A Year of Photos
It’s been a year since I announced my intention of taking A Photo Per Day and posting the results.
I’ve been cross-posting to flickr and the photos can also be seen in this A Photo Per Day Set or via the aphotoperday tag.
I’m happy with the experiment – I had to keep a camera with me almost all the time, it forced me to take photos on slow days, long days, tired days. It made me think of interesting shots at 11 p.m. at night, and tick a box with satisfaction at 8 a.m. some mornings. I don’t really know if my photography improved but I certainly enjoyed the process and would recommend it and consider it again.
Technically I did fail to take a photo every day, what with international timezones and a couple of forgetful evenings – but there is always a catchup photo in the wee small hours, and that’s close enough to claim victory.
I’m working on a couple of new adventures in 2007 – baby machaggis, and another private enterprise that will probably not make the year. Neither are photo projects although I imagine the camera may come out for the little one.
This year’s adventure was brought to you primarily by:
- Nikon Coolpix E5700 4/5 – until the CCD failed this was my #1 digital camera, almost an SLR, veteran of the second half of the world trip. Nikon replaced the CCD for free and returned the camera after a few months (two of them actually, due to a mess up, but by then my heart had been lost to the D50).
- Konica-Minolta DiMage X50 5/5 – I can’t say enough great things about this little camera. The X50 was bought as a small “Danika/party camera” so that when we went to France in 2004 she could take photos of me! Konica-Minolta have left the camera business now (their SLR division has been bought by Sony) but if you ever see one of these little 5MP sweeties on a clearance shelf – buy it!
- Nikon D50 4/5 – my second SLR, the first being a Minolta APS Vectis, I have had so much fun with this camera. As with most SLRs it is way too complicated for me even though it is the bottom end of the digital SLR models! Most of my shooting is on P mode, with some thumbwheel action to change speed or aperture while relying on the automatic exposure – which is how I used the E5700 too. Unlike the E5700 the exposure is reliable (on the Coolpix I always preferred underexposing by 1/3) but it is important to do white balance properly as I generally take JPGs. In 2007 I intend to move into the world of RAW, where this will be less important but I will spend more time tweaking photos at the computer as a result. Just to play fair, the camera doesn’t get 5/5 because: a) the LCD on top doesn’t have a backlight so you can’t see the settings in the dark, b) the white balance setting isn’t shown in the viewfinder so you need to remember what you left it set on and c) at only 6MP I get pixellation in the sky for some outdoor shots around clouds etc. Being an SLR, let’s talk lenses:
- 18-55mm 1:3.5-5.6 G zoom 3/5 – basic lens that come with the camera, feels a little light and cheap, but pretty fine
- 55-200mm 1:4-5.6 G zoom 4/5 – big zoom that comes with the extended camera kit, it feels better than the small lens and takes nice zoomed pictures if you don’t shake too much! I didn’t use it as much as I thought as the 55mm bottom end is often too “zoomed” when carrying the camera around for impromptu shots
- 50mm 1:1.8 D (fixed) 5/5 – Great for everyday use, and a little reminiscent of all those great older candids that were taken by great photographers using fixed lenses. As its faster it suits my type of photography this year (better, sharper photos in low-light with no flash), and there is also one less dial to get wrong. I loved it
I was going to finish up with a favourite photo from the series, but I just can’t choose. So – similar to the picture bar that current runs across the top of bluefacedpixie – here is a random “aphotoperday” from flickr:
