January recap

Today marks the end of my first official month of taking at least one photo a day. I was curious about how many photos I took the past month.

Some numbers from Jan 1 - 31

Total # of photos = 1009
Avg per day = 32.5
Most on one day = 76 (Day 18)
Fewest on one day = 3 (Day 31)

Day 31 of 365

Today is the last day of January and the end of the first actual month of my 365 Project. I thought about trying to setup the perfect shot for the occasion but after sitting at the car dealer for a couple hours waiting for our car to get it's 10k service I haven't really felt like going out with the camera again today. I did take a few shots while sitting in the waiting room though. While there are lights, vents and sprinkler heads adding nothing to my shot, well adding nothing in my view, I liked the lines and angles. I've been finding myself looking up more often these days. I think we tend to either look straight ahead or down at the ground with or without our camera that we may be surprised by what we see above our normal line of sight.


Even though I'm a pretty observant person, military trained kind of observant, I'm finding myself becoming more open to observing shapes, shadows, lines and general composition in just about everything I look at. Unfortunately not everything translates well from eye to camera but with digital you can always just erase so experimenting doesn't hurt. The last month I experimented a little but mostly worked to understand how aperture and shutter speed relate to each other and what works best. I will continue working on my understanding but will also work to step further outside my comfort zone. I've attempted night, landscape, studio product shots and of course my boots around the old military base, what I've been avoiding is portrait so that will be my goal for February. Not that the whole month will be portrait, mostly that I will at least attempt it.

Day 30 of 365

Took the day off of work today and spent the day with my wife. Classes start next week for both of us so we will be very busy so having a long weekend may be our last for about 4 months. So instead of going out and taking pictures I played around in the garage with my lightbox. Took quite a few photos of these shells individually on white and on black, single and grouped together and this is the one I liked the best.

I was going to use sand as part of my shot but surprisingly we don't have any sand laying around the house. Didn't feel like driving out to the beach in the dark so that will be something I do this weekend.

Day 29 of 365

I took a few photos earlier in the day when I had to go across campus to pickup checks for the department but wasn't real excited about them. On the way back to the office I drove a way I hadn't gone in a while and noticed something I hadn't noticed before so made a mental note to check it out on my way home. After work I was headed back to the place I wanted to take more photos and spotted an old building that had some great sunset reflections shining in the broken windows and some cool shadows so I decided to head across the big empty parking lot to photograph it. Got there, got my camera out, got out of the car, walked over to the building...just as the sun went behind the trees and building was just another old building with a small amount of sunset glow across it. Not a big deal as I can always try again since I drive by it every day. Still got what I think is a decent photo out of it though. Got home and fully intended on using the old window photo but someone mentioned the Moon and Venus being close together in the sky so I went outside and spend the next half hour taking photos of them.

I find night photography to be a bit frustrating. Most likely because I've only tried it a couple times and just need to practice more. Because I was just outside my back door I took several and popped my card out of the camera and stepped back into the house and downloaded the photos. Looked at them in a slide show and looked at the setting of the few I thought were close to what I thought looked good. Went back outside and took some more with different settings. Did this three times and I think this is the best I got.

Now if you want to see some really good night photography, or just some plain beautiful all around work, check out my friend Michael over at his Flickr or his blog.

Day 28 of 365

A couple weeks ago I was sitting in a meeting and thought to myself that the reflections and lines would make for a good photo. The windows are frosted so what you see are one hanging light inside the room and two hanging lights outside and their reflection. It was hard getting the angles so there's more in the picture than I intended for. I've cropped out what I didn't want and the cropped version is on my Flickr. The lines I was seeing are much more apparent in the cropped version. This room is in a new library that I have weekly meetings in so I will be exploring some architecture photography in the near future.

Day 27 of 365

A large field across the street from my office has a line of old foundations at the top of the hill. I took some pictures there yesterday but went with the paraglider photo instead. Yesterday I took the photos with my 70-300mm lens and today my 18-55mm. I think I like how they turned out with the 70-300mm so will try this spot again down the road. When the sun is hitting it right there are some nice shadows from the stairs.

Day 26 of 365

For those of you that enjoy the boot photos I apologize. I fully intended on posting a photo of the boots that I took today but I went out to the beach after work and got there just in time to catch this guy setting up to do some paragliding. My only regret was not getting into a position to catch him silhouetted against the sunset.

