in my Ottawa database. Of course, folks love birds and people had to enquire.

I'm such a fraud. Or, who knows? Maybe I wanted to be caught in my charade, be called out for not using current photos.

It didn't stop me.

Day 25 was shot at least five years ago.

Day 28 was posted last night. I took it in August, 2012. The theme was Service, no doubt in recognition of Memorial Day in the United States. What did I show? One of the lads at Cassel Brewery, serving a beer, at a summer festival.

Today's theme is Celtic, and I have no idea what I'll do. Should I get off my ass and capture something, or will I search through my archives for someone in a kilt?

The latter, most likely.

Half of this month's photos for this project weren't captured this month. I skipped Day 24, Insects, though I did haphazardly search for bugs. I have one great insect shot from a few years ago, but I've already shared it on Instagram. As the sun set on the 24^th, I said, "Fuck it," and called it a day.

I seem to work best when I have my own photo challenges. I should have stopped this one when I was brushing my teeth, and realized that I was only going to capture moments of desperation. None of the shots that I actually took for the challenge show any real creativity.

Rebels United will most likely not be impressed. I've cheated for most of their challenge.

I'm a different kind of rebel.

If you're interested in viewing my treachery, go to my Instagram page.