Project 52: Shots 2-5

Yes, I took all these shots in one day. Yes, I'm comfortable with that. I am accepting of the fact that I may not be able to take a photo a week and that is okay. There's always next year, right?

Motion (January 30, 2016)

I was hoping this shot would come out a little differently: I was hoping that the middle part would be still and only the spheres around it would be in motion. Either the entire structure moves a little because of the weight (force?) of the ride or sitting on a railing is not as good as using a tripod. 

Foreground (January 30, 2016)

When I took this photo, I was thinking that Walt and Mickey were in the foreground. It turns out that they are the subject of this photo and I don't think I have anything in the foreground. Argh! As upset as I want to be, I am reminding myself that this project is all about learning: learning how to take better photographs and learning how to be nice to myself when I do something "wrong." I still think it's a neat photo though.

Silhouette (January 30, 2016)

I googled silhouette to see if this shot would count before I even took it. (Looking back now, I'm not sure why. It's not like anyone is going to call me out if I do something "wrong.") I wish the photo were sharper but I find that sometimes my camera can't focus correctly on the sky. I bet if I had moved the little square in the viewfinder to be on the trees, it would have come out sharper. Or I could have just changed my lens to be on manual focus and then done it myself. Maybe there's a way to fix it in Lightroom, but I'm not there yet.

Reflection (January 30, 2016)

With this photo, I practiced what I learned in a video on how to use the crop overlay and how to straighten photos. It bugs me that the reflection is crooked, but I tried to straighten the photo so that the building on the dock was level at least. At any rate, with all the changes that are happening to the Rivers of America at Disneyland, I'm glad I got this shot of the Mark Twain.

Project 52: Shot 1

Play (January 22, 2016)

This is the first shot of my Project 52 for 2016. I took it at an MHS girls basketball game. That Cavalier getting ready to start a play is a former student. Not just any student, mind you, but the student who showed me how to play the ukulele which eventually led to this. She was definitely one of my most memorable students during my final year in the classroom and I'm happy that I was able to start this creative challenge by capturing someone who reminded me that any time we start to do something for the first time we're not good at it, but we improve with practice and support.

Project 52 Intro

Back in November I took my second Golden Girls photography workshop. A little after that, the girls started a 12 week photo challenge in their workshop alumni Facebook group. I participated here and there, but found that having photos on a memory card instead of my phone delays their posting. Nonetheless, I was inspired to do my own photo project in 2016!

The first challenge was being able to have access to my camera at all times. I was hoping that if I carried my camera with me EVERYWHERE, I would start to see more photo opportunities and develop my perceptive photographer's eye. For Christmas, I asked for a purse that was designed to both carry a camera and be fashionable. My sisters bought it for me, but the only problem is it ended up being too small to be my everyday purse. I still plan on using it when I travel or go on photo adventures though. (My boyfriend is excited that I don't have to use my camera messenger bag anymore which he's convinced screams "tourist!") [Update: A couple weeks ago, I bought another normal purse that is big enough to hold my camera and the majority of what I usually carry with me. The camera still takes up a lot of space but at least I still have everything else I need.]

The second challenge was to find a project that I actually liked. I figured I wasn't ready for a Project 365 so I decided to start with a Project 52. Many of the ones I found were pretty specific on what to shoot each week, but I didn't like the idea of being locked down to one picture every week. (Looking back now, I understand how that's part of the challenge.) I ended up finding one that simply had 52 different topics. I liked that it was open-ended and that I could work my way through it however I wanted.

[Update: A few months in, I've realized that having so many topics and not one to focus on for that week has made it challenging. I ended up creating a note in Google Keep that has the photo above in it. Then I can access it quickly on my phone and even use the app itself to X out the box for the shots I've taken. 

I try to look it over as often as I can so that I know what shots to look out for as I go about my days. I also set the week numbers to display on my Google Calendars so that I can make sure I'm keeping up. I wish I could say I've taken one a week, but that would be lying. Usually, I end up snapping 3-4 when I'm going somewhere or doing something that will give me the chance to knock out some shots. I need to just choose a shot at the beginning of the week and make it happen.]

No matter what, I'm excited to complete this project and I'm hopeful that I'll develop a little more as a photographer while documenting this upcoming year.