Fifty Two.. - Project catch up! 3 new weeks done..

jamlid

jamlid

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Jamie
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Well, after enjoying reading 365s so much recently, I thought "Why don't you do it?" After having a think, then realising I don't have enough time for this.. I've settled on a 52 for this year! Hopefully next year I should have the time for a 365!

So anyway, I'm Jamie - 19 from Durham. Been properly into photography for a year or so now. But have loved taking pictures since my first phone camera (y'know, those ones that just looked like a series of blotches on a nearly colour screen;) )

As I'm starting late from the start of the year (I've just got back from Austria) I'll post one for the first week of 2009, one for last week then start from this Sunday for week 3.. Updating every Sunday!


So here goes..

1 of 52

I went for dinner with my girlfriend's family. This is Evie, my Girlfriend's gorgeous baby cousin. She got hold of a loose Christmas Cracker toy (a brush!) and being a baby, it went straight in her mouth!



2 of 52


I've just gotten back from a snowboarding holiday to Soll, Austria. My second time snowboarding and what a fun holiday! This was taken at the very top of the highest mountain. -15c up there, but I still managed to get a tan! :D


-Jamie



EDIT: After reading the Official 2009 52 thread, I thought it'd be a better idea to join in with that, so I'll be sticking with the themes instead :) So the first 2 are err, practice weeks!
 
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Thanks Matt!

I've decided to join in with the Themed 52 projects instead of just doing my own thing. A bit more of a challenge really.
 
jeangenie said:
Welcome to the world of themed 52s, then. (y)

Love the colours in the 2nd shot and think it's a shame that Evie has the most amazing blue eyes, which you'd captured beautifully.

:)

Jean
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Thanks Jean! I'm excited for week 3 :) I'm confused, why is it a shame that she has the most amazing blue eyes? :D :thinking:

I've been asked to photograph her Christening next Sunday, which I'm very excited/nervous for!
 
Great start Jamlid. Beautiful blue eyes captured very well in the first and she's a real cutie. Really like the gradation of the sky in the 2nd. Keep up the good work (y)
 
jamlid said:
Thanks Jean! I'm excited for week 3 :) I'm confused, why is it a shame that she has the most amazing blue eyes? :D :thinking:

I've been asked to photograph her Christening next Sunday, which I'm very excited/nervous for!
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Sorry - a senior moment. :LOL: I was trying to decide whether the brush detracted from her very beautiful eyes and whether to comment on that aspect or not. So - to clarify - you've captured her eyes perfectly and I think the bright colour and size of the brush just detracts from them a little. But then in the context of 'babies put everything in their mouths' - you're telling the story like it is.

Note to self: proof read posts before pressing 'submit' button. :rules:

Enjoy the Christening - I'm sure you'll get lots of good piccies. I attended a christening a few weeks ago and wasn't sure what the protocol was for taking photos during the actual baptism at the font. There was another child being christening at the same time in a 'family' service. I hung back, not wanting to appear too pushy with a dslr. The other child was about 15 months and was bright, sparky and very interested in what was going on. At one point he gave the Vicar the most amazing smile, with fantastic eye contact and - I didn't take the shot. I found afterwards that this toddler was the son of someone I know very slightly, and they'd have loved that pic. Gutted!

The moral - check with the vicar beforehand, like you would for a wedding. Good luck. :)



Jean
 
Jean: Thanks, I felt the same way about the photo too - While it would have been beautiful to have it without the brush, it just shows her cheeky character so much!

I talked to the mother of Evie today and asked her the protocol of the Christening. She said firstly there'll be a service where no photographs are allowed to be taken. Then it's the actual Christening - She says she's been to a Christening there before and flash photography is fine, but I'm a bit unsure of how to go about this. I doubt I can bounce the flash as the ceiling is far too high! Am I best off not using a flash for this and sticking with my 50mm on a wide aperature and high ISO?

Jamie
 
Hi Jamie welcome to the 52ers :)

2nd shot is great the sky and backdrop are both stunning!

