A Theme a Week Photography - Project 52 - 2012 Part I

This hub contains the first 13 photos from the complete project, A theme a week - Project 52-2012. As I had already mentioned in my introductory hub, I thought that I will break this project into 4 parts for ease of reading, else it will turn out into a pretty long one!

I hope you will all enjoy this and also I await some honest feedback and advice. I only carry a compact camera, and a few pictures were taken with my mobile too.

Right, this was the first theme, New Year's eve/day! I really did not have a clue as to what I was going to photograph and submit, nothing at all planned in my mind. I was at home alone on New year's eve and New Year's day. It was a cold winter's day on New year's day, the day was getting darker, I could see darkness filling my room. I just sat there in two minds, thinking what I was gonna do for that day's submission, now that I have taken up this project and it was going to be the first submission for the project! As the room got darker, all I could think of was, to light a candle. I also thought, the best way to start the New Year, is to start by meditating on God's words! So I just did this little set up on my table, "A candle and the Bible" and thought that this will be my first entry for this project!

I loved the lighting on this photo. I did not have a clue that it would turn out "not too bad"! Something motivating to start with for the New year, I thought!

One can use various creative thoughts for this theme: Fireworks during new year's eve, wine glasses, decorative lights or anything that would symbolise the New year or mark that day! It can be even your dinner or cake that you had for that day!

This is the second week. I waited impatiently for the snow to fall, as I thought that would be the best winter's theme! Nope, it did not happen. So I just thought that I would go for a walk by the river that week, a day before I had to submit the picture. It was a dull and cold winter's day again. I thought that I will bring in the Winter's mood through that picture.

This picture was shot by the River Great Ouse in Bedford, England.

The other photos for a Winter's theme, could be snow, icicles, people who get a chance to visit the polar regions can photograph the igloos, the sledges, the winter sun, the snowman, snowflakes, snowfall, different objects in the snow, etc. Also people in their winter clothes, and candids of people while out in the cold can be caught for Winter's theme.

Some countries might have summer during this time, and they can photograph the summer sun, the nature during summer, a beach photo, the summer flowers and foliage, etc.

Now comes one of the rules in photography! The Rule of thirds, they say is the rule of thumb, the basic rule for photography. One does not have to abide by this rule at all times, because, sometimes we get some really cool and interesting shots while overriding or breaking this rule, but this is basics.

People who get confused, can use the grids in their to practice initially to place the object at the right place. The photograph is divided into 3 equal parts horizontally and vertically and the object is placed off the centre on the one third part of the photograph. When it comes to photographing Landscapes, make sure to have the horizon at the one third position to get a beautiful picture!

The picture I have submitted is a shrub, with little red fruits from the fall season, with some still hanging on. I thought that this would make an interesting shot for that week.

This week's theme was quite confusing for me and getting me worried as to what I will be contributing. This was a cold winter's afternoon, a dull gloomy day with dark clouds filling the sky above! While walking back home that day after a meeting, I was just looking up towards the sky to see if I could find anything interesting. Just when I approached these flats by the river side, I saw this leafless tree against the sky with the flats by the side, and thought it was a pretty good shot, captured looking UP.

I was playing around with the picture, and this processing gave it a haunted look which I liked!

This theme UP can be interpreted in any way. You can use this theme to take photos that say, aim high, looking up, standing up against something, bridges, towers, standing tall, giant wheels, etc. It all depends on how you interpret the theme and what you get out of it. It is all about how you create and what you create!

This was an interesting theme! I thought it was going to be an easier one as it was just photographing the eyes, but no it wasn't. It is not about just capturing the eyes but also about the expressions / feelings.

Luckily I had a friend who visited me that week and there I was trying a few shots with his eyes, while he was seriously engrossed in his games! I finalised this shot, which I felt was a bit intense.

You can experiment with this theme in various ways. Eyes that show different feelings, emotions, eyes of anything (not only humans), anything that looks very similar to eyes (be creative, you might see things around you), so there is variety in this theme too. You can be as much creative as you wish to be.

This is a pretty easy theme. Again it all depends on how creative you are. Signs do not simply mean road signs or street signs. You can use this theme creatively to photograph signs used in day to day life. How we use sign language sometimes, or people who use sign language all the time, or even birds and animals, if you watch them, you can see them communicating through different signs.

Here I submitted a photograph of the street sign that was near the town centre. The only one I could manage easily for that week's submission.

Some examples for this theme can be, signs in roads, streets, buildings, stations, travel, etc. you can also capture signs that people use to communicate, animals and birds use to communicate, etc.

This theme might seem a pretty easy task, but no it isn't. You can be very creative when it comes to shadows in photography. Another cold dull week again, and I was quite worried if I would be able to have a photograph with shadows. Of course I could have created one at home, artificially, but I like shooting with natural light. No light is more beautiful than the natural light that is available to us.

Lucky enough for me, while I was at work that day, we had sunshine after the snowfall, and I thought I was not going to lose my chance of photographing the shadows of the trees on the snow. This photo was taken through my office window.

Not a very creative one though, but I was glad I could make it for that week's submission.

