Photo Journal
Not too long ago, June 9 to be precise, the daily photograph journal at tumbledry passed 2 years of daily photos. For the approximately 730 pictures posted, about 7,000 pictures have been taken. So, a little under 10% of the past two year’s photographs are represented here. I believe an evolution in style, subject matter, and especially post-processing is evident. One can also see the devolution of my lens—it is a very cheap “kit” lens, and after two years of service, it is beginning to show its age through not-so-sharp imagery. My idea, however, is that I should be able to still get good pictures with a bad lens.
Specifically, I would like to delve into people centered photography. Landscapes are great for practicing technique—they don’t move, and are patient with countless exposures. My idea was, once my technique (specifically speed and proficiency in accurately setting ISO, aperture, flash, and shutter settings) had been honed on landscapes and nature, I could move onto people photographs. There is, however, an unanticipated obstacle in photographing people that is entirely unrelated to technical skills or equipment: I am shy. This personality trait has been the number one obstacle in my attempt to jump from plain old trees to plain old folks. For example, I went to the State Fair last year thinking that was the time to break into photographing people—but it didn’t work out. I was quite self-conscious and retreated into my shell, partly because I was there with my family. I knew that, even if I had the courage to do it, they wouldn’t appreciate me running off talking to strangers and photographing them during our outing together. So, even though I didn’t shoot one frame of people I didn’t know, I did learn something: photographing people is best done alone, or in pairs. Any more, and you lose the freedom to flit about from person to person.
Finally, with regard to the recent drought of daily photos: I forgot my camera in Steve’s car and only recently got it back (I kept forgetting to pick it up). I picked it up before Steve left on his post MCAT celebratory trip to Mexico (congratulations, Steve!). So, we’ll get the daily photographs started up again in the coming days.