So 2011 is nearly upon us and I have decided to push myself a bit and start a year-long project – 52 weeks, 52 pictures.
This isn’t exactly my own invention as there are a bunch of people doing this and 365 (picture a day) projects all over the web (especially on flickr where I hang out a bit). This article I found on deviantart.com explains the basic premise quite well. Here’s the main quote from the article:
Every year, a lot of photographers attempt to do Project 365 (take a photo a day for a year). Unfortunately, life and difficult schedules make it nearly impossible to stick to taking a photo a day. It’s always a goal worth shooting for, but it can be a bit too much pressure for some!
As a response to those concerns, I present to you the Project 52 Photography Challenge.
Challenge your artistic skills and commitment to your craft and walk away with a year worth of memories and experience that will last a lifetime.
The basic gist is this: Find a theme, subject, photography genre, and style that you want to explore for a year. Take a photo a week and post it every Tuesday for a year and whoever rocks the most in the end, wins!
Now there won’t be any prizes for me unfortunately (except for your continued presence here, loyal reader!) but I think it will help me stay on track with my photography and push me to find new things to shoot. I have a number of things that I’d like to try, but a lot of it requires going outside or photoshop skills (which I am lacking) or models (which are tough to come by). So hopefully I’ll figure out ways around those few issues as well.
Tilt Shift
I had today off, and I figured I’d start the year off right with some shots I did today. I’ve seen a number of tilt shift pictures before (examples here and here) but I’ve never tried the technique. If you’re unsure what tilt shift lenses do, here’s the requisite wikipedia article explaining it. It’s basically a selective focus that makes certain images look like they’re miniature. If you don’t have a real tilt shift lens (I don’t – they’re expensive) you can approximate it in Photoshop. I used this tutorial for the following pictures and I think it turned out pretty good – especially for my first attempt. Let me know what you think.
Update: One thing I forgot to mention. I got a new tripod, a Manfrotto 190XPROB with a 804RC2 head. These pictures were all made while held securely on the new hotness. That is all.
2 Comments
I think tilt-shift works best when there an obvious subject in the frame. Therefore, I think the one of the ships at dock is the most successful in this series.
Nice job on the tilt-shift. I was convinced that the ships were actually miniature!