"You’ve got to push yourself harder. You’ve got to start looking for pictures nobody else could take. You’ve got to take the tools you have and probe deeper." - 365 Project, Day 61

How creative is too creative?  It's been said plentifully that nothing is truly creative and only built on the ideas of something else.  Without getting too philosophical (about where that inspiration ultimately began), I will wonder about where these ideas come from.  What, as an example, would be a truly creative idea?  Say I consciously break every photography rule in the book, would that be creative?  Would it be more of a success if the picture were nice than if it weren't?

As one of my cousins might say, creativity is for wusses.  There is, quite frankly, nothing that would be shot right now that wouldn't resemble something that had been published in a book, or newspaper or the internet.  That doesn't, I suppose, stop one from being creative, as the same basic idea can originate in two different people without either of them being aware of each other.  I take pictures of stuffs I think look nice, regardless of whether it's been done before.  My picture today is no doubt unoriginal, but I like it, and that, I believe, is the most important part of photography.

Today's pictures are definitely indicative of the nice weather we've had today.  It was not planned; it just happened that way.

Frank

His note: There was a motorcycle swap meet on Carillon street in Vanier today. I went for a walk to see what was going on.  This is only a small part of the motorcycles that showed up.  Notice how close they park to each other so that more bikes can park.  It's a courtesy this with bikers.

Shannon

Her note: What a beautiful day. Not even a cloud in the sky.

Myself

Apart from the bad spot removal I did because of the dirt that somehow appeared on my lens, I love this picture.  It's different, breaks the rule of thirds, has some dead space in most of the picture, but I find works.

Tomorrow should see the same weather, so we'll see what that brings.

"You are a pest, by the very nature of that camera in your hand." - 365 Project, Day 60

I was walking down the street a few days ago and saw a construction site, with a few workings standing next to a big backhoe, looking into a great big hole in front of them.  I loved the scene and took a picture.  The foreman (or someone similar) aggressively accosted me, ordering me to delete the picture I just took, saying he didn't ask me to take a picture.  "What's his problem?" I thought.  Today, as I was taking a picture of the flower in my submission, I was crouched and intent on getting the angle I wanted.  As I looked up, I saw a young boy (about 6 or 7) on his bicycle, looking at me semi-strangely, probably wondering why I was taking a picture of this small, lonely flower.

I wonder how many people take pictures and feel silly when they realise people are looking at them, especially if it's a picture of something strange, like a lonely, almost-wilting flower.  I know that, with street photography, people will get overly annoyed.  (As a side note, when helping my friend with her video resume, I took a short video of a younger gentlemen playing his guitar on a busy street corner.  Upon walking down the street after shooting this, an old (crazy) lady mumbled (to me? to herself?) about me taking pictures and going to hell because of it - at least, I think she said that.  She was, after all, mumbling.)  It is a strange feeling, though, when you're doing your own thing and someone looks at you, as if to say, 'what are you doing?', with either innocent (or malicious) eyes.

Unfortunately, Mandy has to take a hiatus from the project because of various things, but I wish her the best and hope she can get back to it very soon.

Frank

His note: I didn't know trees went to jail?  Looking for textures to shoot I found what used to be a tree growing between a window and its security screen.  How often does that happen, I wondered?  But it does make for a provocative shot.  The more I look at it the more it feels like an inmate in his cell leaning into the bars with his arms hanging over the cross bars - we've all seen those pictures.  Wish I had a better camera, the photo would have been far better.

Shannon

Her note: I was on my way to work this morning and looked up and saw a face on the window!

(I've been on this bus before.  I have pretty much the same picture!)

Me

This is probably the most processed picture I've had on this project to date, but when I saw the flower on the ground, I just saw this exact image in my head, very dark, with very bright yellow and the strong vignetting.  I have to say I'm extremely happy with the way it turned out, regardless of it's actually a good manipulation job or not, and this is one of two pictures I had to fight over to pick today.

