"A good color image is a good B&W image." - 365 Project, Day 153

I generally agree with this statement, though (and not to be a complete contrarian) I have had personal experience whereby either the colour, or the black and white, ended up being better than the other.  The last instance of this was a few months ago.  I took a picture of a rose in my mother's house.  I could not (and not for lack of trying), through saturation, colour corrections and clarity tweaking, get the look I wanted.  Once click later and the black and white picture popped perfectly into place.  It looked much better than the colour version.

This comment even ties in to the statement from two days ago, pointing out that cameras have a mind of their own, creating pictures of their own accord (or something to that effect).  Your ideas may not parallel what the camera takes, and only later the better idea emerges.  Fighting with your camera is a strange thought, but it can happen from time to time.

I have a feel most of the time we fight with our ideas and creativity more than our cameras.  Here's what ended up happening today.

Frank

His note: My son Vinnie playing bass with his band in Manotick today.  Good show!

(I'm really annoyed I missed it, but I had to work.  I hope it went well!)

Shannon

Her note: The sun going down.

(The colours were pretty unique today, a nice purply thing.)

Myself

My note: This was, I believe, the second picture I took today, and turned out to be the best.  I would have been perfect had a person been standing on the other side of the frame, but I'll take this as is.

I have the next few days off, and hopefully something good will come of it.

"Results are uncertain even among the more experienced photographers." - 365 Project, Day 152

I was carrying my camera through the lobby of my apartment building one day a little while back and one of the superintendents asked me what camera it was.  It seems that he is an almost-prize-winning photographer. Through ping-ponging photography stories back and forth, he enters a myriad of photography contests but always seems to come in second (and the winner, it seems, always wins my photoshopping their picture).

Now, the fact that he enters contests isn't important (nor is the fact that he always comes in second), but what is important is how many people take pictures for fun, and are excellent at it?  He was telling me that he caught a picture of a heron plucking a bird out of the water the other day, or the buildings he took in Montreal, and a few others.  He also told me that he's been offered money for his work, and that brings up the question I've had.  Many people have a primary vocation, and photography is only secondary.  How many, also, of these people could support themselves by photography alone if they tried?

Many people have a 365 project going, and many people have their own semi-business, or semi-pro website, but how many of these are following their dream?

On to the no-pros' pictures for the day.

Frank

His note: If I owned a Harley, it would be a Heritage Softail like this one.

Shannon

Her note: Didn't have much to take today. When I got home from work I was so thirsty and this is what I had.  Mmmmmm.

Me

In a movie, I heard the argument that, if you ask yourself whether you're in a dream or not, you're not, because when you're dreaming you never ask yourself that.  Whatever the shapes, colours, or events in a dream, they're always believed and never questioned.

I got my S95 back today, but they didn't fix it properly, so all I did was held it for about 20 minutes, then sent it back.  Hopefully it'll be fixed better than it was today, and I'll have a fully-functional camera in a few weeks.  As such, I'll be carrying my 7D with me semi-regularly for a little while longer.

"The camera has interesting ideas of its own." - 365 Project, Day 151

I wasn't really feeling anything today.  I just need to rest after the week I had, so I didn't really do much.  Hence, this is going to be one of the lesser productive days when it comes to my blog.  Tomorrow will be better.

I will say that I thoroughly like the quote today.  Often times the picture will be different in my head, but the camera seems to have other ideas.

Here are what other people did better than I today.

Frank

His note: A cute little house not too far from the apartment.  Perfect size for moi!

Shannon

Her note: This stuff rocks for heartburn.

Pat

Like I said, I didn't do much today, but I did manage this angle here.  I just liked the way my Alien head collection looked on my wall.

Tomorrow will have more pictures.

"Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still." - 365 Project, Day 150

A little while ago I heard a photographer saying that he got used to taking photos with both eyes open, so that he could see more of what was around him when he had his viewfinder to his eye, and it helped him catch more of the action.  (He was talking about shooting wedding, though, I believe, he specialised in photojournalism.)  In any case, this is a peculiar way of taking pictures, though it brings up a point.

Say we spend our time looking around to take picture, but are we missing something?  Life is passing by and we may be looking at a small flower blooming on the sidewalk, or two people holding hands walking on a sunset-lit beach.  Are we catching life or missing a part of it?  Or, perhaps, both?

Pictures!

Frank

His note: 1959 Studebaker Silver Hawk in great shape.

Shannon

Her note: The lonely cart at the airport,waiting for someone to put their luggage on it.

