UniBrain Trust » Photography

Project 52 Update

Jim — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 14:43:53 +0000

Did I make my goal of on picture a week? No. Did I have fun trying? Yes. Will I try again? Yes.

I published 26 shots over the 52 weeks with most of them before July. What happened in the second half of the year? There are a bunch of excuses, “I had other things to do” and “Work got in the way” are my favorites. But that doesn’t really explain it. I lost interest and got caught up in the mechanics of the website and publishing.

This year, no separate webpage and simple publishing are the rule. Let’s see how far I get this time.

For now, here are my favorites from 2011

Project 52 Update

Fort Vancouver

Jim — Sun, 08 May 2011 20:22:23 +0000

We have lived in Portland for more than 15 years and have never been to Fort Vancouver. Yesterday was a rainy day, not the best day for an outdoor historic site but this is Oregon and we don’t melt. Plus there were plenty of buildings to duck into.

The original fort and buildings burned down in the 19th century, but the stockade and several buildings have been reconstructed. There were living history volunteers cooking up lunch in the kitchen, a carpenter and two young apprentices in the carpenters’ shop, and, Nadya’s favorites, two blacksmiths. Plus there were several other buildings we could wander through and admire. It was fun learning more about the Hudson Bay Company and their reign over our part of the Northwest. The volunteers were friendly, knowledgeable and loved sharing the history with us.

Plus, cannons!

Church

Jim — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 15:30:53 +0000

This is the church where Nadya was baptized and my first attempt at a HDR photo. The houses on the lower right are a bit distracting and wish I would have gotten lower to minimize their impact.

I didn’t think I was going to make this an HDR photo so didn’t properly bracket nor did I use a tripod. I tried the photoshop HDR merge but it didn’t do a great job. I read a few things and eventually tried Photomatix which was able to take 8 handheld shots and merge them into this. Since it was handheld with each image slightly different it is a bit soft. I may go do this again but try it the right way.

Flower

Project 52 Update

Jim — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 18:39:25 +0000

This year I am trying to become a better photographer and one of the ways is to just shoot more. As a way to get out and force myself to shoot is buy publicly declaring I am going to publish one photo a week for the entire year. I’ve waited to tell everyone until I posted 8 weeks straight. Today I did just that. If we want to encourage me or just watch have a look at Project 52

This was a good week and I had difficulty narrowing my selection to just one. Here are some of the choices.

Flower

Jim — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 18:46:18 +0000

I’m not completely happy with this photo but it is the best of the week. I think catching the top of the water arc could have made it more dramatic and I should have also gotten a bit lower to not make it look like a giant took the photo.

The cropping is my attempt to make the child a generic-kid playing in the water vs. a particular child. I think it mostly works.

No related posts.

Erasure

Jim — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 18:47:10 +0000

Taken somewhere off the Strip in Las Vegas. It was a very grey day and it was difficult to get the eraser to stand out against the background. I was using Nadya’s Sony point-n-shoot and couldn’t get a shallow depth of field. I also tried against the sky but it was a flat grey and rather boring.

The curving lines against the straight building adds some interest and motion but I’m not sure if this is completely successful other than as a documentation shot.

Tate Modern

Eagle

Jim — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 23:47:49 +0000

Taken at Sauvie Island while scouting places to photography wildlife. The photo is highly cropped with a little photoshop to remove some powerlines in the lower left. There was a bit too much camera shake and the eagles head is a bit blurry.

New Camera

A Day in the Village

Jim — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 00:10:30 +0000

Turned into a black and white day

Successful Dinner Party

Fresh Pasta Night

Jim — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 04:04:42 +0000

My sister got Nadya a pasta press for Christmas. Tonight we made our first batch and had it with a lovely bottle of wine. Here is to more nights of fresh pasta!

Trip to Bend

Jim — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 22:00:44 +0000