Recap of Shooting Week 4

Well, with my picture posted on Thursday, I wrapped up the 4th week of my 365Project.  I got some cool and interesting shots this week.  I think my overall favorite shot was my shot of a coke glass that was filled with ice water.  I made the glass glow by putting the flash behind the glass.  More information on the particular shot can be found in another blog post I did for the shot you can find it here  http://emanonphoto.blogspot.com/2010/01/day27-have-cold-one.html   Here are the seven shots that I made as part of my 365Project this week.

I have not really planned out this week ahead, but I have already made two cool shots, go to my flickr page to see them.  That's it for now. 

Keep on Shooting, 

-Pete

Day27- Have a Cold One

Day27- Have a Cold One
Originally uploaded by Emanon Photography

I'm blogging about this photo that I shot today because I think it is really cool, and I like it even more each time I look at it. This is a cool example of a single off-camera flash photo.

the set up for this was pretty simple. I placed the glass on the edge of a counter. I set my Canon 40D to Manual mode. My off camera flash for this photo was an old Spiratone Master-Strobe which was connected to my camera with a PC-Sync cord. This old flash unit has 4 power levels, color coded white, yellow, red, and Green, I think the roughly correlate to 1/4 power increments. So the exposure control is made by adjusting the aperture. This flash unit sync with my 40D up to 1/350sec. though this shot was made at 1/250th sec. which is fast enough to pretty much black out the background, which was possible since I cut off all the room lights, so that my flash was the only light source.

Now, with only one light source, positioning it for this shot was critical. I wanted it to look like the glass of ice water was glowing. I experimented with placing the light to both sides, and above, but the shot seemed to be missing the punch. I then moved the flash off to the camera left side, and slightly behind the glass. I also pointed the flash up on an angle toward the top area of the glass. With that change of position, The glass came alive with a cool blue glow. The glass itself is tinted teal glass, and while I was cleaning the image up in Aperture2 I pushed the White-Balance a little bit more toward the blue side.

Please comment on this photo here on the blog, or click on the photo to follow the link over to my FlickR Photostream and let me know what you think of this photo.

Cheers,
Pete

Week 3- Shooting in the Dark

I'm a little late posting this.  I've been thinking about it since I finished shooting last weeks assignments for my 365 Project but, I haven't gotten around to it yet.  The main hold up has been that I have been trying to get ready for a job interview that I have on Friday.  I've been trying desperately to find a full-time job since I finished grad school in May 2008, and the economy has not been kind to me at all.  So my interview on Friday is kinda a big deal.

Anyways, for the 3rd week of my 365Project, I made a sub-theme if you will.  In addition to my daily subject themes which I pre-selected the week before, I also added the element of shooting at night for all my shots.  By the end of my week, I had some pretty cool shots.  More information about each shot can be found on my flickr photo stream by clicking here FlickR Photostream.  Feel free to comment on the pictures.  My favorite one is the photo of the gas pump.  There was a light on the building putting out visible white light illuminating the building.  In front of the gas pump there was orange street light.  So when the white balance was set to correct the color on the front of the gas pump the color of the building was pushed to a cool teal blue.

Keep Shooting,

-Pete

Two weeks in on my 365Project only 50 to go!

Well for all of my fellow photographers out there who started a 365Project with the new year for 2010, I hope you have been able to keep up with it.  I almost missed a day but was able to put something together for one of my days earlier this week.  for those of you out there who follow me, you might know that I'm working hard to stay motivated with this project and one way I'm doing that is by planning out my shots in advance, one week at a time.  This week my shots included Winter, Birds, Historic, Doorways, Low-Angle, Food, and Reflections.  You can see all the photos by going to my FlickR set here I'm keeping it organized with the most current photos at the beginning.  My favorite shot from the week was this one

The fortune says, "Doing what you like is freedom, Liking what you do is happiness."  This was the photo for my 'food' inspiration/theme/subject day.

