Day Fifteen: Warm and Sunny

Today was a beautiful day, with afternoon temps in the low 60s and a clear blue sky. My only time to shoot today was mid afternoon which left me out in the kind of harsh light photographers are taught to avoid. And it's true that it's not a good time to photograph people (unless you can find some open shade or create some of your own). But a day with a clear blue sky is a day I go looking for vivid colors. I don't mind the deep shadows caused by the strong front lighting on a sunny day. As long as the colors pop, the contrast in the shadows just gives them even a bit more life.

This is part of the facade at Sitar, an Indian restaurant (and a good one at that) in Durham. I love the Indian architechture they added when they took over the building from the Lone Star. And the bright red trim, against the bright blue sky, makes this image my favorite from the day.

But it was tough to choose, as I went to a few different locations and got images I liked at all of them. Here are the rejects and also-rans that I considered for today's post. Guess they all won in a way.

Day Fourteen: Things are looking up.

Finally today it was warm enough to actually enjoy some time shooting outside. I went off this afternoon with my 10-20mm zoom lens, a flash and a plan. And I executed...got some perfectly pleasant self portraits of me lit against a darkened background and dramatic sky. Nice. But kind of boring, and kind of in my niche. And I need to save the things I know I can do quickly and easily for the days when I am up against it. I have a few favorite places and favorite approaches that I am saving for days when I need to pull something out...days when my motivation may be low or I'm pressed for time.

So instead today, I am using this image. I took it under an archway at St. Barnabas Greek Orthodox Church on Fayetteville Road. It's an architechtually beautiful new church and I've been shooting there since it was just an unshelled steel structure. For this image, I put my camera with the zoom set to 10mm on the ground pointing up at the arch and then leaned over into the frame. I took about 10 of these from sligtly differenn angles. This is the one I liked the best.

Strobist: Natural light (again).

Day Thirteen: Getting (a little) warmer

Had some time to get to downtown (Durham) this afternoon and went up to the top floor of a parking deck to get an aerial perspective on the new bus station. Unfortunately, didn't have the right lens with me and wasn't able to get what I went there for. But I walked around the permieter of the parking deck taking pictures of people on the sidewalks and courtyards below. In the end though, I liked this shot of the warm sun on the bricks of one of the facades of the American Tobacco development. The 200mm lens compresses the distance between the brick spires and makes for a strong pattern which stands out against the gray wall of windows that sits in shadow across the street.

Day Four: Expanding Horizons

One of the primary goals of this project for me is to photograph subjects that are not within my usual work. Mostly I shoot well lit people, whether kids, friends, or myself. So today I took my cameras (my D300 and my daughter's point and shoot Canon SD750) and went off in search of interesting compositions of line and form. I shot in black and white on both cameras (though I shot raw too on the D300). My goal was to find a strong composition based on line, shadow and found-framing.

I have to admit that I'm not the best judge of this type of photo. I look at the work done by others and am inspired...but when I shoot my own attempts at this genre, I am often conflicted as to whether or not I like the photo. This entry is no exception. What I do like is that I set a goal for the day's photo and I executed and that is a big big part of what I want to get out of this project.

I'd love to hear your comments. Thanks.

I've posted a few other candidates from the day's shooting to my Flickr stream. You can see them here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bmcphoto/sets/72157623124995328