Photography

Taking one picture each day is pushing me to redefine my photography. Why am I shooting? What am I trying to express?

There is something exhilarating, for me, in capturing my view of life on camera. I have a particular way of viewing light and dark, and I see shadows and reflections all around me. It is something I’ve always done–I remember being a kid and constantly looking at the sky and clouds. I don’t know where all this is leading me, but it is enjoyable and some people seem to like my images.

But if I take a picture of the clothes hanging in my closet, with the light glowing softly on them and a narrow range of focus, is it art? Ken Rockwell says the definition of art is determined by whether you like it.

I kinda like it, although I’d be hard pressed to tell you precisely why.

Here is a funny quiz on “What is Art?”

The other night, Jeff helped me build a light box for taking still-life photos. I saw the idea chez Lolly, and used the tutorial at Strobist.com. It was a snap! I let Jeff do the cutting though, since box cutters make me nervous — what can I say, I’m not the most graceful person and I really like having all 10 fingers still.

Find a bix box:

Cut out three sides of it:

And tape tissue or tracing paper onto the cut-out sides:

Then use any light source (the above shows my sun lamp glowing down on the light box) to create the diffuse lighting you want. It’s pretty cool! Here are some of the first results:

This is going to be great for photographing small knitting projects and yarn stash too!

I’m delighted to announce that some of my photos are now for sale on ImageKind. Check it out!

My father started an artist’s blog as well - he is a painter. You can find it here.

So I did it, I started, I’m taking the plunge. From January 8, 2008 till January 7, 2009 I plan to take two photos per day.

A daily self-portrait shot…. This one was playing around with photoshop using a “mask” to keep color only in one part of the photo. It took a while to do, and I know a lot of folks think this technique is ubiquitous — but it was my first time, and I think having only colored yarn is pretty fun!

And one other shot not of me… Here is a shot of our hallway with just a little bit of light — I was testing out the tripod my mom gave me:

I’ve done seven days straight so I’m off and running. Already I’m taking lots more pictures and challenging myself. The goal is to challenge myself to keep shooting. All this talk of starting my own photography business was completely intimidating the desire to shoot right out of me! So here goes…

My self-portrait set.

My project 365 set.

Here are two very cool and wacky photography series:

First, Dreams of Flying by Jan Von Holleben

Second, animals in living room settings, complete with wallpaper and carpet, at www.catherineledner.com - click Archives, then Animals.

I want to participate in one of the Photo A Day projects, where I take (at least) one photograph per day and learn from it. There are many projects of this kind on Flickr and elsewhere, but I’ve hesitated because I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do the Self-Portrait variety or just my best photo of the day. I think an open subject is best for me, although there might be some self-portraits in there.

This blog may be converting to mostly photography. I was thinking of keeping a craft/knitting blog and having a separate photography blog, but my Ravelry account pretty much eliminates my need for a knitting blog! Although… I did receive money towards a sewing machine purchase for Christmas, so my crafting might expand soon…