"I find the single most valuable tool in the darkroom is my trash can." - 365 Project, Day 191

I didn't spend the entire day outside filling up my memory cards, though I did take more pictures today than in the past 7 days combined, I believe.  It wasn't the most inspirational day but I managed to find some things to photograph.

Unfortunately, most of my pictures didn't turn out too well.  Given darkrooms, for the most part, don't exist anymore, I suppose the small 3" screen on the back of most cameras partly acts as one.  The delete button would obviously be the trashcan, and though I don't generally delete anything, if I only kept the pictures I liked, it would have been worn out a little while ago.  I think that, regardless of skill and experience, that button gets used more than anybody cares to admit.

Here's our contribution to society today.

Frank

His note: One of my Tweety place mats.

Shannon

Her note: The laces on my shoe.

My picture

I don't know why this dude was fishing in this particular river because I wouldn't want to eat anything caught in it, if there are any fish in there to begin with.  As long as it makes him happy, it can't be a bad thing.  He and his buddy looked happy just fly-fishing in this nasty river.

On a side note, I think the focusing on my 17-40mm lens is off when I'm doing it manually.  That or I have to refocus my viewfinder.

"Don’t shoot what it looks like. Shoot what it feels like." - 365 Project, Day 190

Any art form is, arguably, more about aesthetics than actual literal appeal.  Something that looks nice is pretty to look at, but something that brings up a feeling - any feeling - elicits a deeper connection, and has a better chance of prolonging the memory of that something.

Photography, to me, is simple and makes it easier to create such a something, because it directly copycats reality.  I have no talent for writing music, painting, drawing and I don't even want to tackle sculpture.  All I have to do is look around - and I'm a curious fellow - and press a button.  Anything that feels interesting to me should at least make an interesting photo, right?

Here's what's interesting today.

Frank

His note: While Pat was practicing parallel parking I took this shot.  Never noticed the bee until I downloaded the image.

Shannon

Her note: While I was making dinner I was watching all the bubbles.

My photo

I didn't really see anything terribly exciting today.  I would have preferred a longer zoom to get a slightly more claustrophobic feel, but I'll take this.  I wanted a kind of jungle of pylons and potholes.  The traffic pylons are not too numerous, which is why I would have preferred a longer zoom.

Tomorrow, I feel like grabbing my camera and memory cards, leaving my place and not coming back until my cards are all full.

"A true photograph need not be explained, nor can it be contained in words." - 365 Project, Day 189

One advantage of handling all the pictures of this blog is that I can get to see what Frank and Shannon send me, and today that served me, as Shannon's picture gave me the inspiration to shoot what I ended up shooting.

I've written this before, but to be completely redundant, I'll send you to the earliest surviving photograph ever taken again.  It was taken in 1826, and is a view of of rooftops in Saint-Loup-de-Varennes.  It was an 8-hour exposure and even then the picture is quite vague in its representation.  Film, emulsion, lenses and other various bits of equipment has gotten better over the years to make things slightly clearer.

One fun thing you can do with a camera with its own bellows, like in Shannon's picture today, or a medium-format camera, is you have a built-in tilt-shift lens.  A good quality tilt-shift lens is insanely expensive (roughly $2700 for Canon's 24mm tilt-shift lens, for example), and these cameras do the same thing thanks to their construction.

In any case, back on topic.  Here is our collective output today.

Frank

His note: Control buttons on the driver's side of my car.  I particularly like the mirror adjustment buttons.

Shannon

Her note: Wonder our pics would look like if we took them with this camera.

Pat

My note: Taking inspiration from Shannon's picture, I assume this is more or less what a picture with that camera would look like.  Granted, I might be completely off, but it seems relatively accurate.  I had fun editing this to make it look old.  As for the subject matter, it was a bit tough to find something that would reflect the age of the picture, but this is a good pick.  When I was really young, I used to walk up and down this hill with my parents and tell them that the hill was heavy to walk on.

I hope to find the same kind of inspiration tomorrow.

