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Now that the 52 weeks project is finished, I thought I'd share a few thoughts on how it all went and pick a few of my favorite submissions from our top contributers.
Big props to irv_b for his 41 photos, earning him the #2 spot behind me. Irv didn't start his project until February, so it looks like he'll make it to 52 on his own. One of my favorites from him was "femme mosaic," a pop-art style collage:
Coming in 3rd for number of submissions was [Adam_Baker]. Even though he may not have always submitted on time, I always enjoy Adam's photography. If I had to pick a favorite, it would be "Outer Light":
Next up is chofler. Catherine shared a lot of great food shots, but I think my favorite from her was "Golden Gate":
Finally, rounding out the top 5 is q-pix. Andrew had a lot of great photos, with plenty of black and white. My pick from him is "Chess":
Just realized all my picks were black and white, but hey, them's the breaks. Thanks to everyone who participated this year, I hope it helped you grow your photography even a tiny bit, or at least to meet some new photographers whose work you enjoy.
~S
[title of blog] on flickr
© 2011 Simon Hucko
Week 52 is here at last! I actually managed a semi-decent photo this week, too, and on time. Good way to end the series.
I was inspired by all the wonderful holiday photos last week, so I took this (rather unoriginal) photo of our Christmas tree. I liked the relationship of the ornaments to one-another, and the feeling of depth in the photo. It always feels nice to put the 50 on the camera, a very different mindset from the "frame it with the zoom and blast away" that I get with my kit lens. Not that I don't like my zoom, I've made some great shots with it, but the 50 just has so much more character. I've been jonesing for something a little wider, too, perhaps a 35 f/2 is in my future at some point...
My pick this week is "Amplitude" by [Adam_Baker]:
It's a bit of a cheat, considering this was taken in October, but I think it's a nice way to start the new year. Click through the photo for Adam's description and a link to "theft size," where you can really see the textures and different colors coming together. A 1/4 second shutter leaves some great texture in the water, similar to my triangle photo. I'm definitely going to play more with those middle shutter speeds this year, as they can give some very interesting results. Thanks for sharing this with us, Adam.
So that's it! 52 weeks! Amazing how time flies. We've had some great photos this year, so next week I'll do a wrapup for the year and pull a few of my favorites. As I said in my resolutions post yesterday, I'm not doing another 52 weeks project this year. I'll probably leave the group open and running if you guys are interested in continuing (or if you know people who want to do a project). If someone wants to step up as a leader I'd be happy to give them moderator rights to the group, and as always anyone is free to post on the discussion board there. I'm glad I did the project, but I'm looking forward to taking my photography in a different direction this year. Thanks to everyone who participated.
~S
[title of blog] on flickr
© 2010 Simon Hucko
Been in a real photo rut lately. I blame the weather and general holiday craziness. Hopefully things will settle down a bit in January and I can get back into the groove with my photography. I'm not doing a 52 weeks or 365 project next year, but have some other short- and long-term projects in mind that I'll discuss more in an upcoming blog post.
My photo this week was a quick product shot to accompany my Chrome OS review. When I say quick, I mean it took me about 10 minutes from opening the camera bag to uploading the photo. These little product shots are pretty easy, and are good to be able to do when you're listing photo equipment for sale. (How many bad or non-existent photos have you seen on craigslist or eBay?) Or, in my case, they add a nice personal touch to a blog post about gear. A few tips to taking photos like this:
- Find a clean surface to set your item on. I used the floor. Tables work well, cutting boards, desks, paper, whatever, as long as there isn't any clutter on it.
- Make sure the background is free of distractions. A blank wall works. I used a piece of foam that we had lying around. Posterboard or foamcore work great, too.
- Light your item. I grabbed a work light, a desk lamp can work here. (Or any other light, the brighter the better.) I used some tissue paper for diffusion, but printer paper works pretty well in a pinch (you lose more light, though).
- Compose, focus, shoot, edit. You might need a tripod if your light isn't that bright. Editing should be fairly simple if you did the first three steps. I used the foam to set white balance.
Easy as that.