Me

I've said before I didn't like taking pictures from my balcony, partly because it's too easy, and partly because it's slightly lazy.  However, I had this idea today and I find it works perfectly.  Though it's not exactly what I want, it serves its purpose nicely.  The view from above is distant and cold, and the bustling(ish) street below shows life that I'm not a part of.  It has meaning, and I'm proud of it.

Tomorrow should be nice.

"Before you shoot an irresistible subject, mute all your senses except sight to find out how much is left for the camera to record." - 365 Project, Day 149

I generally listen to music when I walk around taking picture.  Most of the pictures you see on this blog taken by myself were accompanied by either podcasts I listen to or random music that happens to be found on my phones.  I do this for a quite selfish reason: to keep myself from being bored while walking around from place to place in anticipation of taking pictures of interesting things.

Though this keeps me busy, it also creates a fundamental rift between myself and the subjects of my photographs.  This is not a particularly prominent problem if I'm concentration of landcapes at the time, but once I walk the streets of Ottawa, the people I photograph are instantly at a distance.  That doesn't necessarily mean I want to stop and talk to everybody in every single one of the photographs I want to take but it does take me out of the environment and stops me from involving myself in what I shoot.  I see this as a fairly important disadvantage of what I do, but, come on, simply walking around without music is boring.

Here is what everybody took today.

Frank

His note: Tape measure anyone?

Shannon

Her note: Thought these clouds were interesting. All white except for three dark ones

Pat

This corner has been haunting me for a couple of weeks.  Keen eyes will recognise it as the background of my blog, with the fall colours and bench.  I've been trying to find an interesting angle of this corner for a while so I'll settle for this.  The streaks for the lights occurred because of a smudge on my lens.

Tomorrow will be an interesting day.  I may or may not tell you about it, well, tomorrow.

"We can refocus on each person in the scene in turn, extracting a striking amount of detail that would have been irretrievably lost in a conventional photograph." - 365 Project, day 148

If you keep up with photography technology, you've no doubt heard of the Lytro camera and the weird marketing pitch.  For those who don't know, it's a camera technology that lets you shoot whatever pictures you want, and lets you focus later on in post.  This was, according to Ren Ng, Lytro's founder, was the main problem the Lytro camera wants to solve.

Now, without getting into too much detail, this approach has serious issues.  What it does is, in order to focus on any part of the image later, and be able to seamlessly go from 2D to 3D, it essentially creates a 3D image of the scene by measuring the speed and direction of light rays that hit its sensor (as opposed to capturing a cross-section of light at one time, if you want to think of traditional photography in that way).  Couple that with software in post, and you can choose whatever focus point you want.  Now, because of this, I seriously worry about its fastest shutter speed.  A decent compact camera can have a shutter speed of 1/2000 of a second, or even 1/4000 of a second.  If the Lytro camera has to measure light rays within time, it can't be as fast as these cameras (though some of the examples in their web gallery freeze movement adequately (though the ISO seems a bit high)), and in low light may end up blurring pictures because of movement (though still scenery, like landscapes, should theoretically come out better).

Also, because you need both the hardware and the software, it can't simply be considered a camera; it has to be a system, because your pictures will not come out properly without the software.  This makes it quite cumbersome on trips if you want to post pictures as soon as possible without any kind of editing.  (By the same token, many people don't want to bother with post-processing, reducing its mass appeal, given its need for post.)

The samples given on the Lytro website are also very noisy, which negates much of its usefulness if one wants to take a crisp, detailed picture.  Lytro have said that they want to produce cameras by the end of the year, in small, affordable cameras.  This is all nice and good, but I question the quality of the pictures if they want something with popular appeal from the start.  (Go here and scroll a few pictures to the right, of the lady and the American flag.  Very noisy blues in bright day light.  It may be due to compression issues for web viewing, but that also brings up the question of file sizes.  I'm pushing 25 to 30MB per picture on my bigger files on my 7D (and upwards of 15MB on my S95).  I can only imagine how massive the files will be if they capture 'living pictures', as Lytro says.

However, if it shoots fast, and improves on noise performance, it could be a pretty interesting camera, though my guess would be it only develops a cult status, like a Lomo or Holga.  Being able to refocus after the fact is a nice thing, but any good photographer will have the picture in focus to begin with (not to mention the fact that any good camera will be able to find focus a fair majority of the time), and so post is better spent editing more important things.

Onto what happened earlier today!

