Growing one's sense of observation.

I had always thought that I had a good sense of observation.  I was taught at a young age to be mindful of my surroundings and aware of everything.  One of my earliest recollections of this was when I was learning to drive at the age of 14 and my dad telling me not to get tunnel vision, too always check the mirrors and be aware of all the cars around me, their position on the road and to anticipate based on my observations.  Now I won't say that I never had any accidents, I did, but not as many as I might of had and those I did where when I forgot these rules.

I had carried that over to my photography.  When shooting sporting events I would be aware of the play in front of me as well as action on the periphery so as to be able change my vision if needed but also avoid potential collisions (common at football games if you were not aware of players being pushed into the sidelines).  I always considered this one of my strengths in being able to adapt in any photographic situation.

Since starting to take a photo a day I have found that my sense of observation has changed and maybe even improved.  I think that I did get a little relaxed for a stretch and though observing was not reacting as much.  Now I find that throughout the day I am looking for subjects, checking different angles and just being a little more observant.  It may give cause for people to look at me strange as I line up a shot, but it has allowed me to keep this project flowing.

August 20.  This evening I was helping at Cowboy's Casino as a fund raiser for my son's choir.  Knowing that they don't like us taking photo's in there I was determined to get my photo early.  That I did when I was doing some grocery shopping at Safeway.  I noticed some Gladiolus flowers near one of the check outs and moved in a little closer to see if they merited a shot.  Some of them had colours that I knew do not translate well on the iPhone but there was one group of white and lavender colour that I felt would work.  SO I moved in close and shot this photo.  Very little post processing was done and the painterly effect was the result of the colours and the way the iPhone 4 sensor handled it.

Before heading down to Cowboy's I stopped off at Princess Island Park to see what shape it was in.  The last time I was near there was two months earlier when the city of Calgary was flooded.  They have done a remarkable job getting the park back into shape but there is still debris around.  As I was walking back to my car I passed a girl on a bike who said to me "beautiful moon".  I turned around to see the full moon rising above the Centre Street bridge.  At first I lamented not having my DSLR with me (I did not want to leave it in the car at the casino) but then felt that I could still try and capture something with the iPhone.  I zoomed in to it's maximum zoom and took a couple of shots.  After working them a bit in Snapseed I got the two shots you see below.  Though not the highest of quality there is a certain feel to them and I like the way they turned out.

August 21.  After getting home at 3:00 in the morning I spent a good part of the day sleeping.  Then it was the usual routine of my summer days of just taking care of the boy's and the house.  Looking around for a knickknack to photograph for tonight I took this miniature old globe down to the studio.  I resisted the urge to use the 7D and instead knew the look I wanted and that I could get it with the iPhone.  I used a flash light as the light source and tried a few different angles till I got what I wanted.  A little work using the Jazz app gave me the result here.