As I was driving up I noticed a hang glider breaking down his glider and was kicking myself for not getting there a little sooner. Took a few pictures of him breaking it down and decided to take a few sunset photos for practice. I moved down from the parking lot and caught this guy in the photo arranging his paraglide and figured he was getting ready to put it away. He was actually trying to get it airborne so I took a few shots of that and then kept shooting as he ran up the hill and took off from the hang glider platform. He ended up moving up and over that hill and as I ran down to the beach I saw that he ran out of wind and was back on the beach. I didn't want to sit around waiting for him to trudge back and try again.

My goal now is to check out at the beach as often as possible and get some more shots of these guys. Maybe I'll try and chat with them and get some days and times they usually go out.

Day 25 of 365

As I was getting ready to head out the door to run some errands and take a few pictures my wife reminded me that Sundays are my sketch day. So instead of setting up shots I just took photos of anything and everything and these two I liked the best.


I've started to play around with some of the other pictures I've taken the past three weeks in Photoshop and have posted a few to my Flickr site. Here's one for those that may not want to click through to Flickr.

Day 24 of 365

Not a great photo by any means but I'm posting it as a reminder to myself on the importance of having the right lens handy. I work at a spa on a golf course on the occasional weekend and have seen Cranes nearby several times but either didn't have my camera (I know...stupid) or wasn't in the position to take a photo. Today I had my camera but only had my 18-55mm lens instead of my 70-300mm.

It was about 4:30pm and no one was on the golf course so there were probably around 10 Cranes wandering around not far from the road. I was about 50 feet away so my telephoto lens would have gotten me up close and personal with them but alas it wasn't to be. Next weekend if I'm at the spa I'll definitely have my telephoto lens with me and hope I run into the Cranes again because I find them to be quite majestic.

Day 23 of 365

It was another rainy day so I have another raindrop photo. The difference between yesterday's photo and today's was the addition of a circular polarizer. It was too dark yesterday to use but today I took my picture mid day so had plenty of light.

I've been happy with most of the photos I've been using for this project that I've been neglecting Photoshop so I will probably post some edited photos to my Flickr account this weekend. What I'm really liking is the pictures I've been taking recently, in my very self-critical eye, don't need a lot of correcting. A few little tweaks here and there but any Photoshop work I do will be mostly playing around with other techniques like black and white, a little HDR, some layering of other images and so on.

Day 22 of 365

There was a break in the rain today so decided to do the "raindrop on the flower/plant" shot. If I allowed myself to do any altering I'd take out that blurry leaf tip in the lower left corner.

ISO 100, 55mm, f/5.6, 1/15 sec

Day 21 of 365

There are a bunch of World War II era barracks still standing just off campus but most are fenced in awaiting demolition. There are a few not far from my office and I've wanted to incorporate them into a photo ever since starting the project. It was rainy most of the afternoon but had stopped by the time I got off work. Because of the clouds and the sun going down I didn't have much light so went with this old stairwell. Because of the light issue I had to up my ISO to 400 and even at f/3.5 my best shutter speed was in the teens. I used a trick I read on one of the photo blogs where you take a bunch of shots in succession in hopes that one will come out. Took 4 shots at 1/13 second and got one without any blur...nice little trick.

ISO 400, 18mm, f/3.5, 1/13 second

Nothing special about the photo but I was in a bit of a hurry. I may go back on a better day and explore a little more as I think I can find some use out of these old buildings. Who knows...my boots may thread on the same stairs that my dad did years ago when he went through basic training here.

Day 20 of 365

I realized tonight while looking at the pictures I took tonight after work that a month ago I would have come home and looked at some really disappointing photos. I'm really surprised how much I've learned about my camera in just the 20 days I've been doing this project.

ISO 100, 31mm, f/4.5, 1/1000 sec

I have a couple questions. Is this too dark? What would you change about it to make it a "sellable" photo? Personally if I were to do some Photoshop work on it I may try and highlight the light on the water a little more but I like the dark lower area and the one lone person silhouetted gives it some scale for me. Any thoughts?

