19 Projects
The
reason I have 1300 “keepers” for 2014 is that I've taken my
camera out at every opportunity. The best camera is the one that's
with you.
However,
I've done several photographic projects too, to give some structure
to my photography, beyond “Ooh! Pretty!” Click!
This
Book
Back
in January, I noticed that there wasn't a book available on bridge
camera photography, which is why I decided to write this one. Over
most of a year, I've collected together the images I've used to
illustrate it and some have been deliberately taken for the sole
purpose of being in this book.
Having
it as a project has been an incentive to get out there and get the
shots I needed too. But, enjoyable as it's been, putting this book
together from all the disparate ideas I had, it's not my only
project.
2015
Calendar
Of
all the things I've photographed this year, the most common subject
was birds. I'm not a birdwatcher, any more than I'm a photographer,
but its a fact that they are the most various and prevalent category
of wildlife in my vicinity.
Because
I'd got decent photographs of birds every month, I decided to set
myself the project of creating a 2015 calendar.
Calendars
are a great way to get your pictures on people's walls for a while
and, potentially, solve your Christmas present problems every year.
It's useful, colourful and very personal: a perfect gift. Companies
like Vistaprint are now offering custom calendars as a product so you
don't have to get all Blue Peter and reach for the sticky-backed
plastic and the Prit Stick.
Those
calendar services are fine if you just want one copy but I wanted 30
copies, so I took the cheaper option (only in bulk) of typesetting
the entire thing myself and having it printed by the company that
prints my books. It worked out at £5 a copy, which is comparable
with decent quality shop-bought calendars, and everyone has been
effusively complimentary about it. I can see it becoming an annual
project.
Greeting
Cards
I've
already mentioned this a couple of times. How many different events
do we typically need to send a card for?
Well,
there are lots of companies offering bespoke greeting cards now.
Most, if not all, have the option to upload your own artwork.
There
are generally options for all the usual messages and whatnot, but I
prefer to do my own text as part of the artwork.
Here's
an example I've mocked up, based on one of the pictures we were
messing with earlier.
While such cards are generally one-offs, if you designed your own Christmas card and wanted several dozen, that's available too.
Events
Obvious
really. If you're going somewhere out of the ordinary, capture the
moment.
I've
been to a couple of interesting events this year: Colwyn Bay Ukulele
Festival and Rhyl Air show.
Of
the two, the air show was the best photo opportunity. I mentioned
earlier that I took 4202 photographs in one day, on one battery. That
sounds excessive but I was shooting at 11 frames per second and
didn't want to miss anything. It was actually about 600 separate
bursts of photos, of which, I cherry-picked 140 for my gallery.
 |
| Battle of Britain Memorial Flight - Spitfire & Hurricane |
 |
| Pitts Biplane |
 |
| Red Arrows close pass |
The
lack of focus of the nearer plane is because I was tracking the other
one and hit the button as soon as the oncoming plane came into frame.
Again, there is no time to focus while they're passing. If you don't
have one of them in focus and in frame on the approach, you will miss
the shot. The downside being that, because I was moving the camera, one
plane is effectively stationary and the other appears to have twice
it's actual speed. That's why, personally, I preferred the historic
aircraft and the slower aerobatic displays. That Pitts, flown by a
young lady from Wales, is (IMHO) beautiful.
There
were a lot of guys with big cameras and big lenses there on the day
but a google of Rhyl Air Show 2014 images doesn't turn up much that's
significantly better than the pictures I got. If any of those big
guns got good stuff, they're keeping it to themselves (How likely is
that?)
If
you're interested in seeing more, you can see all my Air Show photos
in one of the galleries listed at the end of this chapter.
[Update: One of my phots of the Vulcan Bomber from the 2015 airshow was picked as the cover image for the Daily Post's special feature on the show. Not bad with so many bigger cameras there.]
Weddings
Just
because there's a 'proper' photographer at a wedding, doesn't mean
you can't have a go too. People are standing around in posing mode
already, so they won't mind.