Tomorrow will be different and let's see how processed or pure the pictures will be.

"If you saw a man drowning and you could either save him or photograph the event...what kind of film would you use?" - 365 Project, Day 59

I'm not particularly in the mood to write anything just now, so I'll spare you my rantings and go straight to the pictures today.

Mandy sent me a picture but I couldn't get a hold of it, but I'll fix that tomorrow.

Frank

His note: I gave myself and assignment today.  Take a picture of a street sign. A one way, a stop sign, no parking sign, basically any sign. But when I saw this group of signs I couldn't resist, for two reasons.  The first is there are so many signs in such a small area and secondly the street they are on is only about 50 yards long!

Shannon

Her note: Damage from the crazy wind today.

Pat

This pictures is from 2am, or thereabouts.  I have no idea what the firefighters and police were doing.  They were there for a while, but the owner of the shop wasn't there.

Tomorrow will be here soon, and I will see you then.http://www.flickr.com/photos/pat00139/5668039106/

"The creative act lasts but a brief moment, a lightning instant of give-and-take, just long enough for you to level the camera and to trap the fleeting prey in your little box." - 365 Project, Day 58

It was a very warm and muggy day today and as I was enjoying my couch about an hour and a half before I write this, some sparks of light caught the corner of my eye.  Looking outside, I see lightning flashing me.  As I grabbed my gear and dash outside, very light rain starts.  I set everything up, and, as goes the story of my life, the party is over when I knock on the door.

Trying to capture lightning is a bottle is, if one doesn't know already, just as difficult as it seems (especially, as in my case, if the lightning has passed.  Photography can be a great pleasure, but frustration is also a tremendous part of the experience, for better or worse.  How many pictures have been ruined by flash, or bad focusing, or simply because of bad timing, one way or the other?  More than a few pictures I've taken, from my recollection, should have been re-composed, re-metered or re-focused, but alas, such is not a possibility.  The only consolation is that these photographic experiences get assimilated into my own brain in the hopes that I shall learn from them and not, to the best of my meager abilities, not repeat them.

The pictures today don't seem like missed opportunities, apart, of course, from my own.

Frank

His note: Went for a walk by the Rideau Falls today.  A beautiful warm afternoon, perfect for picture-taking.

Mandy

More of that Black Shatter.  This time with light teal... primer!

Shannon

Her note: Such a foggy morning.

Pat

My failed attempt at trying to catch a lightning bolt.

We'll see what tomorrow brings.  I'm out, because my cat is looking at me funny now.

"If you can smell the street by looking at the photo, it's a street photograph." - 365 Project, Day 57

There's a somewhat abrasive photographer called Bruce Gilden.  He walks the streets of Manhattan with a Leica in one hand and a flash in the other.  He pretty much pounces on his subjects as he shoots them, creating very particular shots.  He gets angry when people smile.

In any case, this has nothing to do with the point of the post, though he's the writer of the title today.  It wasn't the sunniest day outside, by an extreme longshot, and though it was warm enough, it was very humid, especially after the dumping of buckets upon buckets of rain for a few hours.  As I walked home, it smelled of humidity and worms. Though pungent, it was not the most appealing of smells my brain has processed.  I did think to myself, 'I wish I could capture this smell with a picture".  I don't know exactly what picture I would have taken to capture that smell (and not necessarily, as the title of this post proposes, with a street shot), but being able to smell that rank odor when looking at the picture would have made me happy.  Atmosphere, it seems, should speak for itself in this case.

Today's pictures are next, and probably not very smelly.

Frank

His note: The buds are finally out!

Mandy

Mandy probably sent me a message to go along with this picture but I didn't get it unfortunately.  I do know that she looked at a lot of places before she finally found her Black Shatter nail polish.  Here it is with a yellow undercoat/base/primer (?).

Shannon

Her note: Hmmmmm didn't know they made extra large peanut buttercups.