And Evie is a cutie I agree :)!
 
jamlid said:
I talked to the mother of Evie today and asked her the protocol of the Christening. She said firstly there'll be a service where no photographs are allowed to be taken. Then it's the actual Christening - She says she's been to a Christening there before and flash photography is fine, but I'm a bit unsure of how to go about this. I doubt I can bounce the flash as the ceiling is far too high! Am I best off not using a flash for this and sticking with my 50mm on a wide aperature and high ISO?

Jamie
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If you've got a chance to do a recce that might answer your question, Jamie. Our local church was light enough by the font to use natural light. The font is usually near the entrance at the back of the church, and the vicar will stand so that s/he can see the people gathered round the font. Have you got a diffuser for your flash? I don't use flash unless I really have to, so I'm no expert. I'm sure somebody will come along on this thread soon with the best advice (tp's like that (y))


There'll also be a chance to get some shots outside the church afterwards - check out a good spot, if you have chance. :)

Jean
 
Hi Jamie and welcome to the 52ers :wave: I love both of the pictures and look forward to seeing your take on Learning. I'm finding it more challenging to work to a theme than to just go out and take what I want. It's forcing me to learn new skills (Like self-portraits, and working with mirrors so far :)). So good luck mate (y)
 
Week 3 - Learning
3213611890_58b211a0b6.jpg


Well, this is my first time doing my 52 to the weekly theme! I did have another photograph planned to take (which I will still be taking) but it's not until Sunday that I can take it.. so I'll put this one up!
It's a photograph of the most important books to me, that I own. The ones that teach me my favourite hobbies and what I'm learning as a career!

Things I've learned this week:
-Getting the right camera levels is easy enough.. Composition is the hard part!
-My room isn't great for setting a light tent up
-Relying on one source of light isn't always the best option
-KISS - Keep It Simple, Stupid. Is a rule I need to follow more often
 
Jamie, welcome to the 52'ers a good take on learning (y) it's worked well.
 
Nice one Jamie: sharp, good colours, good comp and meets the brief (even more appropriately due to the learng subject matter :D)
 
Jamie, welcome aboard the good ship TP Photo52.

I love the DoF you've chosen for this image and I think both the composition and the lighting really suits the image (sometimes 1 light is all you need). I really like how the bottom book fades away to black too.

Do you have any Landscape versions we can compare against, I'm not 100% conviced with the portrait aspect. Although it work very well as a magazine cover; the OOF top would merge nicely with a magazine masthead.
 
Thanks everyone! Always appreciate the C&C :)

Simon:I don't have any in landscape I'm afraid - I didn't really think about trying it in landscape, probably should have tried it out though to see what composition I can make not just from Portrait :)

Something new to think about there - Try to be more open minded than sticking with the orientation I have pre-planned (y)
 
Nice, love the use of depth of field.
 
Nice crisp shot, and a good arrangement too.
PHotography, motors and Networking... good selection :)
 
Nice use of DOF and although you say composition was the tricky part I think the arrangement works well (y)
 
I really like your Learning shot. Great DoF and really fits the theme and tells part of your story without words. :clap::clap:
 
Thanks everyone for the kind comments :)

I photographed the Christening of the baby in Photo 1 today! It went really well and got some great shots. Evie (baby) was smiling the whole day!

I nearly got kicked out of the Church by a horrible Priest woman though! She said at the start that it was fine to photograph during the Baptism. Also told the parents that it was fine for me to take photos using my SLR. So while they did the baptism, I took some photos and wasn't too in the way or anything. She kept pointing at me!

First time, I thought she was telling me not to use flash.. Although I wasn't using flash!
Second time, I thought she was telling me to move to the side a bit so the people behind me could see
Third time, I thought she was telling me to kneel at the front so people could take pictures behind me..
Fourth time, she stopped the baptism and went "RIGHT! I've told you 4 or 5 times now, to STOP taking pictures! Could you please move away now. etc. etc. It's not fair on other people when your camera is going CLICK CLICK!"

The parents re-assured me that I'd done nothing wrong, so I put my camera down and kept quiet for the rest of the baptism. Evil woman!


..Contemplating Week 4's "Surprise" theme :)
 
Love the pic of your GF's Cousin... looks like one of those fake teeth dummys!, Pic is VERY sharp too! good job!
 