My pick this week is "snowfall" by irv_b:
Along with being the *only* photo this week, Irv captured the new snow very nicely. Exposure is right on. I like the layered composition, lots of texture to hold me in the image. The only thing I might have done differently was crop in on the left to remove the trunk at the edge of the frame. Nice balance between the two main trees. Thanks for sharing your wintry wonderland with us, Irv.
2 weeks left. Would love a strong finish here from everyone :)
~S
[title of blog] on flickr
© 2010 Simon Hucko
This week's photo started as just a test shot for exposure on a short walk I took the other day. I never trust my meter in the snow, so after adjusting up a little I grabbed this shot to make sure I was where I wanted to be. The highlights on the snow just clipped on my camera, which meant they would be there in post, and I had good shadow detail in the trees. When I popped this open on my computer, I found that I liked the rule-of-thirds framing and the contrast between the textured trees and the mostly blank snow. I desaturated the image a bit to help put the focus on the texture.
My pick this week is Artisan by slithy-toves:
I like the lines and shapes in this shot. It has sort of a disjointed geometric feel to it that comes together into an interesting composition. The animal head and the colorful sculpture add points of interest, and help anchor me while I'm following the lines around. The bit of reflection on the frame is a nice added detail. Nice find, Stacey.
3 weeks to go...
~S
[title of blog] on flickr
© 2010 Simon Hucko
Only a day late this week. Phew. This was the *only* photo I took last week. I thought about cheating and putting something up that I took earlier, because frankly this is pretty much a snapshot, but oh well. They can't all be winners.
Self shots like this are pretty easy to set up, especially if you have a remote (which I highly recommend). I set exposure manually and checked the histogram before popping the camera on the tripod. I guesstimated the hyperfocal distance and set that manually, too, so that everything would be in focus. The trick for these wide angle "people standing in front of stuff" shots is for the people to get as close as possible to the camera so that they fill more of the frame. If we had stood on the porch, we probably would have been about half the size, and our faces wouldn't have shown up very well in the photo. I raised the tripod up pretty high to eliminate some of the perspective distortion, so that the top of the house didn't converge too much. (I corrected it even further in Lightroom to help get rid of that "wide angle" look.) The 2 second timer on the remote let me get my hand back in my pocket after tripping the shutter. 6 shots later, we were done. Quick edit for contrast in color, then off to my parents for their Christmas newsletter. All told, it took less than 20 minutes from getting out the camera to clicking "send" on the e-mail. It's not award winning art, but it's a nice photo of my wife and me with our new house, and is something we'll be glad to have years down the line.
My pick this week is "Big skies over Manhattan" by chofler:
I really like where she placed the skyline in the image - the low horizon and wide angle really show off the clouds. There's an interesting play of light and shadow on the buildings, too, I'm guessing as a result from the scattered clouds. I think this would have even more impact printed large, as you lose a bit of detail at web res.
4 weeks to go!
~S
[title of blog] on flickr
© 2010 Simon Hucko
Suuuuper late this week, sorry everyone! I think Thanksgiving threw me for a bit of a loop. I should be back on track for the rest of the month.
My photo this week was one of the very few I took on Thanksgiving. The light was bad (ie there wasn't much of it), so between that and the food/wine/family, I decided to keep the camera in the bag most of the day. It happens. I manged to grab this shot of everyone being entertained by the Wii. Nothing amazing, but it was a moment, and I think I captured it pretty well. Picking a white balance was a little tough, as it was mixed incandescent lamps and cool cloudy sunlight through the windows. I think I ended up somewhere between incandescent and daylight so that neither one was too far out of whack. It still looks mixed, but your brain expects it to, so it works. (I think. If you disagree, feel free to say so.)
This week's pick is "Hofler family Thanksgiving" by chofler:
This goes with my non-official Thanksgiving theme for the week ;) The title and description say it all - this is how her family does Thanksgiving. This is why I love phone cameras: it's so easy to share part of your life with everyone else. That voyeuristic (for lack of a better word) look into how other people see the world is very intriguing to me. Thanks for the glimpse of your holiday, Catherine. Looks like quite a feast
We're into the final month of the year. Hard to believe that 52 weeks is almost over - only 5 more to go! Let's finish strong :)
~S
[title of blog] on flickr
© 2010 Simon Hucko
We got some rain here last week. On the way into work one morning I noticed that the creeks had some good flow going, so I made a quick trip over to Ithaca Falls. I apparently underestimated just *how much* rain we got, because the falls were almost up to spring volume. Thanks to an up-stream breeze, I was able to get pretty close before getting blasted with spray. I set up the shot, shielded the camera, waited for a break in the wind (which never really came), and took the shot. I like the black and white on this one, but I definitely overdid it with the vignette. Sorry. If I ever print this (probably won't) I'll make sure to dial that way down first.
