dj whitebread

Wednesday, July 01, 2009

It's July...

So my photography experiment is over. I managed to pull it off. Sometimes it was a little rough (for example, the picture of the HEB), but I did it nonetheless. I think I did learn a lot... not much that I can put into words, per se, but I just got more comfortable with the camera. Got a better feeling for things. A lot of the settings are just automatic to me now. I don't have to think about some of the things anymore. All of this mainly comes from the repetition. Now, there are still many, many things that I still think about. And many, many things that I don't have a feel for yet. I've really just scratched the surface of this art form.

Though, I think I'm further along than I was a month ago. And really, that was the goal.

I'm going to give it a few days and then pick my top 5 from the entire month. Stay tuned.

Labels: JiBaW, photography

12:48 PM |

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

One week down

This past weekend was eventful. Supper at Ski Shores, bike rides, autocrossing, Costco, Shakespeare in the park... it was jammed packed. But all fun!

The good thing is that means lots of opportunities to continue my little photography experiment. After one week, I have picked my top five from week one.

One of those I have to post here as I want to make sure everybody sees this picture of my wonderful wife, Carrie. Love you, Carrie!

Labels: Carrie is awesome, JiBaW

12:12 AM |

Thursday, June 04, 2009

Driveway

I headed out to the driveway tonight. I took my bike and I took my camera. I knew things were going to be challenging on the bike as we'd be going up the corkscrew, so I would need to be able to deal with the surge in power up the short and steep part. I knew things were going to be challenging with the camera as I would be photographing at an effective focal length of 50mm. But, I was determined to deal with both challenges.

First the bike side. I did better than before. I still didn't hang on the whole time, but I hung on for half the race. Marked improvement over the last few times. I felt surprisingly good going up the corkscrew. What got to me eventually wasn't my legs, but the time at effort. The climbing I've been doing has been paying off to improve my leg strength. Now I need to start being more disciplined about my training to work in some more structured intervals to get my aerobic fitness improving.

On that note I am actually considering using one of the various excellent coaching services we have in town. I think I would respond well to a structured plan with a real human on the other end. Anyway, more on that in a future post.

On the photography side, the light was a little challenging. The shadows were still pretty harsh, but I got some that I liked. (June in Black and White Day 4)

For example, there is a picture of Dave Wenger before the P/1/2/3 race. His face is in shadow, but the rest of him is in the sun. Obviously not good. However, Dave's an outstanding guy so I kept the picture in the set. He's also doing the standard "waiting for the race to start" pose.

But now to some that I like:

The above is one of three pictures I got as the riders races up and around the corkscrew. The other two I like a little better, but I've cropped them short and wide, so you'll have to head over to flicker to check them out (1, 2... I really like 1 ;) ). This one is neat because of the shadows coming in as sharp lines. The grade of the corkscrew is also such so that everything really feels up and to the right giving nice motion.

This is my friend Andrew Stackhouse. I caught him before he started doing the announcing for tonight's P/1/2/3 race.

I love this shot... I didn't notice my shadow in the lower left corner out there. Doh! (I still like it a lot though ;) )

Finally, a picture of some of the old cop cars they have out there... this one's for Jerry. :)

Labels: cycling, driveway crits, JiBaW, training

11:51 PM |

Tuesday, June 02, 2009

An experiment

Inspired by a a post on The Online Photographer I decided to try out a variation of his suggestion. No, I'm not going to go blow $1k on a Leica, and I'm not shooting film. But what I am doing is only using my 35mm prime lens, and I'm only shooting in B&W for the month of June. So let's set up the rules of my little experiment.

Only shoot in B&W. His point about only considering luminance I found really interesting. I've already take some shots that I think look fantastic in color, but I'm sticking by the rules.
I'm leaving off the flash and only using my 35mm prime lens. It's fast, it's light weight, and I want to freeze as many variables as possible.
As long as the date says June, I'm carrying the camera with me. Campus, going out to eat, whatever. It's coming with me. (Okay, there are a few exceptions, but these are rare and specific.)
Pick at most 10 each day that I want to share. I may pick just 1, but I'm determined to find 1 that I like, and I will force myself to pare it down to 10 at the most.
Each week I'll pick the 10 best for the week, and then the 10 best for the month.

That's really it. We'll see how it goes. You can of course follow my progress on my photostream on Flickr. Here are my favorites from day 1 and day 2, respectively. I actually like day 2 in general more than day 1.