Well exposed shot, nice and sharp with good dof and colours. Fits the theme perfectly and nice touch using the photography books too (y)
 
That's worked really well, the learning shot (y)
 
Thanks for the feedback everyone :) I'm trying to think how I could improve the shot.. any ideas?

Got some ideas for the Surprise theme.. But it's a pretty crude idea :p we'll see..
 
Well, this is my Week 4 photograph - been very bad this week and completely missed the website. Only just gotten round to doing it today :( Surprise I really struggled with! This is the only thing I could think of as we had mice a couple weeks ago.



Things I've learned:
Arranging my time better to take the photograph is rather important!
If I want to keep this up I need to keep to the deadlines
Lighting from above isn't always the best. Sometimes it's going to get the lighting on floor level.
Mice don't really love cheese



I'll be getting this week's done on time as I'm doing it tomorrow morning! I've got some ideas, but none really work so far.. Now that I've got everything sorted and hopefully got all my college work out the way (for now) I should keep to the deadlines better :)
 
Thanks Matt and Jean! I feel like a naughty schoolkid handing homework in late! :D

Matt: The lighting was using an external flash on a wireless hotshoe. I tried it on a tripod from above but the lighting was too.. bland. So I lay the flash on the floor upside down just out of shot to the left :) It gave a kind of eerie feel which I liked for this one!

Jean: Yeah, I wanted to get really low for this one to have a mouse perspective! I now have a stiff neck from lying on the floor! :p

Chocolate? That's a new one! We used chicken, which it didn't take! But it's gone now so all is good :)
 
Week 5 - Opposites



This is probably the hardest of all the weeks so far! It sounded so easy and great at first, I had some great ideas that sounded good in my head, but when they were shot they just didn't work right.

Things I've learned:
Balancing the flash right against the light from the candle (so the ice isn't orange!) is very hard.
Tripods are pretty much an essential for any photography like this.
The 99p 10cm tall tripod you got as a joke present for xmas may sit close to the ground.. But it will NOT support your SLR with a 200mm lens on!

My other ideas:
Photograph a shot where my oven and freezer are in the frame. Oven in foreground out of focus, freezer in background in focus. Looked rubbish!

this one made me laugh while shooting it! A bed of compost with a soap bar planted in it :D Clean/Dirty! Although it looked funny from the eye, the photograph lacked interest.
 
I like that, it's a good interpretation of the theme, and the light is balanced nicely. I know what you mean about those mini tripods, I've got two of them, they work fine for my bridge camera, and I got one free with my Raynox but I've not used either since getting the 450d. That last idea is a funny one.
 
I like this and the vignetting adds a certain something to the image! Reminds me of early black and white cinema :)

Good spin on the theme :) I love the soap/compost idea as well :)
 
Really good take on the theme Jamie, and as was said before the vignetting works really well, and I like the square composition too. :clap:
 
I think you've done well with the lighting - shame the soap / compost idea didn't pan out, I'd liked to have seen that :D
 
jamlid said:
Week 5 - Opposites



This is probably the hardest of all the weeks so far! It sounded so easy and great at first, I had some great ideas that sounded good in my head, but when they were shot they just didn't work right.

Things I've learned:
Balancing the flash right against the light from the candle (so the ice isn't orange!) is very hard.
Tripods are pretty much an essential for any photography like this.
The 99p 10cm tall tripod you got as a joke present for xmas may sit close to the ground.. But it will NOT support your SLR with a 200mm lens on!

My other ideas:
Photograph a shot where my oven and freezer are in the frame. Oven in foreground out of focus, freezer in background in focus. Looked rubbish!

this one made me laugh while shooting it! A bed of compost with a soap bar planted in it :D Clean/Dirty! Although it looked funny from the eye, the photograph lacked interest.
Click to expand...

This sounds like the sort of experience I seem to have every week. It often seems to be the shots that look good in you imagaination that don't work out in practice, either because the composition doesn't work or there isn't a good balance of textures/colours :LOL:

I like your Opposites - fire and ice - but can imagine how difficult it was to do. B&W was a good solution to the orange ice problem. :clap:

Good luck with Week 6

Jean
 
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