"Pick a theme and work it to exhaustion…the subject must be something you truly love or truly hate." - 365 Project, Day 188

People have talents.  Some people are slightly more talented in a few things, others are slightly more specialised, but everybody has something the excel in to one degree or another.  One should pick what one likes and concentrate on that.  My cat, for example, loves to gnaw on my knuckles, and I can tell you he definitely excels at that.

The same should apply to photography.  Every photographer has a niche, a subject they like and enjoy photographing, and no matter how many pictures they've taken of said thing, it never gets old.  There are some photographers famous for portraits, some for landscapes, some for weirdness, and there's generally a reason for that, for better or for worse.

Here's our inspiration for today.

Frank

His note: My keyboard.

Shannon

Her note: Another sky shot, this time with the trail of a plane.

My picture

Once again, I didn't really have much time to shoot, but I did catch this picture.  It's a joke, but it's only funny to a few people.

Tomorrow is a national holiday, so I'm not working.  That is all.

"If you want to be a better photographer, stand in front of more interesting stuff." - 365 Project, Day 187

This statement is insanely simple, but blunt, but intensely incisive.  It's nothing earth-shattering in its wording or its thought, but is so very simple in its concept, it actually made me laugh when I first read it.  There's nothing about this sentence that I disagree with.

Now, here's the caveat: under certain circumstances, anything can look interesting.  The trick is to that thing look interesting.  How you do that depends on your creativity and visual acuity, but I strongly believe it can be done.  All it takes is, like I said yesterday, random looking around.

Here's what we stood in front of today.

Frank

His note: Got a new camera today.  My old one went through a clothes washer. Silly me.  This is my first photo with the new camera.

Shannon

Her note: Couldn't resist taking a pic of all these legs

Pat

I really had no real chance to take any pictures today but ended up with something semi-interesting-looking (I think).  When I took it, I saw it in black and white, and I only really chose to do it that way because I didn't want another orange-y tinged picture so soon.

If you have any suggestions for tomorrow, be sure to let me know, because I really don't know what I'll shoot.

"The photographer should suffer, not the audience." - 365 Project, Day 186

I can very much appreciate this thought.  Throughout my years, I've suffered through many a horrid piece of celluloid.  For clarification purposes,  random Ed Wood or Roger Corman vehicles are not my intended targets (as they are, in their own way, quite entertaining).  I am more thinking of such vapidness as Atom Age Vampire, Demon Hunter and Food of the Gods (and *shutter* its sequel).  Watching these things, I was looking forward to the commercials, for that meant time was actually going forward, and also because they provided a greater entertainment value than the badly-acted, badly-written, badly-directed messes they were supporting.

Photography, like these, should be similar.  Every photograph should project some entertainment value to its viewer.  They should not make the viewer ponder their value and make them want to prod their temporal lobe through their ears.  They should create an aesthetic experience from start to finish, and fill the viewer with a sense of glee and wonder.  The photographer should be the one contorted, ridiculed and bored stiff, trying to catch that magical microsecond that will make everybody smile.

Here are our little moments of happiness, except Frank's, for now, at least.

Shannon

Her note: Loved the sky tonight.

My picture

I didn't have much of a chance to snap something today, but I did like the way this looked.  I've probably taken  a couple dozen pictures of this part of the street, and probably posted one or two to this blog, but I how little the light projects into the darkness.

Tomorrow should be more of the same.

"Having a camera makes you no more a photographer than having a hammer and some nails makes you a carpenter." - 365 Project, Day 185

This thought has been said before in various ways, but it always applies.  I had a thought the other day akin to this, though less elegant.  It was more about a printing company that created posters and large prints than the photographer, but it's relatively similar.

There are some companies that will do black and white prints, but that only use black ink to do these, while some of the more professional ones will use actual white ink in the mixture to have the whites and create shades of gray.

Here's what we did.

Frank

His note: Flowers on a bed of stone in front of Pat's mother's house.

Shannon

Her note: The new mailboxes.  (Well, sort of new.)

My picture

I was waiting for a friend who's leaving to go study in another city.  He showed up about an hour late to a party he created, which is actually pretty apt if you know him.  He eventually did show up and it was a fun evening.

On to Friday!