Project 365
Hey! Look! It’s More Project 365
Time for another round-up of a week’s Project 365 images…
30th Mar 09
I started off the week with this stylised image of a tree that lives outside the offices I worked at. I had been meaning to get an image of it for a while and, since it was my penultimate day at work, I thought I better grab a shot.
I liked the contrast of the green tree against the red tones of the wood on the wall behind it. The tones are quite muted in real life, which is one reason I went for the high contrast and saturation in the image. I wanted to really bring out the contrast in the colours. The tree is permanently in shade so I threw a bit of flash light on it to vary the brightness a bit. The vertical panoramic format lent itself to the shape of the tree. I like images to be cropped in tight on the main subject, in the normal 3:2 format there was too much background. This format still shows enough of it to get the contrasting colours across the view. I nicknamed the tree, The Poodle Tree, because the topiary.
31st Mar 09
Tuesday was my final day at Sony Ericsson, so I wanted to use an image that marked the occasion. This sign lives in the main reception area for the Sony Ericsson offices. I liked the choice of colour for the fall that the sign is mounted on, the red contrasts well with the green of the logo.
You can see some of the offices reflecting in the sign. I did think about trying to eliminate the reflections when taking the shot but time was tight and I think it gives the location some context. I did have to shoot the sign from slightly below so that I didn’t appear as one of the reflections. Because of that, I had to correct the perspective of the shot afterwards to keep the sign straight.
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It’s That Project 365 Again
Here’s the latest round-up of the week’s Project 365 images…
23rd Mar 09
I wanted to have a go at doing a product style shot for Monday’s image. I picked Becky’s iPod Nano because of the clean style and the bold colour. These sort of things look good with a bit of reflection, so I positioned the iPod on a piece of glass that I grabbed from a clip frame. I supported the iPod with a piece of bluetac behind it, so I could shoot it vertically with no visible means of support in the shot.
In order to light the iPod and have the screen appear bright, I had to do this in two different exposures and combine them later in processing. For the iPod, I lit it with my flash through an umbrella which was angled to give me a reflection on the glass without causing glare on the screen. I also had to shield the top edge of the ipod (using the back of the clip frame that I got the glass from) to stop it over exposing too much. For the screen, I turned off the lights in the room so that the screen itself was the only light source.
I’ve had a couple of comments about the choice of music on the iPod, but in my defence, it is Becky’s iPod and I bet that everyone likes at least one Girls Aloud track, even if they don’t like to admit it!
24th Mar 09
On Tuesday, I took this shot of the top edge of our house. The main feature of the image being the date on the right hand side, 1909. Our house is one hundred years old this year, amazing when you think that we bought it from new. Actually, that last bit isn’t true (no!), we’ve only been here since December 2007. It will be interesting to see how many modern houses make it to that age in as good condition.
I chose this day for the shot because of the early morning sun and the blue sky behind the house. The blue contrasts well with the red bricks which are warmed by the golden colour of the sun light.
Another Week Of Project 365
Yes, it’s another Project 365 roundup…
16th Mar 09
We got this interesting looking glass vase at Christmas. I knew that I would use it for one of my Project 365 images at some point, but wasn’t sure how I would shoot it. It was when I was reading an article on light graffiti that I made a connection between the light trails and the pattern on the vase. I thought it would look cool if I could get some light trails to mimic the pattern on the vase, so decided to give it a go.
The light trails were provided by a keyring LED torch and it took many attempts to get right. Firstly, I tried just holding the torch in my hand and moving it round the vase. I found that I kept hitting the vase with my arm and it was difficult to get smooth light trails. Next up, I tried hanging the torch from a piece of thread and swinging it around the vase, like a pendulum. This got me some smooth trails but it was difficult to control the speed and direction. In the end, I fastened the torch to the end of a long pencil. This gave me enough reach to avoid hitting the vase and a bit more control over the path of the torch. I tried a few different lengths of exposure until I found one that gave me bright trails but was quick enough to allow me to keep the torch moving smoothly.
17th Mar 09
It had been quite mild over the past few days and I noticed that the daffodils were starting to appear. The weather forcast for Tuesday was good, so I thought it would be an opportunity to get a good shot of them.
After work, I took advantage of some low sunlight to get some back-lit shots of a patch of daffodils, near the car park. As I was shooting, I noticed this arrangement of three daffodils. They reminded me of a cow’s face for some reason, a bit like Ermintrude from The Magic Roundabout. This promoted them to top spot for Tuesday’s image.
A Week In Project 365
Time for another round up of the most recent Project 365 images…
9th Mar 09
I started the week off with this abstract shot, which is actually part of the ceiling outside of the office where I work. The have recently refurbished the area outside of the office with new decor and a new raised section to the ceiling.
The raised section contains a number of concealed lights and is viewed through a curved aperture in the original ceiling. I thought that the curves and lighting would make an interesting abstract image. The lights give the image some depth and also a nice range of tones. The ceiling is actually white, but I selected a white balance and exposure to give it a darker, warmer look.
10th Mar 09
On Tuesday, I shot these boxes that Becky got at Christmas. They were originally full of various sweets and cakes, but those were soon eaten! I liked the contrasting colours of the black and cyan and thought it would look good on a black background.
I’m using a roll of black paper for the background, which isn’t really dark enough to get a nice deep black without the aid of some photoshop. To help this, I had to try and keep as much light off the background as possible. Lighting from the side, as in this shot, helps keep the background dark. I positioned the boxes to take advantage of the single side light, giving them some depth in the final image. In processing, I had to be careful that I didn’t lose the ribbon against the black background. Making sure some light hit the bow at the top of the boxes helped to keep it visible.
Weekend Images
Here are the Project 365 images from this weekend:
6th Mar 09
I used to do target recurve archery on a regular basis, but my current job made it difficult to get to the shooting range in time for the sessions. In the summer, by the time I got there, there wasn’t much light left. I’ve got a layered foam target for use at home, but I’ve not set it up since we moved house.
This is a picture of my riser, the middle bit of the bow, which is a Hoyt Eclipse. It’s a good beginner to intermediate riser and really easy to shoot with.
I tried to get an angle that emphasised the curves and used a soft light to minimise the shadows. I positioned the light to avoid too many harsh highlights and reflections.
7th Mar 09
I had been meaning to get a shot of these Willow Tree figures for a while but was trying to think of a way to shoot it. I had a play around with a few different compositions and styles but, in the end, I went for this one.
I positioned one figure further forward and used a shallow focus to add some depth to the image. The front figure is on the left because it looks as though it is turning away from the figure behind, which works for the concept of the image. The front figure holding out a heart and the back figure holding their arms across themselves suggested the theme before I shot it.
8th Mar 09
On Sunday, we went to a nearby pond to feed the geese and ducks. I took my camera along to see if I could get any shots I could use.
The weather was really windy so it was tricky to keep the camera still to get any sharp images with my long lens. The wind was really cold too, I could barely feel my fingers by the time we left. I think I will have to invest in some gloves I can use with the camera.
The geese were quite timid at first, but were soon coming right up to us as eating out of our hands. This made it a bit easier to get a closer shot of one of them. This was my favourite shot of the ones I took, I like the eye contact with the goose in the foreground as if it was saying, “Hello”. I also liked that the background was packed with other geese, it makes it a more interesting shot than just a plain background. This shot makes me smile every time I see it 
