David's Project 365

[davidc]

I'm going to use this endeavour to tell my story of 2013, one image per day, one day at a time. I tried this once before and failed on the 2nd January so this time I'm better prepared but have also set myself some rules.

1) No cheating - if I'm going to do this, I want to be learning and trying to improve so I shan't be regurgitating old photos. Has to be an image taken each day.
2) This isn't going to turn into a food blog. Though I like food - and food WILL feature! - I'm not going to upload photos of coffee or a sandwich and pretend it's making me a better photographer. iphoneography largely = crap in my book too so I'll be avoiding that unless utterly desperate.
3) Realistically, at some point this year I won't be able to upload a pic. However, factoring in #1 and the point of this exercise - make me a better photographer - I'm still going to take the shot. If I can't get it online for a day or two, bear with me, but I'll still be shooting.

Three simple rules to keep me on track, keep me honest and keep me improving.

Any suggestions for improvement, themes or mini-projects, shout them out!

[davidc]

#1 - Sofia Lady



We were in Sofia, Bulgaria, for New Year and explored the city on New Year's Day. Freezing cold, parts of it are nice and parts of it are very grim. This woman caught my eye. We were in a fairly rough part of town and wrapped up against the chill but she was just wearing her coat and a pair of slippers.

http://500px.com/photo/22023729

[davidc]

Getting off my backside at 1am to brave the freezing cold foggy conditions I took dozens of photos in a very spooky, atmospheric park lit with unusual green/white lights. Sadly, none of them really worked - all the fogged lights just ended in blown highlights and the effect of what I saw was lost completely. I had to move on as packs of scavenging street dogs were getting a bit close for comfort.

This was one of the last shots I took, our hotel lit up for Christmas. Being glass and pretty "angular", it really stood out against the functional, drab looking communist-era buildings that made up most of the rest of the city. Tried to get a composition and POV that emphasised this. Which meant standing in the middle of the road getting funny looks from the hotel staff!



http://500px.com/photo/22136869

[davidc]

My first attempt at off camera flash. I really, really want to learn much more about this - it's challenging and a bit scary at the same time.
I decided the best way to practice was with a willing model so I jumped in front of the lens
I know it's simple, boring even. but I've tried to keep some semblance of composition in what is otherwise just an exercise in lighting. IT was fun and I learned a lot setting this up, tweaking camera & lighting setups to get a result I was happy with.

And yes, I know I need a shave

Strobism - YN460 left @ 1/2 power



http://500px.com/photo/22224381

[Mike Farley]

Good luck, Dave. Three good shots so far - you have already set the bar high.

I shall follow your project with great interest!

[davidc]

I don't have access to a PC until tomorrow so there will be a triple post tomorrow to make up for it!

[Mike Farley]

I look forward to it.

[davidc]

Three days of updates begin!

This is a popular scene in London now and has been photographed a lot so I wanted to come at it from a different angle. I was in a bit of a rush admittedly, only had 20 mins before my train, but quite pleased with the outcome. There's bound to be more shots/perspectives there so I'm sure I'll be back.




http://500px.com/photo/22490939

[davidc]

This was a total surprise for me. The first day of the year where I'd had a full, busy day planned so any photo would be an opportunistic shot. I've seen "overhead canopy" shots before but only in full foliage, colour style. So I shot these trees and decided to see what it'd look like in mono but wasn't holding out much hope.

I'm mega pleased with the result

If you squint it could even look like neurons in the brain!



http://500px.com/photo/22491263

[davidc]

I was pleasantly surprised on two fronts when I visited Camden & Camden Lock today.
The first is there were tons of street scenes, lots going on and fertile ground for future shots. Today I only had my landscape lens so made a mental note to come back prepared for street before snapping this.

The other pleasant surprise was making it out of Camden without being mugged for my kit



http://500px.com/photo/22491933