"Photography allows us to freeze one of those moments and study all of the small dramas that were taking place." - 365 Project, Day 257

Of all the pictures posted on Facebook and Twitter, I think to myself, how many are posted on Friday and Saturday evenings/nights.  This thought comes to me, given how chatty some people seem to be when, on certain more social nights, they seem to imbibe certain liquid substances that make them more conversational.

I, quite honestly, can't consider myself in this category of humans; I simply take pictures all the time, no more or less after having drunk any kind of liquid.  I can't vouch for the quality of these pictures I take on certain nights of the week, but I take as many one way or another.

We were all, as far as I know, lucid when we took these pictures.

Frank

His note: This is part of the brush that cleans my motorcycle.

Shannon

Her note: On my way to work today and I saw this old car.

My picture

It's a simple picture, but I tried to get a shot of this gentleman looking at the cars passing by.  It was slightly strange; I normally see dogs and cats doing this kind of thing, not people.  Nonetheless, he seemed to be enjoying looking around.

Tomorrow will see a lot of pictures, I can assure you.

"You cannot depend on your eyes if your imagination is out of focus." - 365 Project, Day 256

Last time I talked about huge lenses with huge price tags.  I'm going to go the opposite way this time.  How cheap can a lens be? With pro lenses from any major company being about $1200 a pop, not everybody can have a closetful of optical goodness.  In step companies like Tamron, Tokina, Opteka and Bower, with varying levels of quality, to help out non-millionaires to fill out their lensual desires.

Canon's 500mm f4 lens is a simple $9000.  Opteka's 500mm f8 lens a wallet-tearing $100.  Though this Opteka glass (if it actually is glass) may seem like a bargain, I seriously question the image quality coming out of it.  Shooting video it may not be too much of an issue, but for photography, I strongly suspect there is simply no competition over the clarity and detail one can obtain between these two lenses.  I'm sure you can play around with the Opteka and give your pictures a certain grungy look to give your pictures a certain style, but if you're going to want to blow your shots up to anything bigger than an 8x10, I doubt anybody would seriously consider this lens.

Here's what we took today, with gizmos somewhere between the $100 and $9k range.

Frank

His note: For all the ones who gave their lives in times of war.  We thank you for your sacrifice and you will never be forgotten.

Shannon

Her note: And now I have the complete set!

Mine

I was actually trying to do something else but it didn't turn out the way I wanted.  I did enjoy how this one ended up, though.  It's very vague and minimalist but I enjoy the intrigue of it.

I think I'm going to enjoy this weekend.

"Nothing quite compares to the amount of dimension a super telephoto lens can bring to a photograph." - 365 Project, Day 255

Photography is probably one of the only fields around where sense is intensely superseded by the end result.  I only say this because, if you read around, and you know anything about lenses, you know that in the past little while Canon has released a few beasts of a couple of lenses.  The 300mm f2.8L II and the 400 f2.8L II are, at this time, anyway, relatively new lenses.  These are massive lenses, at roughly $7K and $11K in price.

The crazy thing is that they seem to be tough to keep in stock!  Every few weeks, I read another post on various sites saying this store has limited quantities of one of these lenses.  Granted, given the f2.8 nature of the lenses, front elements that massive can't be produced in industrial quantities, but it seems strange that $11000 can be thrown about so readily by so many people so has to render stock of theses mammoths kind of rare.  I hope whoever buys these lenses are happy, that's all I have to say.

The gear that took these pictures add up to less than $11 grand, even if you add up their prices and multiply them by 3.

Frank

His note: One of the buildings at the Rockliffe Airplane Museum.  The angle seemed just right to make it look slightly interesting.

Shannon

Her note: That time of year again.  Had to buy these classics.

My picture

Another sky shot, this one taken in the morning.  I was rushing to work but stopped to take a few pictures along the way, given how dramatic the sky looked.  I've taken far too many portrait-orientation shots like this so here's a landcape-style landscape.

Onto the next day.

"Every other artist begins with a blank canvas, a piece of paper… the photographer begins with the finished product." - 365 Project, Day 254

I asked before (a few days ago), if you could go back to the beginning of your photographic career, would you bing with you your creative or technical talents?  Along the same lines, I ahve a question today exploring a parallel.  Which is mor important, taking photography classes only, or only shooting and trying to learn everything yourself?

On the one hand, you get all the technical aspects in a very short time without having to mess around with trial and error.  On the other hand, you get some practical approach, and you can learn at your own pace, concentrating on things you want to learn about in your own way.

I suppose, unsurprisingly, each approach has its benefits so, as much as it pains me to say, a bit of both is recommended.  Practice will help teach you about how to prepare yourself for different situations, while taking classes will bypass many small mistakes beginners tend to make.

Here are our mistakes.

Frank

His note: Sure looks like a mouse to me.

Shannon

Her note: Little hard to see, however one of the men at centre ice is a World War II veteran.

