Pic of the week (2008)

So back in 2008, I started posting a pic each week and sending by email to some of my friends who wanted to know more about photography. My hope was that we would each post apic and then share comments onthe others pics. What I didn't realize was that some of them did not have a way (or the time) to post a pic each week, so it ended up being mostlyme after a few weeks. I used it as a means to share what I was thinking when I was trying to get my image together for that week. It was a lot of fun, and a real challenge soem weeks, but after 20 weeks, I chose to shut it down. I really appreciated all those who participated in whatever fashion, because when you commit to share a picture a week, it mostly helps those who share. When it was over I collected all the old emails and sent iot as a MS Word document, in case someone missed a week. Unfortunately, I had lost the commentary for a few of the weeks, so they are missing. I updated some of the hyperlinks (as I have learned a few things since then) but it is mostly as it was originally shared back in 2008 (is that "back in the day" yet?). I was tempted to re-edit some of the images, but then said...NAAAAAAHHHH!

Anyway, I hope you find it interesting


Week 1


OKAY!
It's that time! Week one photo is up (actually I posted it over the weekend, but since the deadline was today, I showed restraint)

Peach0621082.jpg

It's a macro photo of a peach, I shot it with a manual focus Nikon lens I have, so I had to set the exposure manually (it doesn't meter the camera). A little pop of flash, and voila! There's another picture of the peach in my "food" album. It was my second choice. I liked this one a little better because it's more abstract.


Week 2
(no text was saved for the week 2 picture, but here’s the link)

FluffandStuff062908.jpg

I finally got around to posting the pictures I took on July 4th (some of them anyway). Sometimes I think it takes me as long to crop my images as it takes me to take them in the first place! I know in the case of these ones it did! I hope you like them!

July 4 2008

Week 3

Here's my pic of the week for week 3:
Monarch0124.jpg
Notice how I broke the composition rule of thirds by putting it right in the center? LOL I shot it on the 4th at Lake Wheeler. I gave just a hint of flash (-.3 stops) to fill in the shadows (you set the flash to underexpose but the meter to get the correct exposure; gives you better shadow detail and still looks like a natural light image). I had to wait forever for him (her?) to open his (her?) wings a bit, but it was worth it. Anyways, that's this week’s winner.

Here's my runner up:
July40134.jpg
I was drawn to the boy, but didn't get the pose I wanted. I could have used the motor drive to get a couple of frames a sec, but that would be cheating, so it wasn't my favorite because I didn't get the moment I wised I had. Oh well, maybe next time!

Week 4

This week’s pic is a self portrait. All I need was a tripod, the autotimer, and a little bit of imagination. Check it out:
Testify.jpg


The ones that didn't make the cut are here:
Portraiture

Enjoy!

(tip: if you're having problems getting the autofocus to work while trying to make a self portrait, use manual focus, take the camera to where you will be sitting/ standing, and focus back to the tripod head! The distance is almost exactly the same!)

Week 5

Here is my week 5 pic:
Dewdrop0093.jpg
It actually is the same clothesline from week 2 (fluff and stuff). I use it as a run for my dog (actually it's a steel cable sheathed in plastic) and I noticed the dew collecting on it overnight. Shot it with my 105 macro lens at the closest focus distance so the image on the sensor was 1:2 with the real thing. It's a great lens. I also used it for the peach in week one. Only issue is it doesn't meter the camera so I have to set up the exposure manually. Fortunately, it's a pretty simple trick. Anyways, here it is! I hope you like it!

Week 6

So this week's picture is up:
MomentofImpact0125.jpg
It's part of a series I did last night called "Moment of Impact". By series I mean I tried it several ways and this is what I view to be the best one. A couple of the others are in the color album under Photobucket Album. I was inspired because I am going on vacation next week and will be playing golf part of the time!


The runner up was a kind of still life:
Renewal0132.jpg
I shot it before I got inspired to create the eventual winner.