I
have actually been that 'proper' photographer at a couple of weddings
and I have another one coming up in May 2015. I can tell you that it
is, without doubt, the most nerve-racking day's work you can have
with a camera. It's much more fun if someone else has the official
responsibility and, because even professional photographers have been
known to screw things up, your photos might save the day if the
photographer crashes into a ravine on the way home and the wedding
photos are destroyed in a movie-style fireball.
OK,
so my imagination may be running a bit wild and that's not at all
likely but it's hard to imagine a bride fretting that there are too
many pictures of her big day.
Holidays
Why
wouldn't you take a camera on holiday? It's a no-brainer, right?
Well, gentle reader, attend the tale of the man with too much to
lose...
Once
upon a time, there was a man with several thousand pounds worth of
family crystal in his camera bag. He was going to India for a month
without his camera because he didn't want it stolen. Instead, he
proposed photographing the Taj Mahal and all the other amazing and
colourful sights with a smartphone.
I
pointed out that a bridge camera was half the price of his brand new
smartphone and would take better pictures for him.
“Buy
a bridge camera? Was I mad?”
Well...
I wasn't the one planning to visit one of the most exotic and
colourful places in the world, without my camera.
And
the moral of the tale is bridge cameras can go where more expensive
gear cannot. Some DSLR (and Compact System camera) owners become
victims of their own investment. If you're scared to take your camera
out, it isn't a whole lot of use, is it?
Nor
was this cautionary tale an isolated incident. A pal of mine went on
a cycling holiday along the Danube this summer. Her DSLR and gear
were too much to fit in her panniers so they stayed home.
She bought a bridge
camera when she got back but I remember thinking it would have been a
better purchase before such an interesting trip. Still, her
experience with her new 'cheapo' camera has been very positive so far
and it's good to know a committed DSLR photographer has found that a
bridge camera makes a useful second camera and I'm looking forward to
seeing the results of her experience and the bridge camera's
versatility.
Competitions
Such
sites are generally populated by helpful and talented amateurs so
it's a good place to be if you want to learn a bit more but don't
want to be made to feel guilty or inferior for your camera choice.
The
challenge of finding something to photograph for each month's chosen
theme was a big part of the fun of those competitions.
This,
for instance, was on the theme of light, despite it's conspicuous
absence, and it got me my first top ten result.
 |
| Roz - 7th place in a competition on the theme of "light" |
 |
| …to crack a nut - 11th place in a competition on the theme of “clichés” |
The
point being, entering competitions isn't just for the “good
photographers”.
There
are lots of smaller competitions out there and the worst that will
happen is that you'll get useful feedback about what people felt you
got wrong. I've never known the comments to be anything but well
meant and constructive.
Online
Galleries
Sure,
you can post your pictures on Facebook and spend your evenings
totting up all your 'likes'. After all, that's the fate of most
photographs today.
However,
there will come a time when you have just too many to post that way.
That's when you'll turn to sites like Flickr, Tumblr or Photobucket.
These sites let you organise your photos into albums but the problem
I have with them is the clutter of advertising for their premium
services. I favour Blogger as a gallery space because it's relatively
clutter free, but that's just my preference.
Exhibitions
Yes,
yes, I know its too early to be planning your first exhibition but...
I
was recently offered some exhibition space at a venue in North Wales.
The proprietor had seen some of my wildlife photos on my brother's
Facebook page.
By
my own admission, I'm not a photographer so it's as surprising as it
is flattering. It does go to show you though, just how far a little
knowledge and a lot of practice can get you. It's not Carnegie Hall,
but its a beginning.
And
there are a lot of spaces available if you're interested in
exhibiting prints. Just in Rhyl, there are two units in the shopping
centre which a consortium of local arties has turned into a gallery,
The walls of the shopping centre itself are being used as gallery
space for a local photographer.
It
doesn't have to be a proper gallery space either. Having photographed
the kite surfers rather a lot this summer, I've got half a dozen of
my pictures in frames on the wall of their premises.
The
point? There are a lot of walls out there if you want one.