My pick this week is "Candid" by irv_b:
I think the best word to describe this photo is "tension." Instead of giving the subject "room to move" in the frame, he placed his face up against the left edge. The man's glance back over his shoulder adds some good mystery to the shot, and makes me wonder what caught his eye. The gritty black and white treatment completes the effect, giving us an image with a lot of intrigue. Nicely captured, Irv.
Thanksgiving this week here in the states - plenty of chances for you to take candids, portraits, and even food shots. Give yourself a little assignment for the weekend and see what you come up with.
~S
[title of blog] on flickr
© 2010 Simon Hucko
My photo this week was a fun find on one of my lunchtime walks (yes, I carry around my huge effing tripod - you never know). The little 6 inch fall of water was nothing spectacular, but for whatever reason the wake (?) off the bottom formed a big triangle in the creek. I got this detail shot and then took a wider one showing the whole thing, but I think the close shot was a much better photo (the wider one looked more like a snapshot to me). The 1/2 second exposure left some interesting detail in the water. I usually drag the shutter out and blur the crap out of these types of shots, but it looks like I'll have to do some experimenting with shorter exposures. (Not sure why I chose 1/2" here...)
My pick this week is "Femme Mosaic" by irv_b:
I'm not usually a selective color fan, but I really like it here. The mosaic and different coloration of each frame gives it a somewhat pop-art feel (a la Andy Warhol), but the gritty subject matter and the hard lighting definitely speak to the film noir theme he was going for. I suggest viewing it large to see all the subtle variations. Very nice, Irv.
I think I'm going to drop the themes for the rest of the year, as I'm running out of ideas. Any photo will do - show us what you've got!
~S
[title of blog] on flickr
© 2010 Simon Hucko
I'm not thrilled with my photo this week, but I was actually excited to take it, so I consider that a win. I've been getting more and more interested in long exposures, and am strongly considering a 10 stop ND filter. This photo has some issues (a bucket in the middle of the dam, blown spots in the sky from the setting sun poking through the clouds), but I think there's a lot of nice movement between the water and the clouds. If the weather around here continues to produce low, fast-moving clouds like this I may have found my saving grace to tide me over until the snow starts. Things are continuing to improve this week photo-wise, so I'm happy to be done with this fall flop (at least for now).
My pick this week comes from DebPaul2010:
First, I'd like to say welcome to Debbie - she found us a week or so ago. Always happy to have new members, and even though the project is almost done for the year, I'm looking forward to seeing what she has to post. I chose this image for the lighting. Because the scene is back-lit with warm sunlight, there is an interesting play between the golden sun and the cool shadows. Despite being back-lit, the exposure is well balanced and gives a lot of nice detail and color on everything in the shot. The cemetery is an interesting take on the theme of "time." Nice shot, Deb.
No theme this week, just get out and shoot something :)
~S
[title of blog] on flickr
© 2010 Simon Hucko
I had every intention of posting a nicely balanced photo of our lit pumpkins on the porch this week, but I missed the deadline. We didn't carve our pumpkins until Sunday, and by the time the light was right the trick-or-treaters were out in force. I still plan on grabbing the shot sometime this week - better late than never, right?
Instead, I give you this dreary and bleak outlook on the death of fall. I feel like I dropped the ball a bit on autumn photos this year, and so when I saw this scene last week I just had to stop and capture it. I think it pretty well sums up my feelings about the weather right now - moody and depressing. Trying to get over it and find things to photograph to carry me through the end of the year.
