Halloween marked the end of my second photo-a-day project. This one felt very different in character from the first one, both to me and Meena. And that makes sense, to an extent. Life is very different from how it was back in February. We’re not planning a wedding, and that in itself changes everything. But I am working significantly longer hours, and I’m actually eating proper dinners now, which tends to take time. (Totally worth it, though. We’ve become big fans of AllRecipes.) I also took a blow that I suffered earlier this year a little too hard, with regards to photo. Particularly after a pep talk about 1/3 of the way through this month’s project, I think this helped me get over that.
I was more disappointed with the photos themselves during the project this time around, or at least, it felt that way. I was mostly upset that I didn’t pull off anything as technically capable as this or this, nor anything quite as creative as February’s opener. Still, I managed one that came off as Quite Good to me.
Fun with Shapes had to be the most fun this month. For whatever reason, I simply felt no pressure while shooting that one — it truly was fun.
Possibly riding off that high, I was happy to pull off something a little different for Full Moon, a night that had complete cloud cover.
The day I went down to cover Occupy Wall Street was also really enjoyable,, but in a very different way. Taking photos wasn’t something I was so conscious of; there was just so much there to document that it became second nature.
I did have at least one photo that I would really like to reshoot. I see the potential there, just not the space (in our apartment).
I’m hoping to keep the momentum going, albeit at a slower pace. Perhaps at least one photo per week — though I’m not going to hold myself to a strict schedule. I’ve certainly got a lot to manage right now, but photography should be one of those things.
Thanks to all for reading. If you’d like to see the project in its entirety, this link is where you’ll want to go.
Today, I was assigned to do the same assignment I had at the beginning of this project. This time was very, very different.
Of course, it’s Halloween. And naturally, I’m back in New York City instead of Glens Falls. I headed down to the Halloween Parade in the Village for this one, and it was almost like cheating. People expected to have their photos taken — but I was happy to oblige.
All of these photos were taken with direct flash, which is never my first choice, but in an outdoor space at night, what other choice is there? Bounce off asphalt? Additionally, I had only a 256 meg card — it was actually a lot like shooting with a single roll of film. I kind of liked it.
This one only makes sense if you’ve played Minecraft. I have, and it was a perfect costume. He actually had a couple buddies similarly dressed, but this was the best shot I could get in a rapidly moving crowd.
I really liked these two. Their costume was pretty neat, but they were also just very nice people. The “deer in headlights” look is staged — as soon as I lowered the camera, they were all smiles. “It was her idea!” said the man on the right, beaming.
This guy. Yeah. I just wish I had gone a liiiiittle wider. You know, to get his full wingspan.
This guy’s costume was just so great. And his facial structure totally works for the costume, in my opinion. I only wish I could have achieved a tighter focus. It was so dark out, of course, that it was pretty difficult to do this. Additionally, the guy was so pleasant, almost zen-like, about having his photo taken. I kind of wanted to buy him a beer.
I was pleasantly surprised to see that these guys were here. They were all dressed up in costume, too, but this camp donned a noticeably different kind of costume from “zombie nurse” and “sexy nurse.”
This guy was the epitome of subtlety.
And while there were no zombie nurses, there was zombie journalism.
To end on a lighter note, the smaller, fringe group of #OccupySesameStreet was also present.
And that’s a wrap for this project! I’ll do a bit of a retrospective tomorrow, but for tonight, I’m happy with these images.
Today’s post handles the entire weekend in one! The weekend was also pretty noteworthy for us here. First of all, it snowed! In October! The last time that happened, supposedly, was 1952. [citation needed] It was a healthy amount, too! It continued snowing long after this photo was taken. But by the time I woke up today, most of it had melted. Nonetheless, I hear it’s supposed to be another rough winter for us here — I guess this was the start of it.
Meena and I also hosted our first party in our upgraded apartment. (It used to be a bachelor pad. Now it’s much more habitable.)
We played bobbing for apples. As far as I could tell, none of us had actually played before. It was a lot of fun, though!
This one on the left, I just think the girl is real pretty.
There’s another, similar photo, in which you can see what I would look like with my natural blonde hair and freakishly black eyebrows, which are formidable to begin with. It is not something that anyone should be subjected too — I look like my name should be Igor — and I apologize to anyone who had to see that.
One final post in this series tomorrow! I’m looking forward to it — I think it’ll be a fun one.
I had a couple ideas percolating for this one, but ultimately, I went with “CD in the Microwave.” I’m kind of disappointed that I did, because it’s a pretty lackluster, lifeless photo, but in keeping with the theme, I wanted to do something a little risky.