Pat

I was walking home and couldn't resist taking a shot of these two guys walking the other way.  I thank them more than they know for not looking back at me while I took a shot of them (for a few reasons).

I don't know what tomorrow will bring, but I'm sure it will be different.

"No matter how advanced your camera you still need to be responsible for getting it to the right place at the right time and pointing it in the right direction to get the photo you want." - 365 Project, Day 56

My picture today is not my usual type of picture, as it's a very everyday picture.  It's an old camera; about as old as I am, in fact.  Where I work, we accept things for recycling and at times we get some pretty interesting items.  Taking a trip down nostalgia road is always a fun time!

The camera, as you can see, is a Kodak Tele-Ektralite 600.  This bad boy set you back roughly US$67 from 1980 to 1982, and had 2 fixed zoom settings (22 and 44mm, with constant f/8.).  The button on the left facing the camera is the shutter button, with a tiny red button in its middle, which controlled the metering system when taking a picture.  You see the zoom switch right below that.  On the top left is the viewfinder and the middle is the film chamber.  The funny looking thing swinging out behind the camera is a built-in case, securing the camera.

It used a very particular (but quite popular) kind of film, 110 film.  It was only 17x13mm in size (even smaller than current crop sensor DSLRs).  As far as I can tell, it came in its own plastic casing and didn't need any rewinding because of the type of case used.  It was produced from 1972 to 2009 (!).

Interestingly (and coincidently) enough, Shannon's first camera was one of these.  On to today's pictures.

Frank

His note:  It's a fake!

Mandy

Her note: Stairs + Mandy = No new picture today. One from yesterday

Shannon

Her note: Is this not a cereal?

(No comment.  Except to say that I want this.)

Me

My note is pretty much my whole post today, so I guess I can skip this.

Tomorrow should be another nice day and if this keeps up, I'll have a metric f-ton of street shots in the near future.

"Light makes photography. Embrace light. Admire it. Love it. But above all, know light. Know it for all you are worth, and you will know the key to photography." - 365 Project, Day 55

I've asked a few questions before, one of them having the effect of how many times you can take a picture of the one same thing before it gets too familiar.  What, then, about photographing things that look similar?  This is a somewhat similar question, but, being only similar and not the same, offers up a different answer.

Being simple-minded as I am, I have simple ideas, and one such idea was of a small side project (in addition to this 365 project) comprising nothing but shots of the sky.  This, you say, may not seem too interesting.  You would be right, and rightly so, if I were only to take pictures of a clear blue sky and nothing else.  My idea was taking pictures of clouds in the sky.  Every cloud is different and every pattern clouds create is different.  Combine that with the manipulative powers of Lightroom and some very nice shots emerge.  A whole folder of such nice shots could easily be used for computer/cell phone backgrounds, and could be a nice way of perhaps kick-starting my simple-mindedness into only half-simple-mindedness.

This is nothing staggering and, as I have said, a little silly, but I don't consider myself an especially creative person, so I'm proud of my simple idea.  This brings me to another thought I've had.  I don't know if I should add more content to this blog for the moment.  I've wanted to post more pictures than simply the 365 Project pictures, but something (thought I don't know what) is holding me back.

That, however, is not so important at this juncture.  The juncture that is important is today's pictures, and here they are.

Frank

His note: Air pockets left by the construction of my balcony. I wonder what air pockets are deeper inside?

Mandy

Her note: I took an Easter hike with my Daddy today to take some photos together. This was really special to me. I saw a fellow daughter out in the sunshine, running with happiness.

Shannon

Her note: Went out to the inlaws for Easter and just loved the view in the backyard.

Pat

I didn't go anywhere special today but the semi-cloudy sky did provide some inspiration.  The colours are altered a little given the original shot looked a little off, because of the way I shot the picture.

I hope everybody had a good Easter, and I shall see you tomorrow.