Frank

His note: Never heard it called that before.

Shannon

Her note: Had a bit of rain and then out came the rainbow.

Pat

It's not often street lights are green.  I've walked a few times past this little walkway and found it pretty creepy, if only for the lighting.

Tomorrow will be long, but hopefully I will have something to show for it.

"Photography, alone of the arts, seems perfected to serve the desire humans have for a moment - this very moment - to stay." - 365 Project, Day 147

One of those nights.

Frank

His note: It's and exercise in perspective and depth of field.

Shannon

Her note: Almost forgot to take a pic.  Jack looked comfy in bed.

My pic

Just goofing around.

'Til tomorrow!

"I take photographs with love, so I try to make them art objects. But I make them for myself first and foremost - that is important." - 365 Project, Day 146

I was reading a satisfaction poll that DSLR owners responded to and I found the results unsurprising,, though one of the criteria was a bit funny.  From what the poll said, they measured satisfaction with their DSLR and nothing else but one of the criteria for satisfaction was zoom.  The body you have has nothing to do with the zoom it can do.  If you get into zoom, then you talk about lenses, and if you talk about that, are you talking about first party lenses, third party lenses, new models, old models, or everything about the lenses?  If you start talking about that, then you get into a whole lot of unanswered question.  The poll also separates the Canon Mark-series with their D-series, which is quite puzzling, given every camera above a T3i (at this point) has a 'D' in their nomenclature.  I can only assume the distinction is between prosumer cameras and full-frame cameras.

In any case, Nikon Pro Series camera owners displayed the most satisfaction overall, though all DSLR owners were most happy with picture quality, which is good to hear.

Here are today's pictures.

Frank

His note: My Tweety tattoo.

Shannon

Her note: Now that's a jar of pickles, olives, onions and peppers.

Pat

I had to wake up way too early for work today, but it gave me the opportunity to take a few pictures that I wouldn't usually be able to take, like of this usually-not-empty street.  Nice colours, as well.

I think tomorrow will be like today, only Monday.

"Whether working or not, photographers are looking, seeing, and thinking about what they see, a habit that is both a pleasure and a problem, for we seldom capture in a single photograph the full expression of what we see and feel." - 365 Project, Day 145

Imagine that same group of photographers from yesterday.  Now, imagine changing things up a bit.  They all had the same camera with the same lens.  Now, give the landscape photographer a super-telephoto lens, like a 300mm f/4, and give the sports photographer an ultra-wide angle, like the 14-24mm, and give the street photographer a 10.5mm fisheye lens, or a tilt-shift lens.

These are not the usual lenses people shoot with, and what would the results be?  I know photographers aren't specialised, in that any photographer can probably good pictures of landscapes and people and the like, but would the photographers adapt their style to the lens or would they prefer adapting what they shoot to the lens?  Again, probably wouldn't be very practical to do, but I would enjoy the results.

Again, here be today's output.

Frank

His note: Nice day for a DQ... and it was good mmm.

Shannon

Her note: Yay, my tomatoes are starting to grow!

Me

I was trying for something different by having some kind of meaning behind my picture, but it's not really obvious that the building is for emergency services (and a paramedic station at that, not a fire station), so I'll call this an okay picture but a concept fail.

Tomorrow will be a very long day, I think.

"Photographs that transcend but do not deny their literal situation appeal to me." - 365 Project, Day 144

I've had an idea for a project for a while now, and I would go through with it were it not for the scattered logistics and its potential cost.  Grab different photographers from different fields and throw them into one area, say, Central Park in New York City, and give them each the same camera and lens (Nikon D700 with the 24-70 f/2.8, if I have to be specific).  If possible, one photographer at a time would be preferable, so they would have less distractions.  Otherwise, all at once should be a whole lot of fun, as well.

Now, let them off their leash and tell them to go crazy for a few hours, and admire their final products.  How will the photographers' backgrounds affect what they're shooting now?  Will their background show through with flying colours?  Like I said, it's a bit complicated, but it would be a nice thing to try out.

Do the pictures today show what we like photographing?  Take a look!

Frank

His note: Pile of loonies I use for laundry... I would prefer if they were all Krugerrands!

Shannon

Her note: Was at my parents today and my dad collects Coke antiques. This was one of them.

My pic

My friend pointed out that many of my pictures were too dark because they were taken at night.  I tried taking a picture during the day, but ended up with something dark anyway.

