I was reading a post on here about some folks doing "Picture A Day"challenges so I decided to try it. I'm about 25 days into a 90 day challenge and it's been a real eye opener. I have learned a couple of things that I suppose will seem obvious to most of you.
1. The hardest part is getting out to take photos so I just have the camera with me all the time. Finding the time means rethinking about what it means to make an image. I can't make it out to scenic areas on a daily basis and living in the Northwest it's raining so weather can often keep you inside. You need to improvise. Part of improvising is making sure you have the camera with you. The small size of the EPL-1 makes that part a lot easier.
2. After a while you start to see things differently and anything becomes a subject. Except for a few shots most of the images I have produced are pretty ordinary objects. The challenge is to make the ordinary compelling (not that I have been particularly successful in that regard).
3. All the energy we put into gear is far less important than any of us realize. I have a small collection of lenses and I have tried using different ones throughout the process. Each of them works as expected but the biggest factor in getting a good image is me. I realize that if all I had was my little 14-42 kit lens that the world would not stop on it's axis, I would still be able to take pictures and in the end it's more important what I do with the camera than what I have attached to it.
4. Many of us (me included) spend waaaaaaay too much time taking test shots and comparing sharpness and quite frankly buying stuff and selling it again because it does not fulfill some notion we have of quality.
5. I've bought my last lens or camera until...I actually run into something I cannot do that I need to do (not like the buying of a large format printer because you need to print 13x19 images even though you never print anything larger than 8x10)....or I break, have stolen or other wise lose a piece of equipment such that it cannot be recovered or resuscitated.
I want to thank whoever started the Picture a Day thread (I think it was Brian Mosley). I'm having a blast, learning so much and hopefully improving my skills a bit. I'm really looking forward to the next two months. Oh yeah, my PAD stuff is here.
1. The hardest part is getting out to take photos so I just have the camera with me all the time. Finding the time means rethinking about what it means to make an image. I can't make it out to scenic areas on a daily basis and living in the Northwest it's raining so weather can often keep you inside. You need to improvise. Part of improvising is making sure you have the camera with you. The small size of the EPL-1 makes that part a lot easier.
2. After a while you start to see things differently and anything becomes a subject. Except for a few shots most of the images I have produced are pretty ordinary objects. The challenge is to make the ordinary compelling (not that I have been particularly successful in that regard).
3. All the energy we put into gear is far less important than any of us realize. I have a small collection of lenses and I have tried using different ones throughout the process. Each of them works as expected but the biggest factor in getting a good image is me. I realize that if all I had was my little 14-42 kit lens that the world would not stop on it's axis, I would still be able to take pictures and in the end it's more important what I do with the camera than what I have attached to it.
4. Many of us (me included) spend waaaaaaay too much time taking test shots and comparing sharpness and quite frankly buying stuff and selling it again because it does not fulfill some notion we have of quality.
5. I've bought my last lens or camera until...I actually run into something I cannot do that I need to do (not like the buying of a large format printer because you need to print 13x19 images even though you never print anything larger than 8x10)....or I break, have stolen or other wise lose a piece of equipment such that it cannot be recovered or resuscitated.
I want to thank whoever started the Picture a Day thread (I think it was Brian Mosley). I'm having a blast, learning so much and hopefully improving my skills a bit. I'm really looking forward to the next two months. Oh yeah, my PAD stuff is here.