"Photography is truth. And cinema is truth twenty-four times a second." - 365 Project, Day 54

On Friday, I helped a friend with shooting a video resume.  It was different shooting video and a great learning opportunity.  I know a fair bit about photography and, on the technical side at least, I can make a good exposure.  With video, on the other hand, I have very little experience.

 Firstly, because the video will be edited later, I had to think about framing and how cuts and overlays will be used.  Next, I had to think about making the subject look nice, and especially consider lighting with this.  Shooting indoors and shooting outdoors are very different.  Third, sound!  Fortunately, my friend rented a very nice wireless microphone, and though noise was already a concern, we had to make sure that at least she was clear and at nice volume level.

Adding time to photography is a curveball that made my day very interesting and I'll definitely enjoy doing something like this again.

This has nothing to do today's pictures, but I didn't have the staying-up power to say anything yesterday.  In any case, here are today's pictures.

Frank

His note: A pendant I wear on motorcycle rides.

Mandy

Her note: Kissies!

Shannon

Her note: Ok Pat you keep suggesting I take a pic of a door knob, I only have door handles at home... so here it is.

(Yay!  You finally did this!)

Me

The street outside my apartment is being torn up for whatever reason, but there's lots of piles of stuff around, so here is a pile or rocks.

Tomorrow is Easter.  Happy Easter.  I hope you all eat very well.

"A definition of a professional photographer: A "pro" NEVER shows anybody the mistakes." - 365 Project, Day 53

 Another quick post.

Frank

His note: Out with the old and out with the new. This old large Rockcliffe Park tree was cut down a few years ago.  Now for some reason they cut down the smaller 6-7 year old trees around it as well?

Mandy

Her note: Kisses by any other name would taste as sweet.

Shannon

Her note: Going through my things today and found a peacock feather that my uncle brought me back from one of his many trips years ago.

Me

I was shooting a video for a friend and we walked in the market.  Someone was playing guitar while people are walking around.  Simple street shot.

Tomorrow is another day, and so another (four) picture will be posted.

"Twelve significant photographs in any one year is a good crop." - 365 Project, Day 52

How many pictures is too many?  It's a simple question.  The Nikon D3X and Canon 1D Mark IV have a life of 300,000 actuations (or, 300k pictures).  Now, will anybody seriously wear these out?  If they do, how many pictures out of those hundreds of thousands will actually be used for their intended purpose?  That may seem excessive, and it somewhat is excessive, given that the majority of people take only a few shots a week, if that.

I've taken upwards of a dozen pictures of a single thing, tweaking the settings to get the picture the way I wanted.  That's a ratio of 12 to 1, which isn't so bad.  My ratio of pictures I take to pictures I actually like (and would think of putting in a portfolio) is more like 100 to 1.  I don't, however, take a hundred pictures of something until I like the photo.  I know whether the subject of my photo is useful or useless after about three or four pictures at most.  I've taken slightly less than 400 in a couple of shoots and the most I've taken in a day is 1000.  Those are rare occasions, though, and my original thought still occurs to me.  Out of the 300,000 shots those two cameras mentioned can take, how many of them will actually be used?

To the pictures!  Shannon's picture, unfortunately got lost with emailing problems.  She also lost the picture from her phone somehow, so unfortunately she has no picture today.  Let's all console her with a big hug, and hope that her phone is nice to her tomorrow.

Frank

His note: I have company coming over tomorrow night and these will be part of the evening.

Mandy

Her note: You are, after all, essentially irrational.

Pat

I was walking along going to buy a few things (still too chilly for the time of year, by the way) and liked the view down this street.  I liked the silhouette of the trees and houses, and the deep orange colour.  I did boost the orange and blue slightly, but only to replicate what I saw.

Tomorrow will be interesting, as I'll be helping someone shoot a video for them.  We'll see how that goes.

