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

Project 31 Days of August

In August I started a project on Facebook, where I published one photo per day on my page. The idea behind the project as to carry out a short-term trial for an annual challenge and in the meanwhile to expand my knowledge and use of the DSLR camera.
To my amazement, instead of being energized, I felt bored and horrified right from the start. Finding a topic to photograph and talk about turned difficult - not that things didn't happen, but then I didn't feel like taking pictures and I found carrying the camera around cumbersome and a bit embarrassing - as if I was trying to pretend to be a photographer, when I'm obviously not. So I only took the camera with me once, and on later days when out I took pictures with my phone or the smaller travel camera, which obviously was not the point of the exercise.
I did miss two days - the 28th, when I simply forgot to take a picture, and the 31st, when I gave up the idea, after racking my brains for a while for a theme for a descent last picture.
So, while I sill enjoy taking pictures and more so looking at pictures taken by talented people, now I know that photography isn't my thing.