Alan's Photoblog

52 Week Project: Week 6

I had to run to the post office one day and grabbed my camera as I headed out the door. I drove around my neighborhood and the surrounding developments looking for something interesting to shoot. The combination of the moon and the water tower behind the trees was at least semi-interesting.

Exposure: 1/1250 sec, Aperture: f/7.1, Focal Length: 28mm, ISO 400

Moon Over Watertower

52 Week Project: Week 5

During our BWCA trip last year we had stayed at Temperance River State Park on the first night. I got up early and took a few pictures of the sunrise looking out over Lake Superior. It was very awe inspiring to say the least.

Exposure: 1/800 sec, Aperture: f/11.0, Focal Length: 28mm, ISO 200

Temperance River Park Sunrise

52 Week Project - Week 4

One cool thing (for me anyway) is that at Christmas, my parents break out this cool nightlight (which reminds me I need to get one). I took a few pictures of it for fun.

Exposure: 1/125 sec, Aperture: f/3.5, Focal Length: 50 mm, ISO 200

Bubble Nightlight

52 Week Project: Week 3

I took this last summer while out in North Dakota between Devils Lake and Jamestown on a random stop off on the side of the road.

Exposure: 1/500 sec, Aperture: f/11.0, Focal Length: 28 mm, ISO 200

North Dakota Road

52 Week Project - Week 2

I’ve been to the Air Force Academy several times in my life and it remains one of my favorite buildings to view and visit. Out of all the pictures I’ve taken, this one of the entrance I took in August 2008 is still one of my favorites.

Exposure: 1/320 sec, Aperture: f/11.0, Focal Length: 28 mm, ISO 200

Air Force Academy Entrance

52 Week Project - Week 1

As part of my 2010 goals, I’m committing myself to posting a minimum of one picture a week. I’m not going to throw up a picture just to ensure I have a post up but rather display what I think are my better images in order to garner feedback. I look at too many of my images of 2009 and go “what was I thinking?”

I took this in August of 2008 while on a family vacation in Colorado at Seven Falls. Ironically, the actual pictures I took of the falls are pretty unremarkable so you get rocks and sky instead. I boosted the saturation of the sky with LR2.

Exposure: 1/250 sec, Aperture: f/10.0, Focal Length: 30 mm, ISO 200

Seven Falls Rock

2010 Photography Goals

I haven’t been much a of a goal-setter up to this point but was challenged by a good friend this summer to start thinking about what I wanted to do in life (better late then never, I guess ). With photography being my main hobby (plus bringing in some revenue in 2009) it was important to set some goals for 2010. So here goes…

Shooting five days/week. More would be good but at a minimum, I’ll be shooting five days/week. To many days, my camera just sat there. No more.

Blogging more frequently. Starting January 4th, I’m starting a weekly project where every Monday, I’ll be posting an image. Not just some “let me throw something up get a post” but putting up what I would consider my better images. I’ll probably start posting to Flickr a bit more to get more feedback as well.

Education. Between books and various blogs I frequent, I have a unlimited amount of information and pictures to look at to gain knowledge and inspiration. I’m spending a minimum of 30 minutes/day (five days/week) on this.

Putting together a portfolio by July 1st. I have some connections to get in some model homes to potentially shoot this spring so I need to take advantage and put together a portfolio of my work.

That’s it for me. So what are you photography goals for 2010?

Isaac the Drooler

I’ve been shooting a bit more lately as part of plan/vision/practice and was able to get my trusty sidekick, Isaac to sit there and look cute while I rattled off a few shots using my flash from different angles and different power (while I can before he starts crawling). This ended up being one of my favorite.

Flash: On camera, aimed left with bounce card up, 1/2 power.

Exposure: 1/200 sec, Aperture: f/5.0, Focal Length: 70 mm, ISO 200

Isaac Drooling

Where in the World is ???

Yes, the blog has been silent for way too long and no new images on top of that. I have images ready to go and will get those up.

As for the lack of anything on the blog, perhaps the easiest way to describe it is a change in workflow. Or more importantly, a change in life’s workflow. I’ve been reading quite a bit lately about vision and realized that I had none. Okay, not quite none but not a lot. If you asked me “What do you want to do when you grow up” or “Where do you see yourself in five years” I couldn’t give you a decent answer and that includes my photography. I’m in the process of jettisoning the things that aren’t important or are time-wasters and focusing on the things that are.

So what changed? This post by David duChemin was pretty much the catalyst to make some moves in my photography. What that led to was a change in everything, work, family, etc. Everyone has the same amount of time in one’s day to get stuff done. We complain we never have enough time yet there are many people who use their time effectively and enjoy life rather than bumbling along in the rat-race.

As it pertains to photography, I’m setting aside time everyday to practice. Practice taking pictures, practice in editing, spending time looking at other people’s pictures for inspiration and to gain knowledge, and following blogs and using Twitter to find articles that will help me get better as a photographer. As for the blog, I’ll be posting more, not daily but several times/week with articles, links and images as I feel the blog allows (and sometimes forces) me to focus on what’s important with my photography.

Happy Veterans Day

Happy Veterans Day to all who have served our country. Thank you for your service and sacrifice. Special thanks go out to my dad who served in the USAF.

Also, thank you to the combat photographers who risk their lives in order to document war through their pictures. You can read more about them here, here, and here.