Project 52 - black and white - Week 3

3/52

Getting this post up a little later than planned as it's been a busy week. I had a completely different plan for this week, but yeah... busy week. What I decided to go with is a picture that I actually took on my Day in the Life day. It wasn't the greatest picture straight out of camera as the lighting was pretty bad, but changing it to black and white made it much better. Plus, it's a picture of my birth sister, Megan, who I haven't seen face to face in a couple years since she's been in Senegal for the Peace Corps so I am glad I got a picture of her.

When I think about what I want this project 52 to represent, I think of two things:

•  I want these pictures to represent our life - what we do, who we are, etc, and...
•  I want to learn, explore, and experiment with photography techniques and styles.

This week definitely falls into the first category, but I have been trying to put together some other ideas to explore. There are a number of things I want to try out this year - some of which I may or may not have tried before. I'd love to do light painting again. Last time I did this I only held the flashlight while Jesse set up the camera:

2006 Jay Cooke State Park

It was quite dark out when we took this picture so I was cool to see how the stars were exposed and how light the sky was. I would love to try this with a person too.

I would also love to try out some different editing styles such as the Dragan style portrait effect, get to know my external flash better, play with light trails, maybe do some panning, and use my reflector more.

I've been trying to find my 'voice' in the pictures I take and feel like I am getting closer to that spot. I follow a lot of photographers and don't want to end up copying someone's style, but instead get inspiration from them. Some of the photographers that I love are My Four Hens, Kate T. Parker, Marissa Gifford, and Paint the Moon.

Now off to think about next weeks picture...