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Just over a year ago, a few days before the 2010 new year, I made a haste decision to try to take one picture everyday for a whole year. Why? For a few reasons... let's talk about it.
First, ever since I started with photography only a few years ago, I have been totally consumed by it. I have that sort of personality I guess. Years ago I was a snowboarder, then I got into climbing, and sold all of my snowboard gear in search of the endless summer, so I could rock climb as much as possible. With climbing I traveled North America a fair amount, and even made it to Southeast Asia for a while. During my travels with rock climbing, I always found myself in these exotic places that, when trying to describe them to family and friends, I just couldn't do justice in words alone. There begins my photography roots.
Fast forward a year or two, and I purchased my first DSLR, a Nikon D40x with two kit lenses. That summer I barely climbed as I tried to learn as much as I could about photography. I read books and searched the web endlessly to try to absorb as much info that I could, all the while progressing a little bit every once in a while. Now this time I didn't drop climbing like I did snowboarding. Climbing and photography seemed to go hand in hand for me. Generally the places I go to climb are extraordinarily beautiful, so all I had to do was take my camera with me on my outings. For a while it was hard to find a balance, I either climbed and didn't touch my camera, or shot images all day and didn't climb. That doesn't bode well for my progression at either activity, so I had to choose. After a decent summer of climbing, and very little photography, I took a turn to take more images the following summer.
Fast forward one more time, it's the end of 2009, which was a busy year for me. I did a fair amount of shooting, and also got married and worked two jobs for most of the year. When the dust settled after the wedding, I decided to spend a little more money on camera gear, and really make a commitment to becoming a half decent photographer. This is where I decided that to really make a difference, and to try to make something of myself I needed a project, or a goal. That goal turned out to be the 365 Project. I know it's not original, and tonnes of people do it every year, but everyone has different reasons and approaches to the whole thing and I would be no different.
At first I was going to try to shoot images that were outside of my strengths like portraits or using lighting gear. Shortly after starting I found I felt my best and in my prime when I was out shooting landscape images, so that was the direction that the project went, which I had no problem with. Why would I bother spending a whole year trying to shoot stuff that I really wasn't that interested in? When I am out in the wilderness I feel at home, and the images just flow out of my camera and I absolutely love that state of mind that I have when I'm out alone shooting with only the sound of the river, or wind in the trees, or just no sound at all.
Maybe that defeated the purpose of the whole year, but I feel that my landscape photography progressed to a level I didn't think it would get to. I can now go to a location and set up and I don't think about my camera settings, or technical stuff at all. I just walk around and shoot. Sometimes the images flow like the river in spring run off, other times it's like a dried up lake bed and I couldn't find an image if I tried, but that's the nature of landscape photography, or all photography for that matter and we learn to live with it and in the end it makes us better photographers.
You may be thinking, "Yeah Jeff, you just shot a bunch of pretty landscape images...good for you, but did you really learn anything?" I can tell you right now I have learned tonnes. Even though a vast amount of my time was spent romping around Jasper and Banff National Parks, I became so comfortable with my camera system, that whenever I moved into a different type of photography, be it weddings or portraits or anything, I felt so comfortable and confident in my abilities, that those aspects of photography became easier just from my comfort level!
Another major thing I learned was how much my attitude in life affected the whole project. The year started off really well, I was out shooting a lot for the first three months, and felt great. Life was good, I loved my job, things were just all around good. In April I moved into a new apartment (only up 1 floor, but still a move), and with the move I had to paint, pack and transport stuff for a few days. I was tired, cranky and this lasted about two weeks and at that point I almost abandoned the project thinking it was "stupid" and I could do better if I just went out and shot when I wanted and not everyday. Bad state of mind = poor photography. That was my first downturn. After another week or so the weather got better, we settled into our new digs, and I was on a high again. This time the high lasted quite a while. The spring season was great, work was good, photography was awesome, and I made effort to get out every single day...awesome. I also found a good balance with climbing this year. I started to shoot as much as I climbed and it worked out well. My life was great and things were going well. As the summer stretched on though, I became sort of stuck in a rut in my job at the time. I felt I was just hanging around and not fulfilling my full potential as an employee. I filled that void with some photography work, it's always nice to make some money from your hobby, so that helped a bit. Each day at work though, I became more unhappy as I couldn't see a bright future in that position. Even though I had the best co-workers and boss I have ever had, I still continued to realize that I needed a little more opportunity in life. There was my second big downward spiral of the project. I didn't even want to look at my camera after a while.