Enjoy!


Week 7
(no text available for week 7, but here’s the link:)

mushedshroom0158.jpg




Week 8
Okay, This weeks is a fairly long exposure (8 sec) of the moon. The blur is the clouds moving by. I shot it with the lens wide open (F32) and the lens set to infinity. The interesting thing about the exposure (to me) was that stars showed up that I didn't really notice when I took the picture. I made other exposures (some as long as 30 sec) but the moon showed up only as a disk with no detail. Reason? The moon has no light of it's own and only reflects the light of the sun, so even though it's dark at night, the moon itself reflects a lot of light and with an exposure too long, you burn out all the highlight (i.e.. Moon) detail. Anyway, enjoy!
Long Exposure0194.jpg


Week 9

So, this week is another macro photo:
Macro.jpg
I shot it with my 100mm macro at the closest focusing distance (so image on sensor was approaching life-size!) and since the camera won't meter the lens, I set it for 1/60 sec and used flash (reason: the camera will measure the light reflected through the lens and turn off the flash automatically when it thinks it has the correct exposure). I ended up setting the flash to -1.33 stops (underexposed) because, in the first pictures, I didn't have any highlight detail (I can explain how that works if you want, but short version, white reflects more then black, so if you want more white detail = use less light, more black detail = use more light)

For a hint as to what it is, the others are in this folder:
Color



Also, remember there is a runner up folder:
Runners up

I hope you like this week’s effort! Let me know what you think!

Week 10

So this week's image is about portraiture:

Clover.jpg

The idea I want to get across is that every portrait does not have to be full face, head and shoulders, or torso up. It has been said the eyes are the window to the soul, and sometimes by framing the image differently, we can create amore powerful, and certainly more interesting image then is we take a standard pose.

I also loaded some more images to the food folder:
Food
The three images of spaghetti show: narrow depth of field (blurry background), a wide depth of field (all noodles in focus), and selective depth of field (only the fork is in focus - my favorite by far)

And in the color folder as well:
Color
They were images of my bike that didn't turn out like I wanted. Maybe I'll get it right for a future week!

Enjoy!


Week 11

Here's the pic for week 11:

Shake0116.jpg

I chose it because it was kind of a fun shot. I cropped it to be more horizontal removing more of the beach and water to be a bit more effective. Don't feel constrained to have images that are 4x5 or 8x10 let the image dictate the format, especially for the internet. You can always matt it to fit your frame if you are printing it out later!

The rest of my Labor Day at Lake Wheeler pics are here (in case you're interested):

Labor Day 2008

Enjoy!

Week 12

Okay Sports fans,
It time for PIC…..OF……THE ……WEEK!



For this week I went back and reshot the bicycle rear cassette and derailleur from week 10 that did not win. I decided to shoot it outdoors as it is a Mountain bike, and since it was nearly dark (around 7 pm), I went with a long exposure time (F4, 2 sec), a pop of flash and the highlights that look like the setting sun reflecting on it are actually the floodlight by my back door ( since I was shooting with daylight and flash, the tungsten light of the flood light comes across with an amber tint, like when you shoot indoors without a flash and your whites look a yellowish brown). I also shot it on a tripod using the timer to minimize camera shake, so the image would be sharper!

Cassette0014.jpg

I put the rest of the series in this folder:
Color

With the 3 from week 10, so you can judge if I got it right the second time around!

Week 13

So for week 13….. John Dodds is leaving our Dept, and we had a farewell. I took some snapshots. This is one of them.

P9270003.jpg

(Ok, so I basically took a week off. So sue me!)
:-)


Week 14

Ok, Here's Week 14:

Fuji0008.jpg

Hard to believe we're more then a quarter of the way through a year! For this week, I was still focused (no pun intended) on my Fuji Cross Comp Bike (it is soooooooo beautiful) so you get a pic of one of the drops (handlebar end that "drops" down). What I sometimes try to do with iconic objects (a flag, a bike, a car, things that everyone knows) is to try to get enough of it that you can identify what it is without taking the same pictures that we have all seen before a million times. It's not as easy as you might think (at least for me, you might be more talented I guess). There are a couple of other attempts (i.e. losers) in the color folder:

Color

Enjoy, and maybe someday you'll share some of yours (hint, hint!)

