This month, I’ve shot mostly with my 70-300mm lens, developing comfort with it for future adventures. Each lens requires a different skill from me. Do I zoom the lens (70-300mm) or do I move my body (35mm) closer to get the shot I desire? What exposure works best with each lens? What about depth of field?
Six months into this year-long challenge, I often enjoy putting my own spin on the prompt rather than taking what I feel is a “standard” photo. I’m enjoying playing with composition, lighting, angles, bokeh, cropping, editing, colors – or lack thereof…
For example, “Dog,” one of my favorites this month, centers the photo on Sheila’s lit eye with only part of her body showing. For “Look Up,” I lay on my porch to capture the underside of the light. Playing with color, I spotlight the sign in “Stop” and my favorite color in “National Selfie Day.” I feel using B&W and creative cropping for “Sunglasses” draws attention to my fabulous models’ sunglasses. The bokeh in “J is for…” highlights the peanut butter and dog kong treat. My final photo for this month, “Lens Flare,” allowed me to stretch by choosing to capture flare rather than avoid it.
With Live Oak this month, I had the added element – and fun! – of maintaining my photo streak while volunteering and enjoying the festival. Moonshine Annie gladly posed for me for “Butterfly”; I searched all over until I found some United States Postal Service boxes at the SLO Botanical Gardens for “Mail”; I wandered around snapping pics of “Food,” which is why my Live Oak post has so many food pics!
Halfway through this photo challenge…I’ve learned so much and have so much more to learn! It’s a journey rather than a destination…
June 1: From a Distance
June 2: Empty
June 3: Look Up
June 4: Messy
June 5: Mother
June 6: Dog
June 7: Half Empty/Half Full
June 8: World Ocean Day
June 9: Stop
June 10: Macro
June 11: Vehicle
June 12: Transport
June 13: Insect
June 14: Food
June 15: Mail
June 16: Butterfly
June 17: Street Light
June 18: Closed
June 19: Kitchen
June 20: Made from Wood
June 21: National Selfie Day
June 22: J is for…
June 23: Upside Down
June 24: Sunglasses
June 25: Turquoise
June 26: Sandwich
June 27: Window
June 28: Blueberry
June 29: Action
June 30: Lens Flare
So many good shots. “Dog” is my favorite.
Thanks! It’s one of my favorites, too. 🙂
Enjoyed your photos. Loved your selfie, the blueberry, and action the best. I don’t know why the blueberry struck me although it did.
The blueberry took quite a few tries. I had to move it to change the background and lighting, change the position of the berry so there’d be texture, and fiddle with editing to highlight the various colors. It looks like a simple photo, and it’s one I spent a bit of time on.
I could tell. It wasn’t a blueberry which I am not partial to but an interesting object which caught my attention, not appetite!!
😊😘
Great photos! Thanks for sharing! I love your interpretations of the prompts. ❤️
Thanks, Lara. It’s been fun!
I agree that these are interesting shots and your creativity is coming through in your interpretation of the prompts. I love the selfie! I wonder what you would do with “youth” and “age”…
Thanks! Looking through future prompts, I see “baby,” “grandparents,” and “childhood” but not “youth” or “age.” Hm…
Let me know if you decide to go rogue and create prompts on your own!
I might! I’m also thinking of what I might do next year… At this time, I’m thinking about – but am not yet committing to – picking a monthly theme/topic. It might be B&W, lens type, straight-out-of-camera, etc. I could add “ages” as a theme! My initial thought is to not post every day but, instead, when I feel like I’ve captured an image that matches that month’s theme. Again, this is only some preliminary thinking!
Looking at these on July 4th. A pleasant way to spend a quiet, rainy day. I liked “food.” It evoked so much more than food. The almost unnoticeable “free” got me deeply. Beautiful photos.
Nice cooling rain! Something I wish we had right now. 🙂 Thanks so much! I’m pleased you like the “food” photo. At Live Oak Music Festival, I walked around capturing images at the food trucks. This one truck with yummy Indian food had a free sample stand out front, and that’s the photo I took. The photo, I feel, tells more of a story than some of the other pictures I snapped that day.
Nice work. Interesting to see what you chose from the prompts.
If you do go rogue, I have some ideas. Texture, repetition, numbers, garden art, antique, …
Good for you.
Thanks! Cool ideas. Next year if I choose to pick a monthly theme, they’re fun prompts to capture. 🙂