Pat

Not much to say here other than the fact that I wish animals would listen to direction a bit more.  I didn't really have time to wait to see if the squirrel thing (which, admittedly, you can't see very well) would wander onto the bike, which I would have enjoyed. Other than that, it's a simple shot, with nothing special.

Tomorrow will be good, but I will be tired.

"Think photographs should be provocative and not tell you what you already know. It takes no great powers or magic to reproduce somebody's face in a photograph. The magic is in seeing people in new ways." - 365 Project, Day 253

I remember, in a tenth grade class trip to Gaspe, I was on the train to our destination, listening to the radio.  A bunch of us had decided to stay up the night, and I was one of the ones that had actually stayed up all night.  I had a small portable radio and was trying to find a radio station to pass the time until everybody got up.  It was very difficult to find a song to listen to, until 5am, which was when all the stations started their morning shows.

Every city has to wake up live its day and die down.  Though I was technically not in a city, the idea is the same.  Wake up early enough, or stay up late enough, and you'll see things you'll never really see on a day-to-day basis.  I plan to one day wake up at 3 or 4am and walk around the city, taking pictures of Ottawa waking up.  I suppose I'll see normally-busy streets completely devoid of cars, bus numbers I don't really see during the day, and corner stores quickly preparing for the day ahead.  4am may seem pretty boring, but there's always the chance to take different photos.

These were not taken during ungodly hours, but they were still taken.

Frank

His note: Parking lot snakes.  This lot needs paving.

Shannon

Her note: Had to take Jack today to get his nails trimmed.

My picture

As soon as I left my apartment to go take pictures, I see this scene.  It's definitely nothing special, but I like the empty half of the frame.  People are living their own lives, going somewhere.  I really wish a car would be going by in the frame, but I can't ask for everything.

Today was not the best of days, so let's hope for a better day tomorrow.

"Photography to me is catching a moment which is passing, and which is true." - 365 Project, Day 252

I definitely need a new compact camera.  I've been without one since July and I've lived without it since then, but I was waiting at a bus stop today and noticed at least half a dozen things I wished to photograph, from two friends randomly meeting there to this young girl with interestingly-ripped nylons.  It was pretty frustrating, as I know my 7D would have given me great shots, but would have also probably gotten me punched in various body parts I'd prefer not to be punched in.

The sheer size of the 7D is intimidating.  I've been looking at three cameras to replace my everyday shooting.  First, the Fuji X10, which is no X100, but will have to do given my budget.  It's got a retro styling, which is neat, and gives, it seems, good performance given its EXR CMOS sensor, that's slightly bigger than the Canon S95's (and S100's).  The second is the Olympus PEN Mini, with a 17mm f2.8 lens, or the 25mm f2.8 lens.  If would easily cost the most but would probably give me the best picture quality of the three.  I'd also have the most freedom given the interchangeability of the lenses and all.  The third is the trusty Canon S100, if I can get my hands on it.  It shows no signs of being released in Canada just yet, and I'd love to have a compact by the start of December for reasons you'll see in the beginning of December.  This would be the most compact of the cameras, but at this point I'd actually prefer the X10 over this one, and the PEN Mini is the one I'm most likely to end up with for reasons I'll not get into right now.

We'll see what happens.  For now, here's what we did.

Frank

His note: Two inukshuks.  Gifts from friends.

Shannon

Her note: Decorating for the midnight launch [of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3].

My picture

So ends my week-long project of mundane things, though my picture from a couple days ago is debatably mundane.  I chose my shoes because, well, they were there on the floor.  Trying to edit them to enhance the detail was a bit tricky, but I ended up liking this picture, despite its blandness.

I should have a little more clarity on the what my next compact will be tomorrow.  I will let you know what I find out.

"I wish more people felt that photography was an adventure the same as life itself and felt that their individual feelings were worth expressing. To me, that makes photography more exciting." - 365 Project, Day 251

One reason to start certain projects is to challenge oneself, and this is what I'm doing now.  Far from the lack of interest, challenging oneself actually adds to interest, as if one were not interested in doing the project, it would simply be dumped.

Even though I'm supposed to be photography some wildly mundane things, I keep looking around to try to find, not only the most mundane thing, but also how to shoot it.  I've only been doing this for a few days but I'm already counting the days to the end of this, as I'll be able to shoot anything I want.  Today, for example, there was a tremendous sunset, but I have to let that go in lieu of some bottlecaps.

Bottlecaps, along with a couple of other pictures.

Frank

His note: I'm surprised moths aren't flying out of it.

Shannon

Her note: My dad has his supply of wood for the fireplace for this winter.

My picture

I figure a few bottlecaps were mundane enough.  This is not exactly the shot I wanted but I don't have a counter long enough for the angle I wanted to use.  I'm not sure what I wanted to create here, I just wanted to take a picture of a few bottlecaps, and that's it.  This is the best I got.

Tomorrow should be fun.