This week I'll be shooting these themes 'Low-light' which I will be submitting to Shutterbug magazine's Picture This contest (if I get a good shot), Americana, Lines, White, Weather, 'High-Angle', and something with my point and shoot camera.

Stay tuned, so far I have been able to keep up and post one shot each day, and a weekly recap here on my blog.  So for everyone else shooting a 365Project, remember the fortune cookie, and keep on shooting.

-Pete

For Photo inspiration, look to local history.

Today I went out on a mission to shoot something 'historic' for my 365Project.  My family has lived down in FL for about 13 years now, so I had an idea of what I was going to shoot.  I knew there are some remains of a historic old fort near downtown, but I had also shot there and didn't think I would get great pictures there.  The remains in downtown are essentially only the foundation, and not really all that photographic.  So I was starting to think of what else was near here in FL, then I remembered that there was a small park with the remains of an old Sugar-mill not too far from here.  In 13 years I had never been into the park, but I must have driven by the entrance a few hundred times.  So I decided I would go check it out today.  The park is pretty small, an almost hidden dirt road leads into the park which had only 5-10 parking spaces.  Once you drive in the ruins of the old sugar-mill are right there.  It was cool to take a quick walk around the park to see some of the history that has been here for almost 200 years.  Apparently this sugar-mill was built in the 1830's to process sugarcane into cane sugar and molasses which was later used for rum.  in the 1840's the Seminole Indians destroyed all the sugar-mill estates in the area and forced the European settlers back across the river to the beaches.

It was late afternoon when I was at the ruins just after 4pm, so the light and shadows were pretty harsh, so I figured it would be a great place to tryout some HDR photography.  I walked around the ruins with my camera on my tripod and shot bracketed exposures of -2, 0, +2  the key was to take a bunch of photos.
when I got home I picked the sets that looked like they would come together the best and processed them with Photomatix from Aperture2 in PhotoshopCS4.  The results were pretty cool.  I don't shoot much HDR, but I do like it in situations with harsh shadows, and I think it is a great technique for shooting historic ruins and abandoned places.  Here are a couple of the shots from today, to see all the shots, just click on the images below and go to my flickR page here .

That's it for now,

-Pete

If you have made it this far... You probably made it farther then most.

OK I'm 10 Days into my first 365Project.  I know a lot of photographers both amateurs and professionals will at some point in their photographic career start a 365Project.  But I always have wondered who finishes.  I wonder who makes it past the first week.  Well I made it, and if you are working on a project of your own, I hope you have made it this far too.  If you have not started your project yet, or you got off track with it already, have no fear, just jump right back on the 365Project train.  Before you jump though make a plan, that's right it may not seem necessary, I mean anyone can take and post a picture a day with the new digital technology and posting sites like flickr, right?

Well I started with a plan.  Mainly because I know that without one I might have made it through the first couple days, then I would kinda feel lost and might give up.  My plan is to pick a theme/subject in advance for each day of the week, then I will think of something of shoot or just go out shooting based on the theme for the day.  I has gotten me to day 10, and I know I'll be shooting 'Reflections' tomorrow and 'doorways' the day after that.

The other main point I can make based on what I have learned so far in my project.  Shoot and post, even if you are not completely happy with the shot.  For my 7th day my subject was 'numbers'  I had been out with my camera all day, but couldn't seem to find anything that really worked for what I had in my head.  After looking at all the images I had shot I picked one that I was going to post.  Because this project is not about any one day, it's about growing as a photographer, building skills and getting more experience behind the viewfinder.

My final tidbit of advice for photographers working on a 365Project is this, don't be affraid to re-shoot something, or reshoot a different idea.  As I said above, for my 'numbers' shot for day7 I really didn't much like what I had shot, I decided that before I posted a photo, I would try shooting one more idea.  I grabbed my tripod, my RebelXT (because I have a remote trigger for it) and a LED flashlight.  I went out into my backyard and started practicing something I have seen before but never tried.  "Writing with light" or 'painting with light'  it took me about 25 tries before I got what I was looking for, but when I was done, I ad the right picture to post for the day, the picture that pushed my creativity.

