Day 334, 365 Day Project

I had a busy day today as we had our first major snow fall of the year. Had to shovel 2 driveways, matt prints and teach at SAIT so it was a bit crazy. As I left SAIT tonight after class I saw this scene in front of me and liked how the light from the street lamp reflected off the snow and on to the trees. As I lined up the shot I saw the flare from the light and really liked it> After looking at the image I decide only to crop a tiny bit of foreground and add a frame in PhotoForge 2, otherwise it is a straight shot.

Day 333, 365 Day Project

Sometimes as we walk through buildings we fail to notice some of the fine architectural details that are incorporated in to the facility. As I was watching Cool during his Jazz Dance class tonight I looked up and was intrigued by the lines and shape of an inset in the ceiling. I took out the iPhone and zoomed in a bit and shot a couple of frames using the phones limited exposure control to get a couple of different looks. I then brought the image in to Snapseed and used the Dark 1 in the Drama filter to give a look I was happy with.

Day 332, 365 Day Project

One of the things I encourage my students to do is to experiment with their cameras so that they can learn the capabilities and limitations in different situations. I have been doing the same thing lately with my iPhone and tonight I was able to test it using my studio lights as the source. Though there are some things the iPhone is not suited for it still preforms well a majority of the time. Using the modelling light on an AlienBee 1600 with a Hensel Beauty Dish I gave Greg some split lighting. The backdrop being used for this shot is by Madcamp Backgrounds. After shooting the image with the iPhone I then demonstrated to some of my students how I use Snapseed to post process. In this case I cropped the image then use the Dark 1 in the Drama filter before finishing up with a frame. I loved the way the filter added a strong feel and the way it interacted with the background.

Day 331, 365 Day Project

While watering the plants in our front bay window, I noticed our little statuette Buddha's siting there. The light from the window was nice and soft as it was overcast outside. Using the I phone I tried a few different positions until I settled on the above composition. After shooting the image I brought it in to Snapseed and cropped it, used the Drama Dark 2 filter and added the frame. I finished the image with a bit of touch up in Photoshop of a couple of highlights that I thought were distracting.

Day 330, 365 Day Project

Walking through the basement I saw my weights lying there after my work out from this morning. Something just drew them to me and I brought the iPhone to try a few shots. Once I found the composition that worked for me I brought it into Snapseed for some post processing. After changing the focus range, I converted it to Black & White and added a frame to finish the image.

Day 329, 365 Day Project

My sister decided to have all the nieces and nephews head over to "Colour Me Mine" to pick and paint their own pottery piece as their Christmas gift this year. So while Cool and Luke were working on their pieces I wandered through the store looking at the variety of items they could choose from. I snapped a few shots but this one of the monkey giving the peace sign stood out for me. I worked a little bit on it in Snapseed adding a bit of grunge to darken the figures with a little more texture as they were very white.

Day 328, 365 Day Project

I had photographed a similar scene back on March 22 (Day 80 of the project). Many things have changed since I started this project. In the case of this scene the plants that were photographed on that last day of winter were cut down to allow the new growth of the spring ahead. The shot was done with the Canon 7D with very little post processing.

Fast forward eight months and a couple of days. Winter is not quite here yet, but we have had a few light snowfalls followed by stretches of nice weather. Last night we had another light dusting and as I walked up the driveway after walking my boy's to school I noticed the above scene once again. However this time the tools and vision have changed. This time I used the iPhone to capture the shot and then worked with a couple of the dozen apps that I use for post processing. In the case it was PhotoToaster and PhotoForge2 that allowed me to get the painterly feel that I was looking for.

It is fun as I near the end of this cycle to look back and see the change and growth in my photography. Although I have been shooting for close to 40 years and teach others I still feel the need to develop and grow as a photographer, as an artist. This project has been a great learning experience.