Didn't make the cut.

Because I found them on my computer, here are six random pictures that didn't make the project.  There are definitely more of this type of photos, but this is what I easily found.  They were nice, but better ones were simply taken during that day.

Here's the first one.

I would've liked having a wider-angle camera, but the S100 wasn't out then.  It's a nice shot, but I think the reason I didn't post this one is because it looked too much like others I'd taken before.

Next two.

I passed on these two in favour a blurry shot of my cat looking inside a cereal box.  I don't know if I would have made the same decision now, but at least now you can all see these shots, as well.

Next up is from Winterlude.

I believe the reason I didn't pick this shot is because it's not as crisp as I wanted it to be.  It does, however, look pretty nice in a smaller size.

Next up is a shot from Valentin's Day, but doesn't really have any romantic appeal, really.  Just a frozen river.

I took a shot of the Peace Tower in Ottawa for the project, but that's only because I've taken too many of this river.

The last one of my favorite of the bunch.

I found it strange there was a baseball cap in the middle of the street and wanted to focus on it.  The sensor in the X10 also allows for a blurrier background than normal compacts, so it gives the shot a, well, blurry feel, except the baseball cap.

In nay case, here are a few shots that may or may show my choosing process.  I'll have new shots as soon as it's not too cold to walk around without gloves on.

First post, post February. High ISO Comparison.

Most people think I'm crazy for owning more than one camera.  I generally have either 2 or 3.  This hobby gets kind of pricey, so I don't usually get too many cameras.  I usually buy cameras only if I can get something out of it (big surprise, I know).

In any case, my constant conflict between having many cameras and having useful cameras means a couple of things: I wish I had access to more cameras than I do, and also, I'm able to compare anything that comes across my apartment.  A few weeks ago before getting rid of my Canon 7D, I compared high ISO performance between the Canon 7D (with dual Dig!c 4 processors, released Q3 2009 (somewhat important)), the Canon S100 (with single Dig!c 5 processor, released Q3 2011) and the Fujifilm X10 (with single EXR processor, released Q4 2011).

Now, this is only an ISO test.  It's not supposed to determine the best camera, which is very easy to figure out just by looking at the price tags.  Given the sensor size differences, these are three very different cameras with very different purposes.  I just thought it might be interesting to see how these cameras handle noise.  It might be slightly unfair to test out these 3 cameras together, but I had them in my apartment, and I was actually curious to see how a tiny 1/1.7" sensor would hold up to a much bigger APS-C sensor.

All three photos were shot at 35-ish mm (given how tricky it was to pick an exact length, though I did my best to have equivalent focal lengths on all cameras), at ISO 3200 (the highest the X10 can shoot without compromising resolution), at F/4 (the aperture of the 7D's kit lens at the focal length) with a shutter speed of 1/60 of a second.  I took the RAW files out of each camera and synchronised the white balance on all three files (3100K in case you care about this stuff at all), and exported the files as is.  The white balance adjustment is the only editing I did, in order to get the most accurate colour and noise representation possible.

Before showing the pictures, a few interesting facts (well, interesting for me, anyway): all three cameras use CMOS sensors, and all three cameras were the first to use those particular sensors.  The 7D was the first Canon SLR to use the APS-C 18MP sensor later found in the T2i, T3i and 60D; the S100 is the first to use the 1/1.7" 12MP sensor (and the way things are going, it'll be the only camera to use that particular sensor given the new G1X uses something slightly on the more massive side); and the X10 uses a newly-designed 2/3" 12MP sensor later found on the Fujifilm X-S1.

So, finally, the 7D shot:

It looks pretty good.  To be as fair as possible, I used the EF-S 18-135mm kit lens.  Given you can't change the lenses on the compact cameras, I thought it only fair not to use my L lens here.

Next, the S100.

Also looks good.

Finally, the X10 shot.

