AGO Photography » Site News

Announcing Project 100

Alan Olson — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 02:17:08 +0000

What’s Project 100? Well, it’s somewhere between 52 and 365. Other than, it’s just a random number that popped into my head. So here’s the deal, I’ll be posting 100 photographs to the blog in 2012 as part of this project. I’m also planning on a few reviews, random posts about teaching, and linking to some great posts or wallpaper from other photographers I admire.

Gotta run, I have some photographs to create.

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Need January Wallpaper?

Alan Olson — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 19:27:33 +0000

Not from me, but from my brother-in-law. Good stuff, as always.

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2011 Year In Review

Alan Olson — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 03:03:35 +0000

2011 is almost over and I thought I would take a couple of minutes to reflect on this blog.

The Minnesota Photo Project was DOA. Only hit 17 weeks total. Total fail on my end.

2011 was a year of loss and transition. After being laid off for almost eight months, I was fortunate to get a new and better job. While I had a lot of free time during the job hunt, I rarely shot. Combination of laziness and lack of desire for photography.

Even with not shooting much, I probably learned more this year than in prior ones. Whether it was due to looking at more photographs, reading more books and blogs, or being more deliberate when I was actually out shooting (or some combination), I felt I was being stretched with what I can do (or thought I could do).

So what’s in store for 2012? More photo projects! I spent a good part of the holiday rediscovering the joy of photography and I’ve been inspired to shoot more and to stretch myself creatively. I’m looking forward to seeing what happens.

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Things Change

Alan Olson — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 02:05:57 +0000

Has it really been over two months since my last update? Wow, time flies. Much has changed since my last post. New job, working on selling a house, and well, life stuff. I’ve done a few minor projects and have been shooting but frankly have been too lazy to update the blog. I didn’t miss it until this past week when I was out shooting our kiddos at a local park. Now I just have to edit and post.

More later…

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Life Interruped

Alan Olson — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 00:33:20 +0000

As the title suggests, things have been a bit different to say the least around our place. I was laid off from my past employer of ten years and had to transition to not only being at home more but also spending more time and energy looking for employment. With that, my creative juices took a nosedive. I haven’t picked up my camera in several weeks and obviously haven’t updated the blog in a month. Call it a rut, call it a funk, call it whatever but using my camera as an outlet became less fun for me.

It’s funny but it’s actually been okay not to be pursing photography right now. Call it a sabbatical if you will but I had gotten to the point where I was shooting more, which is good, but didn’t feel I was getting better. Oh sure, the photographs had gotten better when compared to my earlier attempts but it was more of “I need to find something to get up for the weekly project” rather than taking time to really practice and hone my craft.

I could use the excuse of life getting busy now with a different job that requires a commute and blah, blah, blah, but the reality is, if something is important in your life, you will find the time to pursue it. I’m just wrestling with the question of how important photography is to me.

If you’ve ever been in a rut creatively, I’m curious as to how you climbed out of it. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

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The Next Project

Alan Olson — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 20:47:58 +0000

After finishing up the 52 Week Photo Project, I had a little downtime to try to figure out what I was going to do next (besides updating the site, etc.). I thought about a 365 project but the odds of getting to January 15th let alone the entire year was almost zero so I tossed the idea out (major kudos to those photographers who can knock out a 365 project!).

I’ve started reading through Stuart Sipahigil’s Close to Home: Finding Great Photographs in Your Own Backyard ebook from Craft and Vision and was inspired to do a 52-week project that focuses on where I live; Zimmerman, MN. The project will mostly be in and around the Zimmerman area but will also include various locations throughout Minnesota in order to provide a sampling of the people and places I encounter in 2011.

I’m excited to see what I can turn up this year by focusing only on Minnesota and more specifically, the Zimmerman area rather than the six states I shot in last year. I think it will force me to have a more focused approach on what I’m looking at, which is a good progression on continuing to learn my craft.

{If you haven’t already, I would encourage you to check out the ebooks on the Craft and Vision site. They offer a wealth of information for a bargain price. Well worth it, in my opinion.}

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Blowing Stuff Up

Alan Olson — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 01:42:06 +0000

In the next few weeks, I’m blowing this site up. Not sure what all it will entail yet but the theme will be different as well as how often I post. I’m committed to the 52 Week Project but I will be posting more random thoughts, vision, books I’m reading as well as direct you to other photographers and blog posts that inspire me.

As time permits, I also plan to post more pictures in addition to the 52 Week Project. What those will be, I don’t know but I feel that this need to be more than a once per week blog. Stay tuned…

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2010 Photography Goals

Alan Olson — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 01:58:42 +0000

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?

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Happy Veterans Day

Alan Olson — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:27:52 +0000

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.

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Picture Size

Alan Olson — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 03:34:29 +0000

Right now I’m sizing my pictures 650 pixels wide and what I would like to do is to make them a bit smaller to fit various sized screens and then use a Lightbox to make it bigger. I’ve looked at a couple of WordPress plugins that I could use but wanted to find out if anyone had suggestions/recommendations prior to trying those out.

This appears to be the popular choice and the basis for most plugins.

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