The First Image Cull

I finally made it from 350 down to eight photos for our first project, and even though my images weren't groundbreaking, I still found it very difficult.

I've kind of skipped a few days here and I'm going back to last Thursday when I took all my pictures for the project, but I'm just doing this as a way to lead into showing some of them.  Like I said it was hard to narrow down what I actually wanted to present, and in the end, Linda was more ruthless than I was and she helped get the number down.

Out of everything that I came home with I think these are probably my favourites.

Leaving the High Street subway

I really love the colour in this photograph.  The green on the sides of the steps and the maroon/purple trousers of the guy leaving the frame.  It's probably the most 'artsy' picture I've taken.

Friendly Banter

 The biker in this shot looks like he's really thinking about something while he's talking and I love his expression. 

Footpaths.....not for the elderly.

 I was just up on the little terrace above Sawyers when I saw in the distance this lady walking right up the middle of the street.  It just struck me how she's probably walked down that street a thousand times over the years and how the traffic has changed over the time.

I like the symmetry of the escalator juxtaposed with the person pushing the pram through top of the frame.

I wanted to get the guy playing the accordion completely silhouetted while keeping the background well exposed and still being able to see the Pottinger's Entry sign.

I think overall I managed to capture a couple of great shots, but I always have in the back of my mind something that I heard Chase Jarvis say in an interview on his website.  Being creative with photography is great, and if you want to make your shots unique and striking it will help build your brand and differentiate yourself from the competition.  However, there is an element of basic knowledge that you must have to do this.  Your camera skills need to be second nature so that you don't need to think how to change settings on the fly.  All of your shots need to be focused, sharp, well composed and well exposed.  And you need to do this every time.  You have to be able to land the ball on the fairway, every time.

OK, so at this point I'm not hitting the mark because I have quite a few photos that are just out of focus with either the subject moving towards the camera or just not being spot on with manual focus.  But the percentage of error is definitely coming down.

Finally, we have a new project for next week.  It's a portrait project where we need to take 6 shots of complete strangers (no friends of friends), and have them pose for the shot.  I'm not as nervous as I was previously, because with a bit of Dutch courage I managed to take a few shots of some people in Whites Tavern the other day.  But it's still going to be a challenge.

I'll be working on the project this week and get some photos up when I can as well as adding the photos that I took in Whites.

Until next time....