"Photography for me is not looking, it’s feeling. If you can’t feel what you’re looking at, then you’re never going to get others to feel anything when they look at your pictures." - 365 Project, Day 51

I was talking to a co-worker, who's also a musician, and he said he didn't understand the concept of DJing, because all the DJ is doing is either playing songs by other people or sampling sounds that are impersonal and may have been recorded by someone else.  We didn't get a chance to finish our conversation because busy got in our way but it was a very nice conversation.

From his point of view, DJing would be somewhat impersonal (he, by the way, writes his own music and lyrics).  From my point of view, I don't think that matters if the DJ can convey the message they want to convey.  I've always said instrumental music is slightly on the tougher side of the fence because there are no lyrics.  It's easy to say what you feel through lyrics, because you can say (either literally or symbolically) how happy or sad (usually sad) you are.  With instrumental music, it's more of a challenge given you don't have lyrics to convey easy meaning.

Photography is, I find, much the same.  How do you convey happiness, or sadness, or disappointment, or something more vague, such as stillness?  Mood generally affects creativity and if one is, say, sad, how would the pictures taken differ from when one is happy?  I met up with a friend for a few hours today and had a great idea for a shot.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get what I wanted for reasons I don't want to expand upon right now, but the point is that if my head the picture conveyed happiness very well, even though she may not have shown pure smileyness in her face.  Beyond that, is there an easy way to tell the world how you feel at the moment you snapped a picture?

Let's see if we can tell what these photos are feeling.

Frank

His note: It was raining silly this morning (of course) and I really didn't want to go outside to get a photo. Looking outside from the protection of my window I noticed that on the balcony ramp a water droplet would periodically form and drop from its corner. I tried to get the perfect shot of the droplet at the moment it released from the ramp. I tried and I tried, even tried to count the seconds between the droplets but the wind made the drops fall so inconsistently that it got frustrating. Sooooooooooo this is the best my patience allowed me to do.

Mandy

Her note: The book I just finished. I'm sad it's over.

Shannon

Her note: On my bus ride home I noticed a wall full of colors. This picture would have been better if I had used my camera instead of my blackberry.

My picture

The view from my balcony is not stellar, but when it gets rainy the layers of mist/clouds forming in the horizon form a nice view.  I like the varying levels of clarity as you go farther back.

Generally in film, rain signified sadness, and though that was my initial intention when I wanted to take a picture of the outside world today, I ended with a layered look I prefer.  I'll see if the same happens tomorrow.

"There is nothing worse than a brilliant image of a fuzzy concept." - 365 Project, Day 50

I woke up early today, yet left for work late, and had to return home because I forgot something.  I got to work pretty late and my shift started out badly for reasons not really important anymore.  The point is that I didn't really have time to take too many pictures on my way to work (though I still did).  On my way home, I had food on my mind.  I did take a few pictures but nothing specifically great.  I was not particularly inspired, unfortunately, and even looking outside during the evening (that is, when I wasn't napping) nothing caught my eye.

I uploaded this one picture and I was trying to show the hose running down the block and a half.  I don't know how well it turned out.  I like the lines and idea and all, but there's something missing from it.  It's just too fuzzy.

The others' pictures are better.

Frank

His note: Went shopping today and potted plants were being sold everywhere.  This is from one of those batches.

Mandy

Her note: This is love asleep.

Shannon

Her note: Went for a walk at lunch and came across this bench. Not sure where the branch came from because there aren't any big trees around there.

Me

Like I said, I wanted to show the hose, but I don't know exactly how well it turned out.

The next few days should be better.  I promise that they might be better!

"I'm not a particularly verbose person. I think that's why I like taking pictures... they speak for themselves." - 365 Project, Day 49

Sometimes, I just take pictures because they look nice.  This is vaguely the same logic that explains the popularity of Rebecca Black's Friday (and, quite possibly, every other single song she dumps on the internet).  There may be a subject, though what that subject may be could easily be a total mystery.

