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I love taking photographs: scenery, candid portraits, and especially streets. I prefer to make the image with the camera rather than with Photoshop. Making the images is usually more important to me than displaying them, such that Priscilla observes that most of my photos are unseen by anyone but myself.
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Yet I have a wall in my library where I display some of my favourites, and have compiled three collections in books (blandly titled Seen 1, Seen 2 and Seen 3) for family and friends. These, and other photos, can also be viewed on my Flickr account.
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(c) Michael L Drake (All images here are copyrighted whether specifically labelled or not, and I ask that you contact me about any photo you want to use in any way for any reason.)
Seen 1
Seen 2
Seen 3
![](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/1791be_914831610ad242b3bc4be016b76203db~mv2.jpeg/v1/fill/w_107,h_132,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/1791be_914831610ad242b3bc4be016b76203db~mv2.jpeg)
I seldom enter competitions, but have won two awards: as a child with a first prize at the Waikato Winter Show (a b&w image of a cousin playing at the beach), then in 2008 with one of 100 images selected for display by the Tate Modern in conjunction with it's Street or Studio exhibition (a colour image of a fishmonger on the streets of Shanghai). The book of those images is, I believe, still available (at an exorbitant price) here.