So if you're still with me now, thanks, and sorry to bore you, I'll wrap this up now and you can stare at some pictures for a while. Fall season was awesome, great color, I'm very motivated to shoot. At this point I can see my photography evolving and I am right where I wanted to be as a photography, making a little money shooting the images I choose. Very cool. Over the summer I applied for a job with CN Rail, and come mid October I got the phone call, "are you still interested in the Conductor position?". Of course I was. I took the next two weeks to shoot as much as I could as the next two months I would live in a hotel in St. Albert while I trained to be a conductor on the railroad. Those months saw very little good photography, but I was okay with that as I felt I had my life on track and I would make time for photography when I was home, which I did.
Lots of lessons learned over the past few months, got questions? send 'em my way and I'll do my best to answer them.
Lastly I would like to thank my extremely patient wife for sitting at home, or in the car, or where ever we were while I shot pictures. This project would not have been finished without your support, thank you so much. And to my friends and family who either went shooting with me, or followed the project through the year, thank you for your support as well! Stay tuned for a "Best of 2010" post shortly.
All the best in the new year to everyone!
I've done a very poor job of keeping up with my "web presence" the past month or so, and I think it's about time I take this a bit more serious and stay in touch with the world and the blogosphere! So my sincere apologies to those of you who read this....both of you, if it's that many! I've had a few things going on the past while...keeping up with the 365 Project, I've only missed 4 days so far I think. That's not bad in my book.
At the start of this month I moved to a new apartment, a little bigger, which is nice, I now have my own computer room...sort of anyway, it's a spare bedroom, but we don't have guests that often, so it's my "office" for now..sweet. The few days I missed shooting when we moved, I kinda felt lost without my camera, and when I picked it back up again, everything just felt right! I realized that shooting and editing every day kept me in a groove, and it was, and still is very natural for me to shoot photos, and not have to think about the technical stuff, and just find my vision. Then when sitting at the computer, my workflow has become second nature, it has allowed me to explore a few new things, as I go through my images faster than usual. Now I just need to take the few minutes a day or every couple of days, and keep up with the blog...I think I can make it work. If I want to be seen and heard in this online world of photography, I have no choice but to stick with it. There is no giving up now... no one likes a quitter! So for now I leave you with a few favs from the past couple weeks, and be sure to check in for some more frequent updates in the future!
It's been almost a month since my last post...guess I've been out doing things!! I've been shooting a lot. A lot more than any other February in the past. If you were to look at my photo library, Feb. is always the month with the least amount of photos. In my efforts to make sure I take at least on picture a day, that changed this year, in a major way. After a bunch of deleting out of focus, or just plain crappy shots, I have still kept a few thousand images in each of he first two months of this year. That may not be a lot for some, but it's a bit of a step up for me...am I'm happy about that. Each one of those frames is helping me to become a better photographer. I'm also starting to notice that certain types of photography are becoming a little easier now as well. The other day I did a product shot, and within a couple frames I had my lighting down, and then shot a bunch of different compositions until I got just what I wanted. This time a year ago that may have taken me the better part of an evening, but this time, my set up and breakdown of my gear probably took just as long as the shoot. Things like that are my goal for this year, and so far, I'm pleased.
I'm also making greater efforts to explore new places outside. I've been to Banff National Park at least three times already this year, a couple of those days I haven't come away with photos that I absolutely love, but I was there, trying to make it happen. The last trip payed off big time for me, I got the conditions I've been waiting for, and in one day shot a number of frames that I'd be more than happy to hang on my wall. So after two full months of this "365 Project", I think I've only missed one day, and that was this past week, and I'm going to use the excuse that I was pretty sick this week. Sleeping in your van in the middle of winter is never a great idea....there's another lesson! I've already learned a few things about myself, photography, and where I would like my photography career to take me. Hopefully the next couple months will bring more lessons, more photos, and more experience behind the camera. The photos on this post were taken early in Feb. and I will do a couple of follow up posts with recent shoots from the rest of the month.