Unsurprisingly, also looks nice.  What I find really strange is that the 7D and S100 files are 8MB and 7MB, respectively, while the X10's file size is only 4MB.  I'm not sure how this happens because it seem to  have pretty much the same colour and range as the, say, the S100.  

In any case, at this size, the files all look more or less the same.  So, let's crop.

The 7D.

Good.

The S100.

A bit grungy-looking.

The X10.

A bit grungy-looking, as well.

So, even at 2 1/2 years old, the 7D easily has the best ISO performance of the bunch.  I really wish I'd taken shots at ISO 6400 and 12,800 to compare, but I didn't have that foresight for some reason.  The 7D has much bigger sensor, with a pixel size of 4.3 micrometers (whereas the S100 has a 1.86 micrometer pixel size, and X10 has, I think, 2.09 micrometer pixel size).  Not only that, the dual Dig!c 4 processors are able to handle anything captured by the sensor very easily.  The 7D has the best dynamic range and clearest ISO performance.

The tougher decision is whether the X10 or the S100 has the better ISO performance.  The X10 seems to have a bigger noise pattern than the S100, which, in cleaner areas, like the white part of the Blu-ray cover, gives the pictures a neater look, though makes the busier areas, like the battery and coins, look a bit blurrier.  Looking at the speaker part, though, on the bottom right, the X10 definitely has better dynamic range, with deeper blacks and more detail in the shadow areas.

It's a tough call, and maybe my shot isn't the most representative.  In terms of practical use, though, the X10 can go to higher ISO 6400 and 12,800, though only at reduced resolutions (6 and 3MP, respectively), while the S100 can have full 12MP shots at ISO 6400 and be quite usable.  I think pushing these cameras more would be pointless, as nobody really pushes these cameras to their limit except idiots like me.  

It's a tough call.  What do you guys think?

"Everyone will take one great picture, I’ve done better because I’ve taken two." - 365 Project, Day 366

So this project has officially come to an end (as official as it can be, considering I'm running this myself).  Here are a few statistics, as I promised in my last post.

Obviously these numbers change daily, but as of today, of course, in the past year:
- this blog has seen 4053 page views, which turns out to being roughly 11 views per day.
- this post from November 11th has seen the most traffic, with 35 views.
- this blog has gained 2 followers, but one or two others (or possibly more) visited regularly.
- there have been 1088 photos uploaded to Flickr, and about a dozen more uploaded to blogger itself (don't ask why I uploaded to two different places, it makes sense to me).
- our pictures have been viewed a combined total of 15 751 times.
- this shot has been viewed the most times, at 410 views (it was picked up by a French online magazine).
- 55 photos have had no views, which means that 1033 photos have been seen by at least one person, 6 of which have had more than 100 views.
- that I know of, about twenty pictures have been taken by various blogs, online magazines and shops for publication.
- 20 photos have been favorited by random viewers.
- the picture that has received the most attention is by far this one.  It doesn't have the most views specifically, but I assure you it has easily been seen by the most people, as it was the duchess's Wikipedia picture for a long time.
- the most pictures I've taken in a day would be roughly 860, for a wedding I helped shoot.  The most pictures I've taken in a day  not shooting a wedding is about 350.
- I've taken roughly 7300 photographs (it's only an estimation because exact numbers are virtually impossible to figure out), which is probably less than what most people will take in their lifetime.

I started the project with the Canon S95 and the Canon 7D, with the kit lens and the EF 50mm f/1.8.  I now own the Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L lens and have neither of these cameras, owning the Canon S100 and Fujifilm X10, with the intention of buying the Canon 5D Mark II replacement, whenever that goes on sale.


As has been going on in the past year, here is my picture for the day.

Whatever happens, I know I'll always be taking pictures.  Maybe more than I have in the past year, maybe less, but I'll keep taking shots of whatever I find interesting.  This spot, in case you don't recognise it, was the exact spot where I shot my first photo of the 365 project, from March 1, 2011.

Again, thank you to Frank, Mandy and Shannon who joined me for this project, and stay tuned to see what I'll do next on this blog.