This week's pick is "Flasher" by slithy-toves:
Very apropos for the Halloween theme, especially with the little flecks of orange in the photo (some weird sort of flare?). The lensbaby adds a nice creepy blur to it, which is very fitting of the subject. Spooky stuff :)
In honor of daylight savings time ending this weekend here in the states, this week's theme will be "time." Show me what you got.
~S
[title of blog] on flickr
© 2010 Simon Hucko
This week was a pretty blah week for me photographically. The weather was blah, the leaves are mostly gone in the places I usually shoot, I was busy with life and didn't have much time for photography, etc. So, the best I could do this week was a cell phone shot of some dead corn against a slate gray sky. Enjoy ;) I'm going to make every effort to take some photos that I'm proud of this week. Hopefully that'll pan out.
My pick this week is "Splash" by irv_b:
For best effect, click here to see it larger. Really digging how the droplets were frozen by a fast shutter speed. The exposure is spot on, too - plenty of detail in the white feathers of the bird. And, for the icing on the cake, the bird is looking directly at the lens. Excellent capture, Irv.
The theme this week is "Halloween." Plenty of options here. 10 weeks left, folks, hop back in and finish strong!
~S
[title of blog] on flickr
© 2010 Simon Hucko
Well, we managed a few more photos this week, so I guess I'll continue. I know there are some lurkers out there who haven't been posting lately, and I encourage you guys to jump back on. 11 weeks left - you can do it! Plus, with fall here and the holidays coming, there are plenty of photo opportunities, so it shouldn't be hard to shoot something every week. Even a quick photo with a cell phone is better than no photo as long as it speaks to you in some way.
My photo this week is of a scene that I pass every day on the way to work. I love this field with the horses in it, and so often it screams out to me "take a photo!" I don't usually stop (mostly because I don't have a long enough lens to do it justice), but the other day the horses were closer to the road and right up against the changing trees. The power lines are a bit of a bummer (and another reason that I don't photograph this field much), but I can live with it.
My pick this week is "norwich cathedral" by irv_b:
There are so many great things going on with this photo, starting with the great use of framing. From the description: "...I added a bit of flash to lift the details from inside the arches." Great idea, I like the extra bit of detail that you get in the foreground this way. I also like the lighting on the building - sunlight on the subject with moody clouds in the background is one of my favorite things. Great photo of a lovely spot.
This week's theme is "Fall." For the seasonally challenged, you can always tackle a different meaning of the word ;) And, as always, the theme is just a suggestion to get your creative juices flowing. Feel free to post any photo that you want. I hope we'll get a few more of you to come back into the fold this week.
~S
[title of blog] on flickr
© 2010 Simon Hucko
I finally bit the bullet and used some of my birthday money to get a Lensbaby. I have a review coming soon, so I won't talk too much about it here. Suffice to say, those things are super fun to play with. I went exploring with it the day it arrived, and came up with some good stuff. This shot really takes advantage of the Lensbaby blur to focus in on the subject. The black and white should come as no surprise to anyone. Keep an eye on my photostream this week for some more shots, and on the blog here for the review.
My pick this week is "angles" by irv_b:
Great abstract image here. I like the curve set against all the hard lines and angles, it makes for an interesting composition and keeps my eye bouncing around the frame. Nice find, and well captured.
No theme this week. I may be discontinuing these wrap up posts here and on the flickr group unless people start submitting more, as it makes no sense for me to make a "pick" out of the one or two submissions for the week. If you want to see this continue, submit an image. If not, we can part ways on this project. It's in your hands, guys.
~S
[title of blog] on flickr
© 2010 Simon Hucko
It's the most wonderful time of year if you're a nature photographer. Everyone loves fall foliage, and with plenty of overcast rainy days I've been chomping at the bit to get out and shoot some waterfalls. We're still a little off-peak here, but it's coming on fast and strong, and the next couple weeks are going to be amazing. I'm also hoping for a few clear fall days so that I can capture some leafy landscapes at golden hour. Nothing says autumn like a crisp blue sky. A polarizer is super helpful for knocking down the sky a bit and cutting reflections on the leaves, leaving you with a nicely saturated scene.