Week 15

Here we are again sports fans with the PIC OF THE WEEK!

Babolat0071.jpg

This week's pic is of a tennis racket. I loved the detail on the overgrip, so that's what I tried to focus your attention on. In case you think I just can't focus correctly I put 2 other images here:

Color

Let me know if you think I chose the wrong one to win this week!

Until next week, remember: There are lots of pics out there, make sure you take your share!


Week 16

Once again it's time for …… PIC OF THE WEEK!

So this week’s pic is a bit of a miscalculation. The idea is that if you want to get out of a rut, or just get some new ideas, a good exercise is to pick an advertisement that you think is cool and try to recreate your own version of it. The ad I chose was one for the Ryan Smith 2.0 shoe from DC Skateboarding. It's in the current issue of Thrasher magazine (if you want to see it). The miscalculation is that I couldn't find the original add online anywhere to link to for you. In the end, it's just a shoe ad. The idea is not to make an exact reproduction of the ad, but to use it as a jumping off point. The funny thing is, this weeks winner was one I shot setting up the height of the tripod (because I was using the self timer and I had to guess and adjust to get the angle I wanted). Anyways here is this week's winner:

Board0081.jpg

This one is the most like the original ad:
Board0078.jpg

The others are in the color folder here:
Color

I hope you enjoy them as much as I did making them!

Until next week, keep shooting the good shots!


Week 17

In the spirit of the season, here's a special pic for those who like clowns:

Jester0007.jpg

The rest of the series is here:
Color

I hope you enjoy them!

*<:o) Week 18 This week, this idea is the best camera is the one you have with you. I shot this image with my camera phone with no zoom. I didn't set up anything, just shot it as I found it. My eye was drawn to the way the light fell across the area. I call it "Portrait of Weaver's Desk"

Portrait of Weaver.jpg

Enjoy!

Week 19

Okay,
Another camera phone pic (the best camera is the one you have with you). But this week's pic comes with a story:

Tree of Love.jpg

So we had at work, which some of you may know, a bag decorating contest. And this is a picture I took of my entry. The theme was what you love about fall. I was explaining to two of my coworkers what I was trying to capture. I said “you know when it's fall and the leaves are on the ground and you have a warm day with just a hint of breeze. The leaves have already turned and it's so warm and cozy outside. Maybe there's a swing. Maybe you're pushing that special someone on it, and she's telling you about her dreams and aspirations and you're telling her yours….." at that point I am interrupted by laughter! Both ladies were about to fall out. One says, "Do guys really think like that?" I was left thinking, "I guess we know why they don't talk about it when they do!"

Anyways, I hope you like the picture and the story gives you a chuckle!
Happy Halloween!

Week 20

So here's this week's pic:

Peace.jpg

So after 20 weeks of posting a pic a week, I have decided to reclaim the time I spend on this weekly and use it for other projects of mine. My original hope for this was that it would be a dialogue whereby we could share pictures and comments and sharpen our eyes and learn from each other, and I would like to believe to some extent it has been so. I have enjoyed sharing my pictures with you and the pictures of yours that you have shared with me. I decided a while ago to go back and compile all the commentary that I could find from previous weeks into a document for those you who missed a week. I couldn't find all of them, but I have decided that since this will be the last pic, I would also share that with you as well. I have enjoyed the challenge and I hope some or all of you will give it a try. To be honest, you get the most out of it if you are the one posting the pictures, and I thank you for all of your kind comments! I run into most of you from time to time, so it's not like a goodbye or anything, just time for me to put my energies into something new.

PEACE!