That's been my photographic life in the past year, as far as I can remember.  I hope you've enjoyed it, and it's not even close to being over.  I have a lot more pictures to take!

"A snap shot is a two-dimensional piece of paper. A photograph is a three-dimensional work of art." - 365 Project, Day 365

Technically, today is the last day of the project, given it's the 365th day, but there is one more day to February, being a leap year.

It's been a great year, trying out new things and taking tons of pictures.  I'll have all the weird stats tomorrow, but for today, it's more an impression of the project as a whole.

It was nice to have a few people try it out with me, though we lost a couple in the process.  I half-expected this, but seeing the support and creativity come out, even if it was only for a short time, was a very educational experience.

It was also nice to see everybody trying out new types of photography and going out of their general comfort zone.  Everybody tried landscapes, like sunrises and sunsets, but everybody tried macro-ish stuff, and even candid and street photography.  There was also studio-type stuff, with placed elements here and there.

I've really enjoyed doing this, and not only because I can say I did it, but also because, for the most part, I did learn a lot and I feel I have grown a little bit about being a photographer.  I do edit my shots more, and I do pretty only only shoot in RAW right now.

Thank you, Frank, Mandy and Shannon for joining me in this endeavour, and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

Here are our non-last shots for this project.

Frank

His note: Car wash curtain.

My shot

I just liked the colours in this kind-of sunset going on.  I've also tried to take a shot with a reflection in the building, but I'll settle with the colour reflecting on the side.

Onto tomorrow!

"Maybe, the greatest art discovery within hundred years from now, would be our grandparents' photo albums!" - 365 Project, Day 364

I'm sure family albums have a lot of generic, boring pictures, but I'm sure a few shots are pretty nice and different, as well.  Vacation shots are by and large nothing special.  How many times has the Eiffel Tower been shot with someone standing in front of it?  However, I'm sure there are some really different and creative shots out there, also.

It just takes a bit of thought, and and interesting angle, and you have a nice shot.

Here's what we have today.

Frank

His note: My very first car, 1973 SuperBeetle!

My shot

Just another generic street shot, a few people walking home in the snow.  There's nothing special about this shot, but then again, there was nothing special about this day, either.

What's tomorrow?  It's day 365!

"My artistic eye is black and white. I’m used to seeing and visualizing in black and white and have only one way of taking pictures." - 365 Project, Day 363

Shooting in colour takes a certain eye, but by the same token, shooting in black and white, or shooting for HDR, takes a certain mindset.  The tones and highlights are different in all these types of photography, making you look differently at the same scene.

It's not that tough to train your eye to look at a scene for a specific type of shot, it just takes a certain amount of practice.

Here are our scenes.

Frank

His note: Don't ask I have no idea what this is either.

Myself

Yes, this is a shot of my cat.  As much as I wanted to go out side, it was cold and windy.  Tux was sleeping and looked at me strangely when I took a shot of him.  I don't think he cared much about what was happening.

Onto the ending, coming very soon.

"A technically perfect photograph can be the world’s most boring picture." - 365 Project, Day 362

I saw a music video the other day.  It was someone mixing dubstep with classical violin.  The best I can say is the video was crap, but the song sounded nice.  However, the dubstep was very... clean.  There was nothing particularly bad about the song, but it was very clean.

By the same token, I'm also on 500px.com, and a lot of the shots are very, very nice.  However, they all look the same in style: all perfectly clear with nothing grungy at all about them.  It's all very sterile.

Having said that, my shot today is very weak, but it's all I had given the day wasn't all that nice to go out walking.

My lonely shot for the day.

Pat

My friend went snowboarding today so in her honour, I took a shot of Mount Vanier - some random snowbank on the end of someone's driveway.  Actually, the most interesting thing about this picture is that it's actually about 15MB, when the RAW file is 18MB, which is pretty rare, if you edit files at all.

We're entering the last few days now.  We'll see what happens tomorrow.