Bonus Photo Monday

As much as I liked my photo of the day I felt the need to also post these two photos. Something about them seemed post worthy. The more photos I take around this old Army base the harder it gets to find just one photo to post. I can either post all the ones I think are good and make it hard to follow my 365 project or go back and retake photos at a later date to use as my photo of the day. I may just do a little of both...retake ones and post a few extras on occasion.

Like the dinosaur footprint in the dry lake bed...

Someone I'm sure got in trouble by Top for writing in the new concrete outside the barracks.

Day 19 of 365

Yea though I walk through
the valley of the Shadow of
Death, I will fear no evil.

The inscription is above the door and no matter what I did I couldn't get it to show up since this was a really tight shot. Today I took my boots and camera for a walk amongst the old barracks. I found several things to photograph but as I was heading back to the car I spotted this doorway through some overgrown trees in an area I was going to wait until next weekend to explore. I decided I didn't want to wait till next weekend. I was surprised to find a painted entrance until I got closer and could make out the Ranger tab at the top. Only an elite unit like the Rangers could pull this off.

Day 18 of 365 - Sunset on the bay

I was looking at some sunset pictures the other day and realized I've lived on the coast for over 7 years now and have only tried taking sunset photos once. I'm glad I went out as it was a beautiful day and I found a great place to go to next time I want to take sunset photos...probably should take my wife out with me next time so she can enjoy the view as well. The hike was around a mile each way but most of it was on old roads left over from the military. The colors were pretty vibrant but I had my circular polarizer on so the colors are even more so.

ISO 100, 300mm, f/5.6, 1/10 sec

I took quite a few photos but decided on this one because I like the boat and tree silhouettes. I posted a few others on my Flickr site and will post more from my shot later.

What I learned tonight was to pay attention to my metering. I used shutter priority and adjusted my shutter speed to keep a consistent f/stop between 4 and 8. I did ignore the flashing f/stop number a few times to get a little more darkness.

Day 17 of 365

Not much to talk about today. My day was pretty busy and I'm tuckered out.

ISO 100, 37mm, f/5, 1/160 sec

Day 16 of 365 - Mmmm...Coffee

Believe it or not but I didn't start drinking coffee until I met my wife just over 10 years ago...that means I went without for 31 or so years. In those 31 years I spent 8 in the Army and 4 in college, where I worked part time in a coffee shop. I would drink the occasional mocha but I made sure the taste of the espresso was clearly disguised with plenty of chocolate. Suffice it to say I have a thing for coffee these days.

When we moved from the Seattle area down to Monterey, CA we were in for a bit of a coffee shock. There was one corporate coffee place in the entire area just 7 years ago. There are several different ones now but amongst all those corporate shops there is a gem of a place hidden away that only the locals know about. I spent over 5 years yearning for my own little slice of coffee heaven, my own coffee spot much like Cheers, with people like Norm and Woody to talk sports, music and movies with. I found it when I was training a new person at my job who had a Resist Corporate Coffee sticker stuck to her cork board next to her desk. My coffee utopia was found...

So if you're ever in the Monterey area and you enjoy coffee check out Acme Coffee Roasting Co. It is my little home away from home in this crazy place.

You'll note that their cup fits well with my boot theme.

Day 15 of 365

Always Ready, Always First! Oh wait...I'm not in the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment anymore. Was roaming the old barracks after work and before the sun went completely down and spotted this concrete slab with the First Sergeant, what remained of it anyway, and Captain's rank stenciled on it. Thought it was kind of funny since the military is so detail oriented that they most likely knew where to stand without needing a reminder. I don't remember any of my higher ups needing this as the troopers knew where the Captain was going to stand and we made sure we adjusted to him, not him to us. Guess the troops at Ft. Ord were a little less, what word am I looking for, oh yeah, smart.

I should have walked around to the other side and took a photo from behind where the captain would have stood. I guess it's not like I couldn't do it at another time.

Shot at 33mm, f/4.5, 1/13 (call me steady hands), EV +1

Day 14 of 365

My wife made these bags to use as dry bulk goods bags instead of using the plastic bags at the store. I'm still a bit frustrated with color issues with the light box. It looks perfectly white to the eye but then regardless of what setting I use it's either orange or this peach color. Not sure if it's the light bulbs, which are full spectrum, or something else. My next test will be getting a gray scale card and using it to set a custom white balance in the camera.

