Project 365

To see the most up-to-date version of my Project 365, click the bar at the top of the blog page entiitled "365 Project - A photo a day"

WHAT
Project 365 is my attempt to take 1 photo a day for the whole year. I'm not sure how long I'll stay committed for, but I'm going to give it a go. Having said that, I've already missed one day (the 3rd of January) because I only decided to undertake this project on the 4th of Jan. Luckily, I'd taken some photos on the 1st and 2nd to fill in those days.

WHY
Many people undertake this challenge at the beginning of the year in an effort to use and learn more about their cameras and to train their eye to find a photo in any situation.

Being forced to take a photo each day, I know that some of them will be rubbish if I'm rushed or not really 'feeling' there's a photo to be found somewhere. But this will hopefully help me learn what to do better and encourage me to try out some different photographic techniques or camera settings.

It's also a good way to document my year (for which I have big expectations! :)

HOW
I've set a daily alarm on my phone at 2pm reminding me to take a photo each day. To try and stay motivated, I might also look at setting myself a weekly theme to focus my efforts more if I start to struggle for ideas and to try and photograph things I've never snapped before.

Here are my shots so far (apart from Jan 3rd) - they don't have a set theme yet.

01/01/2011

The above shot is of two of my friends at my New Year's Eve party, taken shortly after midnight (ie. January 1st). I used a shallow depth of field and focused on the bottles in front to blur the happy couple in the background.

02/1/2011

A misty, cloud covering hiking trail at Springbrook National Park, Gold Coast, Australia. My husband and I went hiking on this trail (Twin Falls circuit) as with the recent deluge of rain our state has been experiencing, we were desperate to venture outside while the rain held off!

The cloud actually made it difficult to focus the camera on autofocus mode, as it was getting confused by the swirling mist.

04/01/2011

This is a self portrait in the reflection of a hand dryer in the ladies toilets at my work. It was about 30 mins before taking this photo that I decided to embark on Project 365, hence the rather strange subject matter. This one was taken on my iPhone. I like how shiny the hand dryer is and the random pattern of brown tiles under it. As I said, I was a bit desperate for a photo at this point :)

05/01/2011 My dog, Nelson (a Labradoodle) 'helping' me with the gardening. I thought he looked very cute trying to hide his giant body behind the vines.

I used a large aperture to increase the shutter speed in the available light so that I could quickly fire off a series of shots and get his in focus as he was moving around sniffing things a fair bit.

Why it's important to continually check camera settings

A few days ago I went to the Springbrook National Park which is a beautiful rainforest filled with wildlife and waterfalls located in the hinterland of the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia.

As I was taking photo after photo of what I hoped would be great waterfall shots, I happened to glance at the ISO setting and saw that it was set to 1600 – far and above my intended setting of ISO 200! I had no idea for how long it had been set to 1600 or how many of my shots were now going to appear slightly grainy due to the high ISO.

I definitely didn’t deliberately set the camera to ISO 1600. I’m assuming it happened with an accidental press of the ISO button prior to winding one of the dials with the intent of adjusting the shutter speed or aperture. Therefore, while I thought I was changing one thing, I was actually cranking up the ISO. Curses!

Incidents like the one above have reminded me how important it is to check and re-check the camera settings throughout the day/session.


Here’s a list of the things I’ll be checking and re-checking from now on:

•The mode I’m shooting in – is it manual, aperture priority or shutter priority? This of course depends on what is important in each shot – depth of field or capturing motion (frozen vs fluid). I’m often switching between modes during my photography outings depending on the subject I’m shooting so it’s good to always be aware of what the camera is set to each time.

•ISO setting. To prevent a repeat of the above!

•Cleanliness of the lens. At another waterfall photography outing, I was shooting from inside a dark cavern/cave and failed to notice the misty spray accumulating on my lens during some long exposures. This resulted in many of the shots from that day being utterly useless.

•Aperture. As stated above- if I’ve decided that depth of field is important, I have to decide HOW MUCH depth I want. It’s much easier to blur the background (by increasing the size of the aperture) at the time of taking the photo than to do so in post-production. Similarly, if I want all of that lovely landscape shot to be in focus, it pays to check I have selected the correct aperture.

•Exposure level (ie shutter speed). If I’m capturing the motion of a scene such as a waterfall or a bunch of passing cyclists, I have to decide if I want it sharp (fast shutter) or blurry (slow shutter). The available light usually also plays a part in what shutter speed is used.