Catch-up

Recently, I kicked into blog updating mode; so, I'm going back and posting my pic of the week selections starting waaaay back from mid-March... It'll be a task; but, it's been a long time coming. Maybe I'll even finish before my vacation next week...

Week of 4/25-5/1

The texture on this saddle caught my eye a few times as I rode past it. That and the fact that I've begun to ride my bike much more often drew me to it for this daily. A friend of mine tells me Brooks saddles are apparently really comfy... I don't know about this particular one; but, I've gotta try one out.

Week of 4/18-4/24

The baristas at Intelligentsia sure know how to make a good espresso. I tried, but I don't think this shot did it justice. I think a little better reflected lighting at the front of the cup for more even lighting would have helped a bit. I did like how the parts of the whole at least didn't confuse... whether they all added up to one cogent idea is another story...

Week of 4/11-4/17

I don't think I would have spotted this one without Andres' eye. Taken on our way back from lunch, the angle made this shot something special.

Week of 4/4-4/10

I loved this action shot of Grace applying kotegaeshi to Patterson-Sensei at one of our Aikido lessons. You don't have to be big to move big things!

Week of 3/28-4/3

Huge props go to Matt for creating these subjects. Cut up some silk ties (ugly ones work best!), wet them, wrap some eggs with them tightly, wrap the egg/tie bundle in old pillow case shreds, wrap all of THAT in a cheesecloth and boil for 3-4 hours. Serve but don't eat...

Week of 3/21-3/27

This was from one of those moments where you know it's so memorable so you try to catch a really good shot of it to explain what it was. Try finding the shot that explains an unofficial saint patties day parade for a secret organization on the south side of Chicago with homemade floats powered by bicycles and alcohol... What an awesome time! (check out the rest of the photos here!)

Week of 3/14-3/20

The Mason Group poses around super Mitch on their way back from lunch (and crime fighting) while taking the long way... Had to choose this one if only for the pose!

Home for a bit...

Had the great opportunity to go home for the weekend. Maybe the shots aren't geographically telling--yes, there are mountains here as opposed to around Evanston--but at least they're taken in a different place.

I picked up my dad's 50mm f/1.8 lens which is really fun to use. It lets in a lot of light so it's good for indoor pics taking advantage of ambient light. Definitely noticing the fixed-zoom limitation though. I'm having to get up and walk much more than with the 18-55mm lens (in which case all I have to do is turn a dial and the frame is bigger or smaller). But, at least I'll get a chance to play around with it a bit.

Week of 3/6-3/13

I really can't emphasize enough how lucky I was when I got this shot. I passed the alley as the man turned on to it and by the time I got my camera up to my eye, I produced this exposure. When I went to make adjustments to the shutter and aperture and re-compose the shot, his shadow was in the wrong place and he was too far from me. It really pays to have the camera out (with the lens cap off) and ready to take pictures. Scott Kelby calls it the "never ready" cap since you're never ready to take pictures for the 1 second you take to remove it and put the camera to your eye.

Before this project, I would have been walking around with my camera in its bag and would have totally missed this shot. Another photographer (the name escapes me) advocated readiness and said he walks around with his camera everywhere because he never knows what he's going to shoot. I can definitely speak to that as I almost never end up using what I thought I wanted a picture of for a given day. This also allowed him to get some of his 'work' done while going about his normal day-to-day activities without having to set time up for going out and taking pictures. Indeed, the times I've gone out to hunt for pictures have often been the least rewarding. Alternatively, if I go out and look for "that thing I saw yesterday that would make a nice easy shot for today" it almost never grabs me in the same way. OR I end up finding something much cooler on my way to or from my initial "target."

Week of 2/28-3/6

This involved doing something I wouldn't normally have done were it not for this project (or if I had had a tripod on me). I set my camera on the ground and stood next to it (cupping my thumb over the viewfinder to keep light from entering the camera body through the backdoor) and set to a long exposure. When I go back and re-take this photo, I'll have a tripod and will play around with the placement of the stained glass with relation to the car trails.

Week of 2/21-2/27

Just a shot I've been compelled to take since I read Understanding Exposure and saw an example pic in there with a similar subject (but against a blue sky).

Fair amount of fun this week with the wintry weather we had on Tues/Wed. Still having trouble finding the right perspective to make something interesting out of something plain. The parking garage is pretty plain I guess and the contrasting orange/blue made that shot a bit more interesting. I couldn't resist posting the 'Warm Smile' shot as pic of the week, though.

Goal this week: Maybe a nice indoors shot. Haven't had one of those in a while...

This week's picture was a lot of fun to take. Mitch and I trekked along the frozen barrier of Lake Michigan risking life and limb to check out the ice floes and the wall of ice. The next day the conditions changed quite a lot. I was glad to have more pictures involving movement this week. The next step might be people! Human subjects! Maybe animals...

Goal this week: Get an interesting angle on something uninteresting.

Dynamic

Overall, I was happy with this week's pics. The biscotti shot was, admittedly, hastily done and I've definitely done better with lighting and 'plating' in the past. (But to be honest, those biscotti took up my whole night as it was). The pick for this week was chosen because it was capturing a dynamic scene--something my other photos haven't done. After all, it's much easier to grab the 'perfect' shot when you've got the time to play around with the composition and settings.

Goal for this week: Capture another dynamic scene.

This week

The photos this week started on a good note with the 'Love' shot and the 'WANE' graffiti. Towards the end of the week, it was kind of a scramble for a shot I was pleased with as opposed to a shot "just to take a picture." I know it's too much to expect every day to produce a shot I can be proud of every time I look at it and I hope it's just one of hopefully very few creative ruts.

Goal for this week:
The past couple of weeks have involved a fair amount of cropping and rotating in the post-processing portion. (I normally do a few tweaks to adjust balance and contrast to bring the picture back to the mood the scene gave me.) I am trying to veer away from the cropping and the alignment at least to start since I feel those are the easiest to fix at the time the shot is taken. Framing is something I should be able to do fairly easily with a variable zoom lens and something that, if I moved to a fixed-zoom lens, I would have a much harder time doing; having to move my feet instead of rotating the lens.

Also, I'd like to keep this up weekly where I perhaps pick my fave from the week and talk about a goal for the next week.

Because a photo blog needs a Photo Blog...

It's been a little over a week since I started my photo-a-day project and started posting one picture taken each day over here and I began thinking: "I should have a proper blog to discuss the pictures I post instead of doing so in the captions.

So here it is. I plan to discuss the concepts I'm reading about or attempting, the ideas I have for pictures in the future, and other things related to this project and photography in general.