365 Project nearing end
Hi All,
So I got into this whole taking pictures thing about a year ago. At the time, I was just surfing flickr and other picture sites, seeing all the cool images people created and posted. Many of them did “365 Project”, or one picture a day for a year. I thought this was pretty cool. Many of them stated what a great thing it was for their photography. I didn’t even know if I wanted to take pictures yet, so I figured it was would a good way for me to feel it out. I mean, I didn’t have to finish it. So I jumped on Facebook, created an album, and wrote:
“I think I like photography. To find out for sure, I’m going to try to take a photo a day for the next year. Hopefully this will help me learn more about photography – and to document my life. Comments are welcome – thanks.”
And thus began my journey. All I had was a nice Canon point and shoot, but the idea of a.) carrying it around with me all the time seemed difficult, and b.) I would have to take a lot of time out to download and post the picture. Enter the Blackberry (and subsequent iPhone 4). I loved taking pictures with my Blackberry. I mean, the images weren’t great, I think it was only a 3.2 MP camera on the thing, but it was so easy to compose, take, edit, and upload while walking to work, or the train, or even at home. I think that’s what really enabled me to be successful in my challenge. I could use different filters on Blackberry OS 5 – sepia, b&w, selective color, etc. When I upgraded my Bold to OS 6, I lost the native filters, so I had to find an app for that…just another step, but worth it. Then after my wonderful marriage and honeymoon, we jumped on the iPhone 4 wagon and haven’t looked back. The iPhone 4 camera is really a great camera. I’m sure you’ve seen weddings shot only with an iPhone, so obviously there is some value to it. I love the iPhone because it it is so wide (about a 3.8mm, f/2.8 lens) and takes pretty accurate color shots. And it’s focusing is great with good bokeh. Overall, I’ve enjoyed shooting with it.
And so, I am nearing the end of my challenge. In less than a month I will have completed a whole year of pictures.
Check out my progress here and here.
What should I do with them all?
Ashlee & Chris – Snapshots
Jenn and I had the pleasure of attending a beautiful wedding here in Chicago over the summer. The shot below were taken with my Canon Point and Shoot, so I like to truly call them…snapshots. I have full-sized images available sans the watermark, just let me know which ones! Enjoy, and congrats again to Ashlee and Chris!
Chicago Photography: Time-lapse Tilt-Shift
This is awesome! Check out this video from WGN utilizing Tilt-shift video with time-lapse of Chicago’s sites!
Engagement Photography: Meghan & Scott
Just a teaser of many of the pictures I took of Meghan and Scott. Enjoy!
Storms Rolling In Chicago
ISO 3200, 24mm, f/25, 1/0sec, UV filter
Massive storm rolled into Chicago tonight. This picture was taken at 7:43 P.M. Take a look at the original and a creative look after the break. (more…)
Pet Photography: Tiger
ISO 3200, 18mm, f5.6, 1/5sec, UV filter
I love our cat. His name is Tiger and I like taking pictures of him. Why? I think he’s constantly judging me. (more…)
Wells Street Art Fair
This past weekend my wonderful wife and I made it up early to the Wells Street Art Fair. It was a dreary start to the day with low clouds and a chilly breeze. But after an hour of walking through stalls the sun finally came out and the people showed up. I decided that there were a lot of people around to take pictures of, but more interesting were their dogs. This pooch perked up when I pointed my camera at him. He even smiled. More info after the break… (more…)
Lady with a Bag
This shot was an abrupt picture. This young woman walked by me with this bright yellow bag. It was a bright sunny day and the bag just popped on her black outfit and in the sunshine. I tried to quickly frame it up but she walked through some shade from the nearby trees and the bag suddenly looked blah. I waited and went full zoom (haha, 55mm for my kit lens) and clicked just as she walked into the light.
I cropped this picture to help focus on the bag. I was playing with exposure gradients in LR. At first I had a gradient from the left to the right illuminating the girl and her bag and darkening the storefront windows. I still wasn’t happy because the tree trunk was still pretty bright. So I added another smaller gradient back the other way from right to left to almost spotlight the girl and her bag. I could have burned all of it too (same effect, right?) but those gradients gave the same effect. I started playing with the saturation in the color mixer, to further highlight the yellow and wash out everything else, but in the end I was happy with the bag poppy against her black clothes. ISO100, 55mm, f5.6, 1/100 sec.
Sign
I took this shot on my walk the other day. I like how the focus hits the sign so you can see the overlay of the red cross over the person and dog. I also like the texture of the wall and the shadows that fell underneath the bricks.
In lightroom I followed a tutorial I found that helped eliminate blown out pixels and brought the whole picture up in contrast, but otherwise not much changed. 24mm ISO100 f5.6 1/125 sec.
Nick Ulivieri Photography
So on my day off today I spent most of the day inside because it was so hot outside today – near 1933 record levels. Yuck. So instead of going outside and trying out my new filters for my camera I started clicking around twitter and came across Nick Ulivieri (@ChiPhotoGuy on twitter). Nick works in Chicago and his most recent picture set was taken around my neighborhood. Take a look!
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