Friday, August 1, 2008

Nifty Fifty: Starting a New Project

I've been a bit uninspired lately. My photos are all looking mostly the same. I take a picture of a tree, I make sure there's a nice sky in the background and presto, I have a nice picture. Unfortunately, all of them look pretty much the same. You see one tree, you've seen them all! Obviously, there are exceptions to this as there are some very neat, unique trees out there.

One of my favorite photos is a tree. Don't ask me why, but that photo, taken by Steve Paxton, was very inspiring to me. The first time I saw that, I came to the realization that I needed a wide angle lens.

I picked up a Sigma 10-20mm lens rarely ever take it off my camera, which leads me to this blog entry. My other lenses are getting dusty! So, I'm going to force myself to post a new picture every week with my 50mm f/1.8 lens, also known as the Nifty Fifty.

Sunflowers


This is my first entry for this project. The sun was down over the horizon, so it's not very bright or colorful, but I still like it. I love sunflowers for some reason. Perhaps it's because the chipmunks steal the seeds from my feeders and "plant" them all over the place, leaving sunflowers to pop up in my yard throughout the summer.

Here are some of those thieves now!

IMG_5832A

Now, for something totally unrelated. I stopped on my way home from work last night to take some pictures. I needed some more material for my blog as I was running out of photos from my adventure to the Whitney Point Reservoir.

Tully Train Station


Tully Train Station


For some reason, I like vertically oriented landscape shots like the ones above, especially with a large foreground that leads into the photo. A kid riding a red tricycle on the sidewalk in the second photo could really make that shot.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for the kind words! There is nothing like a "project" to help focus your mind and help bring purpose to your work. Using a 50mm lens is great way to change perspective and look at the world just a little bit differently. Keep up the great work. Your images are looking very refined!

John Brainard said...

Thank you Steve. I appreciate your comments.

I'm looking forward to getting out and using my 50mm lens more. I missed having the shallow depth of field. It's rather difficult to get that with my 10-20mm lens. Don't tell my wife, but I have my eyes on a wide angle prime lens.