When you look into shadows photography, you can be extremely creative and create unbelievable pictures. You can use the sunlight through the windows, the sunlight through the blinds, the sunlight through archways and tall doors, almost any source of light that is available to create beautiful shadow photographs of anything you can imagine or see.

Sorry again, continuously from Week #06, I have been posting pictures taken in snow. We have had this continuous snowfall for a few weeks.

Now about photographing another photographer is an interesting theme. I love shooting outdoors, and also to find another photographer, I will have to definitely get out!

I was looking for some serious photographers that day. We had below freezing temperatures and for a Sunday afternoon in that sort of temperature, I could not find many people outside, the picture says it all.

While walking down the river, I found this bunch of friends, who were photographing each other in the snow. I thought, it would make a pretty interesting shot!

To capture other photographers, you need to wait and watch them, and capture their curiosity, and the effort they put into creating a photograph. You can end up with wonderful candid shots. Every photographer has different creativity in them. It all depends on the way they see the world around them.

I made this theme really simple. Sorry about the mess, it is my office table. Workplace can be anything from this office table to big warehouses, garages, heights up in the crane or on sky scrappers, in the sea, in rivers, in kitchens, at the bar, pub, in your studio, at the checkouts, or in exhibitions, or stalls, markets etc. So depending on where you work or what sort of work you do, you can be creative. Your workplace might even be a small desk in a small room at your house. People who work outdoors or do field work can be creative with the things around them. Barns, wind mills, turbines etc can be excellent subjects for photography. You can even photography somebody else's workplace.

Photography is about creativity. So be creative in what you do. I have processed this picture in black and white to make it look less messy! I like the morning sunlight through the blinds too.

Depth of field is another concept in optics/photography that every photographer needs to know in order to be able to capture excellent photographs, taking into account the environment and the way they want the photograph to be created for various reasons.

"Depth of field refers to the range of distance that appears acceptably sharp", in other words, according to wikepedia, "It is the distance between the nearest and farthest objects in a scene that appear acceptably sharp in an image."

The depth of field or otherwise called DOF varies depending upon the lens type you use.

There are a few factors that control the Depth of Field:

• The aperture: Smaller the aperture, extensive the depth of field
• The focal length: Wider the angle-of-view, the greater the depth-of-field
• Distance between the subject and the camera: closer you get to the subject the more limited the depth becomes

In depth of field photography, you can create various effects:

• Everything in the frame sharp
• Main subject is sharp with background completely out-of-focus so that the subject stands out prominently, for e.g as in portrait photography
• Main subject sharp, but with background slightly but not completely out-of-focus so that the objects at the background are still recognisable
• Zone of sharpness is very much limited so that only the required part of an object is in focus, for e.g, photographing stamens in a flower etc.

In the photograph that I have submitted here, I have brought the flowers in the foreground in focus, blurring the flowers at the background, but still recognisable. This is one of the above effects in depth of field.

You can play around with the aperture settings and focal lengths and create creative photographs using the depth of field concept.

Don't we all love spring? It is a bright, colourful, beautiful and warm season, although I have heard of snowfall in spring. I remember last spring, while I was crossing the road to walk to the town centre, I stood in awe at a cherry blossom tree that was in full bloom which had no blooms at all three days before.

When it comes to the theme spring, you can photograph the blossoms, the trees that are in full bloom, you can photograph the fields, flower fields, portraits with these blossoms around, the early morning dew drops on the grass and flowers, the lakes and rivers and of course the hills and mountains behind the fields, there is variety for you to go creative.

Week 11 this year, there were very little flowers around my neighbourhood and the park nearby. It was just the start of Spring and I could just find this tree that had just then started to bloom, but not in full bloom. The afternoon sun was an added bonus to this photograph making it look more lively!

This is a mechanical theme. For this theme you can basically photograph any automobiles or trains or planes. You do not need to stick with just photographing them, their complete exterior look. You can go creative by photographing a part of an automobile, and also various angles of the machine itself.

This week's theme took me to one of my favourite places, where I go sometimes and sit, just to watch the trains come and leave the train station. It is a bridge very close to the train station, built across the railway tracks. I thought I would go there and come back with a few good photographs. Sadly they had closed the bridge permanently for safety and security purposes.

My eyes then wandered around, and I looked through the fence to see a few trains parked behind them. I just positioned my camera lens to look through the fence and got this picture.

Playing with light!!! I have seen many photographers do wonders while painting with light. There are many things in photography you can do playing with light. This can be done with long exposures, and that way you can paint creative images. Street photography is a very interesting one to play with light too. Lights and candles can be another interesting form of light used to paint photos. You can also make bokehs out of light, especially the ones in night are more colourful and artistic.

In the photo I have submitted, I haven't been creative. It is just a picture on slow shutter speed, of the lights on the buildings by the river.

I do appreciate honest feedback and advice. This project continues on my next hub. Please see link below.

The introduction to this project can be found here, A Theme a Week Photography - Project 52 - 2012

The first second part of this project can be found here, A Theme a Week Photography - Project 52 - 2012 Part II

The next part of this project can be found here - A Theme a Week Photography - Project 52 - 2012 Part III

The final part of this project can be found here - A Theme a Week Photography - Project 52 - 2012 Part IV

Thank you for stopping by.

Livingsta