Project 52: Week 4 {Soothing Repetition}

Oh man - this week's project was a toughie!  

The idea:  I love to read and both Christmas and my birthday bestowed new additions to my Penguin classics cloth-bound, book collection.  Said collection sits right next to my computer and I would say a collection is pretty repetitious.  Also, I think one of the most relaxing, soothing things to do is to climb into bed after all my chores are finished and the house is so still,  and read, read, read!  So this week I didn't have to think too long or hard for an idea. 

Soothing Repetition

The execution:  TOUGH!!!  I rarely take pictures of anything other than people, so something about photographing an "object" was kind of intimidating.  (You would think it would seem easier since it is 100 percent stationary!)  Anyway, the time that I could do my "assignment" today resulted in me having to shoot fairly close to the books (to get the best lighting) which resulted in perspective distortion - as you can obviously see below.  I even went to the trouble of putting the books on a sheet of glass to get the reflection and using a tri-fold presentation board behind them - none of which even mattered in the final shot :) Bummer, because I loved the shots with the reflection in the glass but the distortion in those was too bad.

However, I did learn a lot from this week's assignment - which is the point, right?

Project 52: Week 3 {Shades of Grey}

This week's assignment was shades of grey.  I did not use any creativity, whatsover!  I needed to get a picture of Ella for her baptism announcements, so I pretty much just used one of the pictures I got and converted it to BW.  I had some other ideas using some paint chips, using grey clothing against an overcast day, but just ran out of time.

The photographs I ended up with are less than ideal - 10 minutes before church in FREEZING, windy weather.  Also the location had bad lighting, but we just did the best we could under the circumstances.  That's what I get for procrastinating!! :)  Lighting, exposure and composition aside, I am happy to have a picture of my sweet Ella!

Project 52: Week 2 {Illustrate a Song}

Initially, the subject of this assignment left me blank.  Then I took a few minutes and started scrolling through my iTunes library and got all kinds of ideas.  This is what I ended up with.  Can you guess the song?  No peeking!

I've Got the World on a String

I almost picked another picture that had Ella's face in it, looking at the globe, but something about this one kept me coming back to it.  I think the composition is a little more dynamic because of the diagonal lines - it has a little more energy and movement.  And I absolutely adore how her she turned her leg sideways.  Her pose just really seemed to sum the song title up to me.  Thanks for your hard work Ella!

Project 52: Week 1 {Around the House}

So, one of my goals for this year is to turn my attention back to photography again.  I got an email from MCP about their Project 52 and thought it sounded like a great opportunity.  Each week there is photo assignment to help give you some direction and stretch your creativity and move you out of your comfort zone.  I thought having a weekly assignment might help me make time to practice.

Week 1 - Around the House.  For this one, I didn't get creative - at all!  Although, "around the house" - ummm, yeah, my kids - they are EVERYWHERE!!  You can follow the path of destruction around my house, like a Family Circle cartoon.  Actually, the real reason I picked my kids was because I had wanted to play around with my 50mm lens and focus on getting those really sharp, crip eyes.  So one day when the kids were around I tortured them for about 15 minutes, practicing on the eyes.  Here is my favorite.  And I am going to try REALLY hard to not point out all the things wrong with my pictures, because there is a lot!