Day 13 of 365

I was inspired to take a photo of the moon this evening. I've tried to take a photo of it before and it always turned out looking like a big ball of light so tonight I was bound and determined to get it right. I'm posting two photos. The first is my unedited photo of the moon and the next is 8 photos combined to show my progression of shutter speed settings until I got it right.

300mm, ISO 100, f/5.6, 1/80

From left to right (all at 300mm, ISO 100, f/5.6) 1/4000, 1/2000, 1/1000, 1/800, 1/500, 1/320, 1/200, 1/125

I'm sure there was an easier way to do this. I didn't include the completely washed out photos as there were many while I played around with using Shutter Priority setting. Once I switched to Manual and paid attention to all the blinking numbers and the Exposure Compensation readings. My only disappointment was not deciding to do this a couple nights ago when it was a full moon.

Day 12 of 365 - Spooky

I'm having so much fun with my project that I've decided I'm just going to play with different techniques until something strikes my fancy and holds me for a time. Today I played with long exposure and the "ghosting" effect. I couldn't decide which one to post so today is a twofer day.

I originally thought I would need to use a ND4 filter because it light enough to still read by but the first few photos were almost completely black even at a 20 second exposure. I removed the filter and discovered a new issue...just how do you focus on a subject that you can hardly see through the viewfinder. So a few pictures later and a little commonsense thrown in I found the right focus. I set the camera to manual, exposure to bulb and my f/stop to 8 and focal length of 38mm. What I wanted to do was work with motion in a long exposure setting. As I've mentioned before this old Army base has a story to tell and there just may be some ghosts wandering around. I used my boots as my focal point and locked my shutter release open while I moved down to stand in front of the boots. Stood for about 10 seconds and then moved to the first step and stood for a few seconds and so on until I got to the top. The shutter was open for a total of 61 seconds.

No motion in this photo as I just stood in front of the boots. I used the same settings as above but the shutter was only open for 47 seconds. Because of the background light I wasn't sure if this would work and I wonder if I had left the shutter open much longer if I would have disappeared from view entirely.

Day 11 of 365 - Reflections

I went out to run some errands this morning and took all my gear with me and fully intended on taking a picture of the boots. That has been postponed until tomorrow when it's a little darker as I want to explore something I'm envisioning. Who knows if it will work but I figured I have 350+ days to figure out how to make it work right?


Got home from running the errands and told my wife that I'm just going to do more light box shots and she reminded me that I was going to do "sketches" on Sundays. Sigh...only a week into it and I've already forgotten.

I went ahead and did the light box shots as I intended. I have a couple new toys...as I mentioned a couple days ago I wanted to see how the watch would look with a reflection. I went to the local art store and bought a small sheet of Plexiglas and some small mirrors. I took about 140 photos today of the three different watches my coworker loaned me and some books my wife made in her Book Arts class she took a while back. Since I took so many pictures I really didn't know which one to post so mentioned it in Twitter and Lnorigb throw out #119 to use for my post. Thank you and what you see is #119. The rest of the watch photos will be going through some post processing so I can show to my coworker. If you're interested to see what else I did with the watches stay tuned to my Flickr. While I'm having fun with the photo a day project I also need to do some Photoshop work otherwise I'll get bored. :)

The reflection photo comes at a good time as I've had a few days to reflect on my progress. I think overall I'm doing well. I'm not shaking up the industry with my artistry but I'm learning something new each day and I'm learning from my mistakes...what more could I really ask for? This project has started to wake up the passion I knew I could have for this hobby and I'm meeting some really nice and helpful people on Flickr and Twitter.

Day 10 of 365

There are acres upon acres of concrete and World War II era buildings on this old Army base. This shot is only a small part of a much larger concrete field that was once a motor pool.

Today I realized that I automatically did my checks without really having to think about it. I checked the ISO, made sure the WB was set correctly, was able to find and manipulate my aperture control while looking through the viewfinder. After I take the shot I automatically check the histogram and have consistently been in the good range. I think one of my lessons that I set for myself is starting to sink in. Yay!

I would like to thank everyone who has been following along and have been leaving comments. Thank you so much...knowing that I'm not the only one looking at my project really is making this much easier and something I look forward to doing every day. Please feel free to leave comments with constructive criticism, tips, kudos, links to sites that I may enjoy or just a hello. It's all welcome.

Day 9 of 365

Flaaavvoor Flaaav! What time is it?