My photo this week was the product of a rainy expedition last Monday. This was the only photo I ended up keeping in color, the rest were better served in black and white (mostly due to the green leaves farther down the creek). The giant log is smack in the middle of the best series of falls on the stream and has been cursed many times over by local photographers. I decided to use it as part of my composition, and from this angle it makes a nice leading line up the stream.
This week's pick is "Autumn Trickle" by [Adam_Baker]:
© Adam Baker
Adam wound up shooting the same stream this week, but he headed up the other way and captured a part I haven't seen yet. I really like the series of little cascades, so this is on my list of places to check out and photograph before winter. The title says it all - the water was pretty low last week, so a lot of the falls on this stream were at the trickle stage. Given the hurricane and other rain we've had since, I'm guessing things are back to normal, so this particular shot no longer exists. Waterfalls can change daily, so it's fun to go back to a spot several times a year and see the changes. Nice shot, Adam.
(Adam is currently out on an epic fall photo trip through the Adirondacks and parts of New Hampshire, so now would be a good time to start following him on flickr so that you can enjoy all the autumny goodness when he gets back.)
This week's theme is "exploration." Show me what you got!
~S
[title of blog] on flickr
© 2010 Simon Hucko
My photo this week was an image I found as part of my normal routine. It has sort of a "still life" feel to it, although I didn't position anything myself. This is probably my favorite thing about phone photography, the ability to capture an interesting image in the everyday. People see the world around them differently, and I'm always intrigued by these little slices of vision. As I've said all along here, camera phones are just fine for your weekly photo. What matters is the image and the vision behind it, not the gear you use to take it.
My pick this week is "Stifling Love" by slithy-toves:
I really like the juxtaposition of the soft heart-shaped leaves and the barbed wire - great find! I also like the lines here, and the way the one vine cuts across the wires. Very interesting and thought-provoking photo, thanks Stacey!
This week's theme will be "change." For those of you in northern climates, Fall is definitely on its way in, and leaves are starting to give up their green and show their true colors, so to speak. Don't feel limited to leaves, though, there are a lot of different ways to express "change" in a photo. Happy hunting!
~S
[title of blog] on flickr
© 2010 Simon Hucko
I'll admit, I cheated again. I already had this shot in the can when I picked the theme for the week, complete with all it's delicious flare. Last Monday was an awesome evening weather-wise. We had bands of showers rolling through, and the sun kept poking out in between, leading to many a double-rainbow around town. More importantly, when the sun started going down, we had the most beautiful golden hour light I've ever seen. This shot was a bit of a grab shot on the way back to the car - I saw the couple standing by the lake back-lit by the sun and thought it would make a nice image. Luckily for me she leaned in to him right as I picked up my camera, allowing me to capture this great moment. I fired off a few frames, dropped my bag back in the car, and turned around to get their e-mail to send them a shot but they were already gone. Life waits for no one, I suppose... Sure, it has a trendy "engagement session" feel to it, but it totally does the evening justice light-wise.
My pick this week is "Gauangelloch" by djhucko:
© Dan Hucko
No flare here, but a beautiful sunrise capture. I like the framing he chose, putting the fog line on the lower third instead of the visible horizon. This puts the rising sun right at the classical "rule of thirds" placement for the subject, and it gets balanced out nicely by the tree in the lower right. I think this would make a very nice print, too. Excellent capture.
This week's theme is Camera Phone shots. The beautiful thing about your camera phone is that it's always with you. Find a little slice of your world to share with us this week, giving some insight into how you see things around you. Don't worry about resolution or fancy camera apps, a straight up camera phone shot is fine (and you can always pull it into your photo software and tweak it a bit there.) Looking forward to seeing what you guys post!
~S
[title of blog] on flickr
© 2010 Simon Hucko
My photo this week is a little experiment that I did with some dry ice. It's not a very interesting photo, more of a proof of concept, and I was hoping for something better to share for the week but it didn't work out that way. There are a lot of photos of dry ice on Flickr (mostly as a bubbly smoky liquid in a glass of some sort), but I wanted a different effect. I figured if a long exposure can be used to smooth out moving water, it should have a similar effect on dry ice fog. And it did. 4 second exposure lit by my trusty LED flashlight, which I think is getting close to deserving its own post. Maybe I'll do a "what's in your bag?" thing sometime soon.