The past few days shooting has been a blast. It all started off with a cool HDR shot I did in town on Monday night, followed by a great sunrise shoot the next morning. After shooting the sunrise I went a short way down the Icefields Parkway to a place along the Athabasca River, just passed Athabasca Falls and shot the morning light on Fryatt Mountain. That mountain always looks so great in the winter, the snow sticks to the mountain in such a beautiful way. The next day I made the 2 and 1/2 hour drive to Abraham Lake for a sunrise, but the sun didn't really show up, but I shot a few frames anyhow. At least now I know where to stop for the next time I go there. And finally yesterday was great too!! I woke up to -11 Celsius temps in town and lots of fog, which made for great Frost conditions. Everything in town was covered in frost....and I mean everything. I lucked out around lunch hour when the sky cleared and there was blue sky all over. Frosted trees against a blue sky with cool clouds... yeah, it's as great as it sounds! Anyhow, hopefully I can keep this motivational streak going and keep pushing on with the 365 project. I've only posted a little poster from yesterday's shots here, but look back for more later today or tomorrow to see results from the previous days.
Photos: Nikon D90, 17-55mm f/2.8
I was driving out to Jasper Park Lodge the other day, and as I passed the last hotel in town, The Sawridge, I noticed that they had a bunch of ice sculptures in front of the hotel. Then I noticed that they had a bunch of lights around them to light them up at night. Well, this past Saturday night I went down there with a friend to check them out a little closer, and of course we brought our cameras. I shot a couple hundred different frames, I went for some abstract shots of just the colors reflecting in the ice, and I shot a few of whole sculptures with out of focus lights in the background. Overall I had a pretty good time and I think we stayed there for almost an hour. That may seem like a lot time with only a few ice sculptures, but I didn't even break out the flash!! I thought about it, but I was pretty happy with what I already had, and I'm sure they'll be there for another week or so, so I may be able to go back if I want. So here are a few shots from the night, not too sure which I like best, but I think it would be one of the Inukshuk shots.
Photos: Nikon D90, 50mm f/1.4, 70-200mm f/2.8
Well, there we go, the first whole week of 2010 is behind us. Hope everyone is off to a good start. My start has already had a little bump in it, but in terms of photography, I'm off to a good start. In my last post I mentioned that I'd be trying to do a "Photo A Day" project....so that started on Jan. 1st, and I've made it through the first week with little trouble. It was cold trying to take a few pics outside, but I toughed it out and get done what I wanted...with a few mistakes, but we'll call them lessons...and now I've only got 51 weeks left!! If I do keep this up I'll definitely take way more photos than I did in the past year, and that wasn't a small amount. At this rate we're looking to break over 30,000 or more shots this year. I know some pros can shoot that in a couple trips, but I don't think my camera was built for that, and I've got a job to, so that keeps me inside sometimes. For my 365 Project I started a Flickr page. You can find that right here, and keep tabs on me for every once in a while to see if I'm slacking off or not. I hope to learn a fair bit through this project, and get to play with some fun gear too! I posted a bit of an "outtake" from my Day 1 shoot. I got to put my new Lastolite Ezybox Hotshoe to good use with this shot. I put my SB-900 in the Ezybox just to the left of the camera and about a foot higher than my head, the SB unit was @ 1/4 power to light me, and I placed another SB unit camera right and just behind me with a blue gel on it for some rim light. I had fun with this and I'm pretty pleased with the result.
Yesterday I drove my wife to work and then headed south of town to catch the end of the sunrise. All I had with me was my camera and wide angle zoom lens, and a tripod as well. I stopped near the Athabasca River and ran out to the edge of the ice, in about a foot of snow, in my skateboard shoes and sweatpants... I know, I wear some real technical clothing when I go shoot. I spent enough time to fire off about 100 bracketed frames in a few different compositions, and this is the one I liked the most. Not bad for being totally unprepared and under dressed for the -24 Celsius weather.
Photos: Nikon D90, 17-55mm f/2.8