I probably won't have time to take any pictures during the day tomorrow so you've been warned.  I do have to say that I've been without my S95 for about 2 and a half weeks, and I miss my compact camera very much.  Carrying around my 7D is nice, but is far less convenient.

"Don't undertake a project unless it is manifestly important and nearly impossible." - 365 Project, Day 143

I remember walking around close to downtown here and taking pictures (and this was with my old Pentax Espio 115!).  It was still winter and there was snow on the ground, but I saw something interesting and I trudged through the snowbank to get an interesting angle on a big church I found nice-looking.  I came away with a shot (though I have absolutely no idea what that shot looked like, or even if I ended developing that picture) and a couple of wet feet thrown in for good measure.

This is a small example, but there are plenty of stories of people going into slightly more dangerous situations that I walked into that day.  Anybody walking around Ottawa in the past few days had to have noticed the insanely oppressive humidity and risk of dehydration if they're not stocking up on bubble tea between bursts of shooting.  It's funny how some people will risk more than soggy socks to get a nice shot. Photojournalists especially must wonder, from time to time, why they risk getting beaten, trampled or even shot just in the name of a good picture.  I suppose the drive for that iconic picture I mentioned little while ago fuels this irrational impulse.

Having said that, I can understand it.  Here are today's pictures.

Frank

His note: Orbiter Atlantis is now retired and so is the shuttle program.  It was a spectacular 30 years in human innovation and technological development.  Thank you NASA.

Shannon

Her note: I'm still loving cloud pictures.  This one really caught my eye.

My contribution

Grabbing a picture of weather is a bit tricky when there's no real weather to see, but hopefully the heat and humidity can be seen in this picture.  If not, then today was very hot and humid.

I have really nothing to say about tomorrow, mostly because I haven't really given it much thought.

"The shoot is always about the subject, not the photographer." - 365 Project, Day 142

There's a tired old cliche of an insane artist flinging paint around a room, trying to create something, or of a writing humped in a chair with a bottle of whiskey in one hand and writer's block in his mind.  What, then, would be the cliche of the photographer?

Is it then possible that because the photographer is forever behind a camera, that nobody has ever had a cliche, simply because he (or she) is never its flip side?  Ansel Adams was an eccentric-looking fellow with a ZZ top-level beard; Henri-Cartier Bresson was a thin, intellectual-looking gentleman; David LaChapelle looks nothing like these other two.  I suppose the cliche, then, would be the busload of tourists pouring out of a tour bus with big camera weighing down their necks, looking around various famous and semi-famous landmarks, generally being dislike by the local yokels.

Here be our own version of semi-famous landmarks.

Frank

His note: Went for a car ride with my other son and his girlfriend today.  We ended up in St-Albert [famous for its cheese curds], picked up some cheese and took a few photos of farms in that area.  This is one of those farms.

Shannon

Her note: Didn't really have anything to take today so when I was leaving work I saw the bike rack.

Me

Water bottles.  If you live in Ottawa right now, 'nuff said.

My friend pointed something out to me that I say a lot in my end coda.  In that case, I'll skip this particular thing, and say that my goal tomorrow is to somehow capture a picture of the weather tomorrow.

"The general rule of posing, if it’s meant to be bent, bend it." - 365 Project, Day 141

I didn't know what picture to take today, and my friend suggested mixing nature with technology.  Now, I don't really have that kind of picture today, but it brings up an interesting though.  (Well, perhaps not interesting, but it does bring up a thought).  I generally find my compositions and exposure decent enough, and though a pretty picture is nice, it can be more.

Trying to take a meaningful picture can be a little tough, especially when you have an idea in your head.  Unless you go out and alter your environment to suit your vision, it's going to be pretty difficult to take the exact shot you want.  Street, generally, is spontaneous, and so trying to find something meaningful can be tricky.  For example, mixing nature and technology is fairly easy if I really wanted to do that (trees line pretty much every street around here), but trying to incorporate both together in a way that tell a story is the bigger challenge.  It's something I'm working on, but I doubt will be too successful any time soon.

In any case, here are the shots everybody wanted today.

Frank

His note: Is the day of the Blackberry over?

Shannon

Her note: My buddy Rango.

Pat

I would have preferred more cones/pylons in more places randomly in the road, but I'll settle for this, especially with the lady walking through to get to her apartment.

I start a week I'm not particularly looking forward to tomorrow.  I hope I'll be able to take some nice shots here and there.