This week's pick is "Big Skies over Mendon" by maryshelby:
© Mary Shelby
Big skies indeed. The wide angle really helps capture the big fluffy clouds and gives the photo a nice sense of depth. I like the little red bush (?) in the foreground, too, it adds a nice layer of interest to the photo.
This week's theme is "flare" - point your camera at a light source and let it go wild. An open aperture will give you large blobs of flare across your photo, stopping down reduces these and gives you a starburst effect around the light source(s). Try both and see what you like best.
~S
[title of blog] on flickr
© 2010 Simon Hucko
So "square" as a theme is almost cheating for me: I'd say a good third of my work these days ends up as a square crop. I probably could have stretched myself a bit to find a square subject, but I didn't have any time to shoot this weekend so I had to go with something from earlier in the week. This spot is at the end of a small lake downstream from the local reservoir and is apparently quite a popular swimming hole. There were some kids jumping off a cliff, and then this group that swam over to the dam. I was on the cliff above them and grabbed the shot. There was actually a fourth swimmer in the frame behind these three, but I cropped him out when going to square (3 subjects is much more visually pleasing than 4).
My pick this week is "River Severn - Ironbridge" by q-pix
© q-pix
Lovely black and white landscape. However he did the black and white is very nice, lots of texture and detail across the image. Nice use of the river as a leading line to bring the viewers into the frame, too.
This week's challenge is to use the widest angle lens you've got and make a compelling photo with it (no cropping allowed!). Don't just default to a wide landscape, either, there are a lot of interesting things you can do with a wide angle perspective (people, places, objects, the sky's the limit!). Flip your landscape to vertical and capture an interesting detail in the foreground. Give some great context to your environmental portraits. Surprise me, or give me something simple but excellent.
I'd also like to see a few people who are hovering around at the fringe come back to the fold and start posting again. We miss you guys! Thanks to the core group who's been keeping up with me here, it's nice to have your photos every week :)
Go shoot!
~S
[title of blog] on flickr
© 2010 Simon Hucko
The theme this week was "lines." True to form, I didn't exactly stick to the theme, but there are definitely some implied/less-obvious lines in my composition this week. When I look at the photo I find myself starting at the top with the bridge, which leads me to the stone wall. The wall leads me down to the water, which flows down toward the bottom left of the frame. These lines give the image a natural progression, which helps the viewer connect with the different details of the photo. The 25 second exposure is probably way overkill, but you can't argue with the smoothness of the water. I got up before dawn that day and hiked down into the gorge by flashlight. I was hoping that sunrise would find its way onto this scene so I could get some golden morning light, but despite facing east the gorge blocked out the sun. The lighting is a touch flat, I tried to punch it up a little in post, but there's a lot of detail in the trees and under the bridge that would get lost in more direct light. Later that day we hiked back down and the gorge was packed with people splashing through the stream and harsh overhead sunlight. If you're into shooting landscapes and naturey stuff like this, you're going to have to learn to love your pre-dawn alarm clock.
My pick this week is "Slug Trails 2" by djhucko:
© Dan Hucko
Talk about lines! Much like last week's sunflower photo, this image gives some wonderful insight into a world I had never even really thought about. I've seen slugs oozing across a deck or sidewalk, but I never realized how lackadaisical they are in their wanderings. The paw prints add another layer of interest, and the fact that the two slugs are in the frame gives the photo a nice concrete subject to return to after roaming around the squiggles. Very nice.
Since this weekend is Labor Day, I'll be extending the deadline to Monday 9/6 at midnight. This week's theme will be "square." Square crop or square subject (or both), I leave that up to you. With the holiday this weekend, you should all have no trouble taking one photo to post, so I hope to see a lot of submissions this week!
~S
[title of blog] on flickr
![[title of blog]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ8bvx_9_zOAREbXcrJRML7aVvJMbb90IYYYuyti384jeZHYQ9t8MK6_Kpt_1P4-pZw-QfF9kh4Sqci0vbopzLme862PPhuyPJcc7pRLUW1K1aNzts5YzuXIhgonq66MpjJCqfiWtfwUw/s1600-r/waterfall.png)
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