2015 Project 52, First quarter by Erik (TheBigE)

[TheBigE]

Well, I guess to be a man of my words (See thread A Beginner Reflection - Last 6 Months) and hold true to my goal of obtaining additional feedback on my Photography, it only seems appropriate that I should take part in Project 52 (Project 52- Suggestion and discussion, Project 52 - Guidelines, FAQ and Index).

I have to admit that whole idea of one photo a week is a bit daunting, and my Project 52 may very well be a Project 26, but I am willing to give it a try. Furthermore, I am sure, as always, the feedback from CiC members will be more than beneficial.

I am planning on reviewing goals on a quarterly basis as I am thinking interest or skillsets may change/improve. As such I am going to start 1st Quarter 2015 with the following goals:

1. Develop a good control of Depth of Field - I really want to be able to control DOF and have a good intuitive feel of how the end will result will look and meet my expectations in my mind.

2. Work on creating nice crisp, sharp photos. Really, this to me is about managing SS and being able to select the best SS for the situation.

3. Continue to hone and work on PP skills using LR5.

I have some other items I would like to cover, and at this point I would consider secondary or tertiary goals (Composition, Flash Photography, etc) but I think the above 3 are a good start, and in my case still need some focus.

I am looking forward to the Journey ahead and collectively all of us contributing and working together in 2015.

So where did I put my camera......

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Erik,

A good set of goals there, welcome to the challenge - I have linked this from the 2015 Project 52 Index as per your PM request.

[Manfred M]

Erik - I think what you are doing makes a lot of sense; but I also think you need to consider something else in your thoughts on secondary and tertiary goals; your comments about composition.

I think it is a mistake to separate the technical and compositional integration. There is no hard and fast line that separated the technical skill and the compositional skills in photography. Yes, I can understand your wanting to understand how shutter speed and aperture choices affect the images that you produce. That being said; these (and other) techincal choices go hand-in-hand with compositional ones; and the blend of the two are what make or break your image.

The light, your technical skills and selections and your compositional choices ALL impact your outcome. All three need to be considered in every picture you create.

[FrankMi]

Erik, you have a great plan and you'll do well. For prioritization of goals, please consider that even if all you had to work with was the simplest Point & Shoot (or perhaps today it might be a cell phone camera), you can still get some fairly nice images IF your vision for composition is sound.

Learn the technical skills needed to get the very best out of compositions you choose but without the compositional skills, what would be the goal of the technical skills?

[TheBigE]

Thanks everyone for the input and I thought I would follow up with some of my photos from first quarter. Again, trying to drive for some sharp photos and I have tried to add an eye towards composition.

First from my cruise at the beginning of the year....I wanted to get some good shallow depth of field. Here are a couple of my favorites

A line of deck chairs stowed for sea at night on the ship. Wanted to minimize DOF and really try to get some nice Bokeh in the background. I think I could have improved the composition to show more the deck chairs...


Going for Composition and the wealth of colours in this photo. Just one of those moments sitting around and waiting for transportation and I saw this...a little bit of rearranging and I think it came out nice.


(Rest of Gallery from Cruise is here for those that are interested)

Then I purchased a UWA lens and started experimenting a bit and trying to understand how best to capture photos with the lens. Here are a few as well...

One of my favorite where I used the onboard flash (but had lens blocking it a bit) Still Using the UWA gave some nice perspective to this sunset


Another go on the UWA, I think it came out pretty good. Not too much PP on this photo.


So with 4 photos, I guess I am at week 5...a bit behind.

I welcome any comments on these or any of the photos in my Gallery. Thanks everyone