Today's Joy of Love project is to photograph a gift from the heart. A gift someone you love gave you that made a difference. The lesson is to play with the manual setting on the camera. This would have presented a challenge, had it not been for my visit to DC last October, where I played with the manual setting a lot, especially for the night shots. Not that I have it down pat, obvy, but it is not a big scary hurdle to get over - it's more like something I can use more practice in.
I chose a gift from my dad for today's pic. To be sure, I get amazing gifts from both my parents, and my friends, and my family. The gifts are sometimes small, like a frog pen, sometimes large, like my Nikon D80, which I've been using throughout this project and increasingly over the last 3 years I've had it. The Nikon, by the way, was also a gift from my dad, who I remind each and every time I mention it that it's his own stupid fault that he got me started on this whole photography thing, and that he should just be grateful that I never took to sailing - that kind of hobby can ruin a man. He should also be grateful that the days of negatives and dark rooms are pretty much behind us, this hobby could have cost him a lot more.
But, back to today's photo. This is my bike. From about March/April through October/November, I take it to the beach and go for rides with my excellent friends Willow and Adam, and sometimes Todd and Kristen too. Each time I'm on that bike it feels like we're kids again. This past summer it languished almost unused because we had such shitty cold weather. The two weeks when it was warm I pedaled up and down the beach like it was going out of style. I am looking forward to a hot summer and lots of bike rides this year.

This is the jpeg photo, unedited, because I don't have time today. If I manage it later, I'll repost it edited.