Time to post my daily picture...that's what time it is. More playing around with the light box and macro lens. Need to work more on the reflections and shadows, especially with something as shiny as a watch. Tomorrow I'm going to the craft store to look for a shiny black surface to use...want to try to get a good reflection.

Day 8 of 365

My 3 year old nephew Noah loves Matchbox cars. His Christmas gift to me was my very own Matchbox. Thank you Noah...I think it is wonderful.


So with my new car I thought I'd work with the newly built lightbox and play around lighting and white balance. I think I got the lighting about right shadow wise and got a nice little reflection on the white foam board. One thing I need to figure out is how to keep the white foam board white and not this not quite sure what color white. It may be the light bulbs I'm using...will check those first next time I practice.

Day 7 of 365

I've been wanting to incorporate the old rope climb into a photo for quite some time but haven't figured out a good way to do it. I think a foggy day may be better and then some post processing into B&W would get the mood I'm looking for. However it was neither foggy nor can I do any post processing for this project.

Day 6 of 365

I've had three pieces of white foam poster boards out in the garage for a month now fully intending on making a light box according to the specs found in this article from StudioLighting.net. After work today I stopped at the nearby Target and bought a six pack of Fat Tire beer and came home and proceeded to build it. One beer later I had a homemade light box. Have three cheap work lights from Home Depot and find I need one more so off to the store tomorrow.

So I have a light box and lights. What to use as my baseline project? Ah...a pair of moccasins I wore as a kid...like almost 40 years ago. For any of you that may be reading this and thinking I have some kind of shoe fetish...not at all. I mean I do enjoy having a few pairs of John Fluevogs, which does make me much cooler than most, but not a shoe fetish...honest :)

I have several art projects of my wifes to photograph so the light box will come in real handy. Lighting has been a frustration for me so this photograph is my baseline and from here I hope to get better.

Day 5 of 365 - Rituals

As I'm learning with photography there is a certain amount of ritual involved with taking a picture. You find your subject, move around it looking for the best spot to shot from, choose your ISO, check your white balance, decide if you want aperture priority or shutter priority, decide on those settings, frame the shot in the camera, recheck all these settings and then, just maybe, you're ready to press the shutter release. I'm sure I've left steps out but I don't feel like having my wife dictate while I verbally run through my checklist with my camera in hand.

I was thinking about what I wanted to shot today and since it was a rainy miserable day outside decided to do something inside. I was looking at my old boots and thought they really need a good polish. In the military there are a number of rituals, some meaningful, others mundane but worthy since it keeps you from getting yelled at. One ritual you learn very early on in your military career is one of spit and polish.

These old boots need some spit and shine...much like my photography skills. A little polish buffed to a nice sheen with a brush will do but for the real shine I'm going to need a little elbow grease. It's going to take putting some polish on a soft damp rag and working methodically in small circles until I can see my reflection. That's what I'm working for...ritual.

Day 4 of 365 - 'Sketch Day'

As I was leaving to go out and run a few errands and to take my daily photo my wife asked me if I needed my boots as I was walking out the door. I told her I thought I'd give the boots a break on Sundays. She replied with "Sundays will be aboot something else". Heh...something about the way some Canadians say about just gives me the giggles.

I took a weekend photography class recently and the instructor gave us the opportunity to bring in some of our work and he would review it. The instructor, Dennis High, happens to be the former executive director/curator of the Center for Photographic Art in Carmel-by-the-Sea and is a national portfolio reviewer. I was a little hesitant to show some of my stuff since I really haven't been doing this that long but I printed out a few of my photos and brought them in. It turned out to be a great learning experience and he gave me some homework. The homework was to take my camera out and sketch. Just turn my brain off and point the camera at different things and take pictures. Much as a painter or sketch artist would do to warm up before putting paint on a canvas or going into detail work. Just take pictures. So today I just went out and took pictures. No props, no setup, no trying to find the best vantage point.

Since I do need to post one of the pictures I took I had my wife pick out the one she found the most interesting. The rest will go into a folder that I will look at at a later date.

What Dennis is trying to get me to do with the sketching is to discover the energy or emotion behind the picture taking. The funny thing is I had taken a drawing class years ago and at the beginning of each class one person would model and the rest of us would do quick line sketches of the person in which we were trying to show motion or the energy of their body. I didn't quite get it then but at this point in my life I think I understand now...now I just need to put into practice.

