Friday, September 1, 2017

31 Days of August

Last year I took my first month's challenge to take one picture a day, aiming to improve my skills with the DSLR camera (Nikon D3200). The challenge was a failure to me, though I participated to the end. I had imagined that I would go around my business in town, carrying the heavy camera and in between chores would take a few perfect pictures. Of course, I was quickly disillusioned and ended taking pictures with my phone or the small travel camera. Although everyone nowadays is a photographer, I do not feel comfortable taking pictures with the DSLR in public on the street, just seems too pretentious of me.

So this year I limited the area of picture taking to our home and the nearby places, where I could easily carry the camera and even a tripod, with the exception of the three hikes on Vitosha and Rila. I took all the pictures with Nikon 3200, played with the settings and tried new techniques. I still haven't read the f*ing manual and I don't intend to (too boring), but I did read a lot of tips and trick and advices and watched video lessons.

Because of the limited area where I took the pictures, they are not very interesting and diverse, but they did teach me something about light, composition, viewpoint. Now I'm thinking about joining the 365project, the only thing that's stopping me is that this picture taking actually takes a lot of time - sometimes an hour for a picture and I'm not willing to invest that much time into taking pictures every day. And I would risk soon to succumb to mediocre casual pictures taken just for the sake of uploading any picture of the day.

Day 1
I started the challenge with a reference to a picture I took four years ago and submitted to a photo contest in a popular Bulgarian news site. The editors liked it and are still circulating it every summer. This is a printscreen of the head page of the site on August 1st:


Day 2
Sunflowers bouquet with light from the windows, accentuated on the flowers

Day 3
Home-made eclairs


Day 4
Composition with coffee
Day 5
Beautiful tree on Vitosha

Day 6
Almost full moon
Day 7
The beautiful colors of Caprese salad
Day 8
A puzzle assembled
Day 9
A rose in the twilight, using flashlight to distinguish it from the surroundings
Day 10
Lots of traffic in the sky
Day 11
Composition in yellow - homemade lemonade
Day 12
Hummingbird moth in action on Vitosha
Day 13
Rain drops, taken with high speed
Day 14
Grapes
Day 15
Composition with fruit
Day 16
Colors
Day17
Rustic composition
Day 18
Citrus chicken while cooking
Day 19
Lots of pictures taken on Malyovitza,
There I experimented with speed (for running water), light and boken
Day 20
Night subway (high ISO, open aperture, low speed)
Day 21
Cooking peach jam in the oven
Day 22
Lines in the sky
Day 23
Beer picture
Day 24
Charlotte cake for Gaby's BD
Day 25
Portrait picture
Day 26
Leisure time
Day 27
Composition with white wine
Day 28
Cinnamon buns
Day 29
Heart-shaped boken lights with hand-made paper filter
Day 30
Street photography - market
Day 31
Because it was the last day I posted three pictures I liked which I took that day
Sunset
A curious ornament
Graffiti

2 comments:

  1. This is a great project, I really like your photos. My favourites are 13, 20 and 25 (great portrait of Gaby) - but they are all good.

    I have the same camera! I know what you mean about lugging it around - it can get very heavy. And extra-heavy if taking around extra lenses.

    365 days is super-ambitious - you should give it a try, what's the worst that can happen? Based on my experience of 100 days, I think the desperation of finding something to photograph daily can lead to some unexpectedly good things (and some bad things too, but good to learn from)!

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    1. Thank you so much for your comment!

      I'm still thinking about project 365 and I'll probably join, maybe on Jan 1, though that's such a cliche. These challenges are real eye-openers for the ways to take good pictures and to notice curious and beautiful things around.

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