Granted, tossing a CD in the microwave really isn’t very risky at all, provided you’re not inhaling too deeply. But it looks risky, and shenanigans like this one are the same type I used to pull back in college, which led to, well, a lot of ruined CDs, some interesting videos, a Kraft Single on the ceiling in perpetuity, and an (impotent) threat of expulsion. So it was as much about remembering that as anything else.
Part of me kind of wants to try putting a candle in the microwave, as I’ve heard that that can lead to plasma balls in your own home… but I wouldn’t try that. (Even if I wanted to, I’m pretty sure my wife wouldn’t be a fan.) But that’s what the Microwave This? guys are for.
If you’re at all interested in technical details: Our microwave has a carousel, so I kept the disc in the absolute center, and used a smaller aperture and lower ISO so that I could increase the shutter speed, in hopes of catching as much arcing as possible.
I’m not entirely sure what exactly happens in this situation, but the CD is always scarred with these very interesting paths after the fact. They’ll follow the circular path of the disc, until they reach a certain point, wherupon they’ll extend exactly outward from the center of the disc. An uneducated guess says “something to do with the path of least resistance.” More educated folks would be welcome in the comments!
For today’s Shadows, I had a pretty good idea of what I was going to do — this was it. I was a little disappointed by how much work I had to do in post, which I’m hoping isn’t terribly evident, but I probably should have expected that given the stuff I had to work with.
Not a ton going on here technically — a single strobe, a reflector opposite it, and a ghost-shaped tea light just out of frame on the right. It’s kind of strange, because it doesn’t look like it, but the strobe was also positioned far, far right. The only reason I can think that Big Boy is better illuminated on the left (his right) is because both the back wall and the reflector combined to make it brighter than the right (his left) side.
Also, Big Boy has the best fried clams.
This is yet another late-night post! Again, we’ve been very busy around here, so this photo was squeezed into about a five-minute time frame.
There’s still some stuff I like about this photo. It has particularly warm tones, mainly because I was bouncing a flash off my khakis. I like the look that lent to it, though I might also try re-toning this in black and white whenever I get some time (hah!).
Oh, and I guess for this to be actually taboo, you have to imagine yourself in Victorian England. But I’m not bound by constraints of the modern era for this project!
Getting today’s photo done was definitely challenging. I quite like the theme — I would have taken a much more elaborate photo, given a few weeks of dedicated setup — but I was suffering a horrible lack of equipment. I couldn’t actually use my 20D (SLR) at all, since I essentially left it at work like a dummy. Instead, I used Meena’s point and shoot. A great point and shoot, by the way!
I do feel a little guilty for featuring someone else’s photograph in my “photograph,” but there’s a double spin sort of thing going on for the theme because of it. While I did leave my camera at work, I had to take home several iPads to work on them from home. I thought they could do double duty as models!
Today I had to reshoot something, and while I probably would rather have reshot many other assignments, this was the one I could manage today — the “three of something” post. It was another one of those twelve-hour type days at my job, so by the time I got home, I couldn’t manage a lot. This is a bit more in line with the original intent. It’s still not stellar, but alas.
Today I was told to shoot “something funny,” and rather than assume I could construct something humorous, I thought I should go out and let it come to me. Meena and I were planning to go to the Pumpkin Sail in Central Park anyway, which sounded great for this sort of thing. It was pretty much exactly what it sounds (and looks) like: People’s jack-o-lanterns attached to floating platforms and sent to float out in Harlem Meer for the night.
This kid was one of two who was assigned to tie the platforms to each other in series, and he seemed a little reluctant at best. Still, it was fun to watch him and his companion. He reminded both Meena and me either of people we knew, or of ourselves, when we were his age.
There was no shortage of creative jack-o-lanterns present.
At one point, a bunch of geese did a “flyover.” I wasn’t quite quick enough for the optimal shot, but I still kind of got it here.
I didn’t realize until I was looking at this photo that it wasn’t just me who had been really observing these two kids, really hoping that one of them might take an unlucky step.
I like this shot more than I maybe should. The composition really pleases me, and I took the shot as a real “turn – shoot – turn back” thing, so I was really happy that I actually got the shot I wanted, and also that the kid caught me looking at him. Made it a better shot, I think.
I might not have gotten any shots that would make someone roll out of their chair, but maybe I made up for quality with quantity.
I had initially had something rather different in mind for this post, but it got to be pretty late and my resources were a little thin.
This is actually kind of a recreation of a photo I remember from a book, The Explorabook, that I had as a kid. And a sneeze is pretty rapid fire — stuff comes out of you at more than 100 miles per hour. And it’s a lot of stuff, as you can see up there. So, you know. Cover your mouth.