Just a quick thank you

I want to thank those of you that have taken the time to check out my project and to leave comments. Even though I'm only on day 3 it has made it much more enjoyable. This is quite the step outside of my comfort zone so thank you and please feel free to leave any criticisms, tips, pointers, advice or just a hello in the comments.

Day 3 of 365

Sometimes an idea just looks so much better in your minds eye then it does after taking the photo. I've driven past this small building that was once a snack bar outside a large motor pool hundreds of times and each time find myself thinking it would be a good photo opportunity. Not so much but this is a learning experience and I need to post a picture.

Why am I taking pictures of decaying buildings with a pair of Army boots out in front? I've asked myself that very same question and the only answer I can come up with is...because this old Army base has a story to tell. I was in the Army for 8 years and have been out now for 15 years. I don't really think about it much but when I was brainstorming for my 365 Project the thought of using a pair of my old jungle boots as a prop just popped into my head. The idea is not some anti-war protest but rather the idea that this old Army base was swarming with soldiers 15 years ago and now most of it is just falling down and being scavenged for copper pipes by tweakers (speed/meth addict). In the middle of all this is a college campus trying its best to become a part of the community that just sees the place as the old Army base.

Lessons learned:

• Just because you think a setting may work, it may not due to just being uninteresting upon further review or available lens may just not give you the desired look. Either think of a different way to approach it or move on to something else.
• Need to look at location at different times of the day to find when the lighting is the best. This building is west facing so in the morning the front is in shadows and in the late afternoon the sun is fully on it.
  

Day 2 of 365

I had to scramble this morning to get out of the house before it started raining. Thankfully I only live 5 minutes from the location I wanted to use today. The shot location is a raised platform about 5 feet high with stairs leading up past the first aid cross. The platform has a railing all around it so there was some difficulty keeping the rails out of the shot as I leaned into the platform to take the shot. I was hoping for a little more bokeh blurriness between the boots and the red cross but I was using my kit 18-55mm lens that doesn't have a very low f/stop rating. I'm looking at getting a 50mm 1.4 (maybe) or 1.8 (most likely) here soon which will help with the look I'm going for in this shot.

Lesson learned:

• I'm not sure if it was the white balance (I used the cloud setting) or I needed to work with my shutter speed as the shot seems flat.

Blackrapid strap

For Christmas my wife got me a Blackrapid RS-1 strap for my camera. Today was my first day using it in the field. I decided that playing around with it in the house didn't quite qualify for a review.

What I liked

• Over the cross shoulder strap is really comfortable
• It is easily adjustable
• As advertised the camera slides easily from hip to shooting position and back again
• Having my hands free to carry things was really nice

What I need to adjust too

• The shoulder pad moves around a lot and constantly needs to be repositioned, especially with a light lens on the camera, less so with a heavy telephoto lens

I think the shoulder pad moving around will be less frequent as the strap gets worn in. It's brand new and a little stiff so my only knock on the strap is really just a small nit.

I would recommend this strap to anyone with a DSLR.

Day 1 of 365

I've set a goal for myself to take at least one photo a day for the entire year of 2009. This was set in motion by a conversation I had on Twitter recently. I've had my Canon 30D since October 2007 and have read tons of book, subscribed to several magazine, read blogs, listen to podcasts but feel like I never take as many photos as I should be taking. Using the tips found on Jason Webber's blog I will post one unedited, straight from the camera photo per day. The only changes I will make is saving from RAW to JPG.

This blog will undergo some changes as I go so what you see today is just a rough draft.


I live on Ft. Ord, an old Army base decommissioned back in 1992 and now a college campus. There are several old military buildings still standing so I decided my theme, initially, would be taking advantage of the setting. I served in the Army for several years and while I don't really think about it all that much these days the concept of using my old Jungle Boots as a prop intrigued me. My daily shots for now will be my concept shots for a larger project I'm brainstorming.

Lesson(s) learned

• Instead of pulling out my tripod I can adjust ISO to increase shutter speed
  
• I don't have to make drastic ISO changes...start at 100 and move it up until I can safely shoot handheld...in this case the ISO only needed to be 250.

Equipment

• Canon 30D
• Sigma AF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 Macro