32/365 - a new theme

So the hipstamatic theme project has gone very well. I learned a lot over a short period of time about the nature of photography, particularly in the context of a society where cameras are very accessible, just like the creators of the original hipstamatic camera wanted. There are certainly lots of pros and cons to using your phone as a camera. The availability of a camera at nearly all times was really freeing to me. Not having to delegate time to making photographs allowed me to become an observer in the world around me, as usual, but without getting bent out of shape over whether I would be able to capture the vision in my head. The specific camera app I use (hipstamatic) had a feature that I realize now made it much more filmic than any of the lens or film options really do. Since the photos take a good deal of time to actually process immediately after taking, you're really forced to nail down the right view or angle since you feel the need to make it count. The limitation of the number of frames on a roll of film force this same feeling, and I have to say it can be helpful. I was getting a bit over-zealous with the snap,snap,snapping of tons of shots on my dslr to make sure that one is as sharp as possible. It was a good exercise. However, the overall quality of the images was less than desirable. I had to incorporate a couple of tricks to control the exposure and focus, since my phone wouldn't allow me the conventional manual ability I was used to. For instance if I was trying to expose for a certain area of a scene I would maybe have to aim at another area to meter and then quickly move back to my desired composition and take the photo before it adapted back to the auto exposure. We'll see how the iphonography translates into my next theme, which is what I call "peopleless places". Enjoy

An Introduction - This thing is going in themes!

I decided that to give my journey some direction and not complete haphazardness I would structure it in themes. I'm figuring monthly or 2-week intervals but it's not certain.

When contemplating the first theme that would represent this photography of a year in my life I was at a loss. I think I originally had reservations of doing a "black and white" theme since it's ridiculously vague and also this past summer I just finished a class on the subject, though that was entirely using Film.

At some point I had some Our Lady Peace songs stuck in my head and I recalled the covers of the two albums they came from: Spirit Machine with it's vivid colours, and Gravity's B&W. Particularly I thought about what Black and White has come to mean to me. I focused on the expressions of the band members on the cover of the Gravity album. I wondered whether the preconception I had of Black and White photographs being more about lines and shapes was why I was drawn to the expressions, or whether it was the Black and White itself drawing me to them. I thought this concept was very interesting and decided I would explore Black and White. The vague aspect of a theme like this also helps since I'm just starting this and might need to ease into it!

As a further focus of the theme I would like to look for textures and shape and what this means in my life and in a town I've been in all my life.. but I've never seen things live in black and white. Most often, authors writing about the art of black and white photography talk about the vision required to take photos, and how making yourself analyze what the scene will look like in monotone will train your brain to discover more dynamic scenes, naturally. So it stands to reason that if I'm bored with my scenery, this could get me out of a rut!