I was walking around with Mandy today and as I was taking a picture, she said that I saw things she didn't.  Whether those things are interesting or not is completely debatable (and whoever would side with 'interesting' would no doubt lose), but the point is that some things just simply look interesting without meaning anything.

In the past few weeks, I've taken a couple dozen photos of the cloudy sky.  One of them I've posted on this blog, one of them I've put up on my Facebook page, but the rest are just interesting to me.  I don't know why that piece of sky attracted me, but it did, and hopefully others will be just as fascinated by it (or if they're only half as interested by it as I am, then I'll still be happy).  My goal is for my pictures to just say something without my explaining why I took them - by the way, simply disregard my explanation of why I took my picture today - or to simply look pretty.  Does something that looks nice necessarily need explaining?  A thing that is aesthetically pleasing can be a pleasure in itself, without any other reason for being enjoyable.

So here are the aesthetics of the day.

Frank

His note: This is like 'Where`s Waldo?' but instead it's 'Where' are 2 Tweetys?'

Mandy

Her note: ...and now we see the elusive street photographer getting a taste of his own medicine.

(Great picture, though, and not just because I'm in it.)

Shannon

Her note: Didn't know you could drink dandelions!

My pic

Considering Mandy's pic today, I had to put a street shot I took.  This boy was playing with the loose cable against the house and I had to take a picture of him.  Unfortunately (as is bound to happen), he saw my not-so-stealthy attempt to photograph the scene (even though I was taking the picture at hip-level) and stopped playing with it for the shot.  For those who care, there's considerable editing done to this photo given it was terribly underexposed when I took it.

Tomorrow will absolutely bring more pictures to this blog, but whether they're street or not, come again and see.

"A camera alone does not make a picture. To make a picture you need a camera, a photographer and above all a subject. It is the subject that determines the interest of the photograph." - 365 Project, Day 48

I remember watching a tutorial video of someone taking a long exposure photo.  He was taking a picture of the sunset at a beach.  His main conundrum was that the bottom of his frame was missing something, given it was only beach.  To frame the bottom of the picture, he ultimately chose the lapping waves, which created a white line given the long exposure shot.  He had a clear idea of what he wanted.  What if one is just taking a picture for the sake of taking a picture?

Is there a subject in a landscape, or would the whole picture be considered the subject?  By definition the subject is the focal point - the point of attention - of the, in this case, photo.  Some shots are particularly busy, and nothing seems to poke its head out towards your eyeball.  For that matter, if the shot is very vague (as in my picture of the out-of-focus streetlights from a couple of weeks back), would there still be a subject?  Is it possible to simply take a picture without a subject?  Imagining that would happen, would it be a good picture?  Perhaps, as Man Ray was indicating, a picture without a subject, is not a very interesting picture to begin with, and taking a picture for the sake of taking a picture is an ultimately fruitless endeavor.

Luckily all the pictures today have a clear subject, except, of course, my own picture.

Frank

His note: Went to Canadian Tire (CTC) early this morning to beat the crowds and in front of this particular CTC there is a french fry stand. Next to the chip stand these tables were bound and locked together with chains to secure them from thieves, I suppose. The winds today are very strong and gusty so I didn`t want to spend much time outside the comfort of the car. I took this shot for 2 reasons, one: who would want to steal them and two: who would want to sit at them to eat?  (Please forgive me for saying those things.)  In any event, I thought the tables were an interesting subject for today's shot.

Mandy

Her note: An interesting tree, RIP.

Shannon

Her note: Check out the ex snowflakes on my windshield.

(The weather has be pretty horrible in the past few days.)

My picture

My note: Walking to work today some pretty nasty-looking water was flowing down the side of the street, creating interesting patterns.  I boosted the contrast to separate the colours to make the patterns stand out.

I wonder what will be shot tomorrow.  I doubt it'll be anything particularly stunning, but you never know.