A Picture A Day

July 12th, 2008

Where to find more info…

I finished this project on July 7th, 2008. I’ve blogged about some of the different aspects of shooting a year long picture-a-day project on my blog. I’m also continuing my photo posts on that blog.

To see all my APAD photos in one chronological thumbnail scroll, you can see them in the Flickr set.

My Top Ten are here.

Some stats are here.

Are you crazy enough to want to browse them all in order? You can start here.

Enjoy!

July 7th, 2008

July 7, 2008 – The End


Unbelievable. This is the final picture of my year long 366 A Picture A Day project.

I wanted this to be a significant picture, so I tried to apply a lot of what I’ve learned over the last year and tell a bit of a story at the same time. I thought it would be fitting for the image to be a self portrait during sunset.

I’m not done shooting though. What a great experience it’s been to HAVE to be creative every day.

Strobist info: First off, this is direct from the camera with no processing other than a straight conversion from RAW to jpg in Lightroom. 1/250sec, f/13 with a Vivitar 285HV at (I think) half power, gelled with a 1/2 CTO to blend with the sunset. I put the strobe on the right side to match the direction of the sunlight so there would be a reason for the light. I also feathered it up to put less light on my feet and also show less shadow. Hazy orange sky courtesy of California wildfires.

July 6th, 2008

July 6, 2008 – Eric Goes Flying


Eric and I flew with our friend Gary in his Bonanza to Santa Paula airport and back today. In this shot we’re about a half hour out of Palo Alto airport heading south. Eric got to take the yoke and fly for awhile. He was already planning to get his pilots license soon after college, and this just nailed it.

Same plane as this shot.

July 5th, 2008

July 5, 2008 – Busy Bee Tree


An unidentified tree in our backyard is incredibly noisy during the day – it sounds as if an entire hive is buzzing through it. I set up my camera and waited for the bees to come to me.

July 4th, 2008

July 4, 2008 – Happy Fourth of July


We were on our way home from a party thinking we had missed any fireworks. Then, along side the highway where we weren’t expecting it at all, a whole show started up. This shot was taken out the window at about 50mph (I wasn’t driving!).

July 3rd, 2008

July 3, 2008 – Soft Light, Grumpy Me


I just finished reading Joe McNally’s "The Moment It Clicks," a great photography book. I was inspired by a lot of it, and found myself this morning in a hotel room in LA (actually, I knew I was going to be there!). The window had a sheer material in front of it, creating a huge soft light. I had to try some portrait shots there and had only me to shoot. So there you go, me still tired and packed to catch a flight home, looking kind of grouchy. I like the light, though!

July 2nd, 2008

July 2, 2008 – Street Performers


The side audience to a great band playing on the street by the Santa Monica Prominade. I think the shot would have been better if I was about 2 feet lower.

1 second exposure, hand held, using on-camera flash to get a feeling of motion.

July 1st, 2008

July 1, 2008 – Well, Well, Well, You Look Wonderful!


There’s something about signs in the harsh noon light that I like. This is part of a series of pictures I took in Redwood City this afternoon.

I like the progression of the arrows, which seems counter to the message they are trying to convey.

June 30th, 2008

June 30, 2008 – Final Countdown


Nine pictures left on my year long Picture A Day project.

Strobist info about this shot: I worked to get the reflections on the buttons to look nice here. Hard flash (Vivitar 285HV) camera right at 1/16 power for the highlight. A 2×3′ sheet of white foamcore just above the timer for a soft light source. If you look on the buttons you can see exactly those reflections. I moved the flash around until I got the highlight where I wanted it. I got the Mac-like glassy button look I was going for. The background is smoky plexiglas over black matte board.

June 29th, 2008

June 29, 2008 – A Touch of Gray – Okay, White


I’m blessed with having blonde hair that doesn’t show any gray, so occasionally I’ll quit shaving for awhile to see what’s going on. This is a bit over a week, and man there’s a lot of white in there! It felt refreshing to shave it all off.

(BTW, I upload all my pictures at their full resolution. This one was shot with my Canon 100mm Macro. I don’t recommend looking at the full res picture – it’s kinda gross seeing whiskers that close!)