Keep going, you will end up somewhere,
-Pete

Made it through the first week, 51 weeks to go.

I'm officially one week into my 365Project.  Here is where I stand so far.  I have been planning my subjects out in advance, Week 1 subjects were: Black and White, Lensbabies Lens, Sand Dunes, Night Photography, Shadows, Close-Up, and Numbers.  For details on each shot you can go to my Flickr page http://bit.ly/4V9cfi

My subjects that I have picked for the next week are:  Winter, Birds, Historic, Doorway, Low-Angle, Food and Reflections.  I've so far bee able to shoot and post daily, everything is being posted to my flickr page, and I'll post here to the Blog at the end of each week, well that's the plan so far.

Cheers,
Pete

My 365Project: One Week In (what i'm shooting and why?)

Ok, so for those who don't know, I am working on a Photography 365Project.  There are several different ways that people do 365Projects.  Some people take self portraits, some choose a specific subject or genre of photography.  The key is that the photographer takes 1 photograph each day for a year.  I'm one week in and thought I would share how I'm planning to make it to Dec. 31st (I started with the new year Jan. 1).  From the start, when I first thought about doing a 365Project, I knew I did not want to limit my project to a single subject or genre.  What I want to accomplish out of this project is to challenge myself to actively seek out and shoot an image for each day.  I want to challenge myself to try some new techniques, and push myself to shoot some subjects that I might not otherwise shoot.  Professionally as a photographer, most of my business derives from on-Location family portraits, and I also shoot graduations for Event Photography Group/Gradtrak Grad Images.  So, I want to get out there and shoot some new stuff, and some stuff I have not shot in a little while.
I also want to come away from this project with something substantial I'm still thinking about weather or not I want to put together a Book, E-Book, or something else.  If I make it all the way through, maybe a book with tips for other photographers on how to make it through a 365Project.

So, here's how I'm running my 365Project.  I know myself well enough to know that without a plan, I might have made it to Day3 and lost my inspiration, and motivation.  Before I started, I put together a list of subjects and ideas for things that I wanted to shoot or techniques that I have either read about and want to try, or Try some new equipment.  Right now that list is sitting at about 90 ideas, I'll try to get the list posted later on.  From the list I'm picking 7 things at the beginning of each week and assigning each idea to a day. This way, I don't have to think about what i'm going to shoot when the time comes.  I just have to go out to find the picture.

With my ideas covered, I also want to make sure I still challenge myself, I'm really taking this 365Project seriously.  I'm self imposing some rules for my project.
1.  I'm not allowed to shoot anything around my house, with the exception of studio style shots.
2.  I must  shoot and post an image everyday, if technical or other issues arise, I must post images at least once a week.
3.  I can change the days shoot subject if I happen to shoot a great picture that day, but that image must still be one from the week's assignments.  And I must still shoot the original idea that same week.
4.  I can use images from paid assignments as long as they fit the day's subject.
I might think of more rules, but those 4 are the basics.

I'm posting my images to Flickr you can see them here http://bit.ly/4V9cfi This links directly to the set of just the images from my 365.  Each week I'm going to write a blog post here with the images from the week.  I'd be interested in hearing from anyone else working on a 365Project this year, or from anyone who has finished one.    I'll be posting the first week's images tomorrow after I shoot Day 7:Subject  'Numbers'

Day1 of 365

Day1
Originally uploaded by Emanon Photography
I'm kicking off my 365 Project for 2010 and starting with the basics I shot this Black and White image today with my Canon 40D and a 50mm f/1.8 lens. Black and White conversion from the RAW file was made in Aperture2. Only 364 more to go.

Tomorrow I will be shooting something with my LensBaby2.0 lens.