"The ear tends to be lazy, it craves the familiar and is shocked by the unexpected; the eye, on the other hand, tends to be impatient, it craves the novel and is bored by repetition." - 365 Project, Day 140

I've heard more than a few times that people who photoshop pictures (especially landscapes) have a whole library of cloud shots they've taken, to make it easier to alter skies.  My question today is: how many times can you photograph something before it becomes boring?

On my trip to Egypt a few years back, I remember going through the desert from Alexandria to Siwa, then on to Luxor, and in those 3 days I saw nothing but sand and rocks (and the occasional bit of human debris left over from previous passersby).  I took about 200 shots in those 3 days (on film, no less!), and every one of them, at the time, seemed interesting in their own way.  Looking back, they're, well, nothing but and and rocks.  (Simple things...)  I keep taking pictures of the sky and clouds because they seem nice.  I suppose I'll keep doing the same thing until the world I live in comes off as being bland.

Here are the rest of today's pictures.

Frank

His note: Lovely flower, lovely colour.

Shannon

Her note: A chocolate shoe.

Pat

The sun gave a gorgeous view of itself today.  This would be a better sunset about 150 years ago in the old west, but this intersection will do, I suppose.

I will be tired tomorrow, that is guaranteed.

"I have a $600 point and shoot digital camera, do I still qualify as a professional photographer?" - 365 Project, Day 139

I had only one thought before writing this post: does your perception alter your view of what's photogenic?  For example, say you're happy one day, will you find this more interesting than if you're sad the next day and walk down the same street?

Frank

His note: Come on in!

Shannon

Her note: Went to see this today.  Fantastic show!

My picture

I didn't really have much of a chance to photograph things today, so this is the best I have.

Onto tomorrow!

"My portraits are more about me than they are about the people I photograph." - 365 Project, Day 138

How much, exactly, do portraits/photographs/snapshots reveal about the portrait/photograph/snapshot-taker?  Take myself, for example (why not?).  I have a fair variety in my 365 portfolio, but leanings towards people, often unbeknownst to them, are evident.  I've stated on, oh, let's say, two occasions, that I enjoy such endeavours, and, if I amass a tidy sum of, oh, $18 000, I would beeline it to the nearest camera boutique and purchase an M9 with a 50mm Noctilux (after which my sum wouldn't so tidy anymore).

Do these leanings indicate myself to be a people person, a voyeur, a lonesome companion seeker?  Perhaps none of these are true, but perhaps all of these are accurate, but seeing as I see everything from my own eyes, my view of myself is undeniably tainted.  Perhaps you see something I do not, though perhaps you don't care enough to look further than an elderly lady waiting for her ride, or skateboarder sitting on a bench, waiting for a bus.  Whatever your judgements and interpretations, it changes none of the subjects of my pictures.  It also changes nothing (if anything to begin with) of what my pictures say about me.

What do these pictures say about us as a group, then?

Frank

His note: For today, a little trickery.  I took yesterday's photo, cropped part of it, mirrored the crop and came up with this face-looking image.

Shannon

Her note: Such a pretty sunset.

Pat

Another one of my weaker shots, I find.  I just didn't like the other shot main shot I took that I wanted to put up.  I pushed the ISO to 6400 but it didn't give the look I wanted.  I find it strange this lady was up on a Saturday night at 11pm watering her front lawn.

I'm unsure about what will happen tomorrow, but one thing is certain: I will not enjoy my alarm waking me up, even if I do enjoy the song immensely.

"Photography is a small voice, at best, but sometimes one photograph, or a group of them, can lure our sense of awareness." - 365 Project, Day 137

Once in a while, an iconic photo shows up and affects mass amounts of people.  With a few vague words, you know what photo is being talked about; the sailor kissing the lady in the middle of a street, Marilyn Monroe's dress being blown from a grate, and (if you know ghost stories), the picture of the telephone flying across the girl's lap.

All of these represent something deeper than simply pictures of what they show.  For some unexplainable reason, they dig below simple pageantry and expose something mysterious and rooted in the subconscious.  Either that or they show a celebrity in a compromising position.

Onto the pictures.

Frank

His note: Loved the look of the knots and the wavey pattern caused by the big knot.

Shannon

Her note: Just remembered to take a pic, and all I could think of were my sandals.

My pic

I was walking around today and ended up behind this guy.  I have no idea where he started from, I have no idea where he was going, but this simple picture is one small part of his journey.

So it's now well after 2am and I don't really feel like going to bed.  I think I should, though.  I shall see you all later, with more pictures for your viewing pleasure.