Shuttercal: An Image for Each Calendar Day

I try to post each of my iPhone Photo-a-Day images to my Shuttercal page (http://www.shuttercal.com/calendar/billbooz/). It is fun to look back (I have been doing this since September when I got the iPhone 5) and see what images I have posted. I try to keep a different theme for each day of the week (B&W on Sunday, storytelling on Saturday, for example) so, that too, is fun to look down all the Tuesdays or Saturdays to see any connections.

As the year goes on, though - I am now on Day 66 - I am seeing I need to change some of my daily themes. For example, it is getting more and more difficult to find flowers to shoot on Fridays and our neighbors' tree (Tree Thursdays) is getting kind of boring now that all of the leaves have fallen and it really is not changing from week to week.

Gotta work on that...

Looking for Some New Themes

Themes, that is, in the sense of things to shoot with my iPhone on particular days of the week as part of my 365 Day Project for iPhone images: http://boozthroughthelens.posterous.com. I have been doing flowers on Fridays, but flowers are getting scarcer and more difficult to find, especially close to home. Wednesdays have been my "pot luck," anything goes days, but would like to focus on something. On Thursdays, I've been shooting our neighbors' changing tree, but it isn't really changing much these days.

Any suggestions?

Back in the Photo Blog Game!

Realized I still had this blog after following link from comment I made on our son's blog for their new daughter - our third granddaughter - Madeline Carmicheal Booz (http://themadbooz.blogspot.com/). Figured since I plan to comment frequently on Mads' blog, I better add some content of my own to this old photo blog I have pretty much left in the dust for a few years!!

I recently got an iPhone and decided as a way to force myself to check out the many alternative camera apps to post an image a day taken with the iPhone. Each week I try to change camera apps until I decide which one I really like to use the most (currently between Camera+ and ProCamera). I post those images at http://boozthroughthelens.posterous.com/.

I also teach photography classes now (actually, have for the past few years, but since retiring, now teaching in our hometown of Lynchburg, VA - http://www.infotor.com/photoclasses) and as part of my freebie give-back, I try to post three times a week to my photography learning blog at http://www.whboozimages.com: Mondays - general photo tips; Wednesdays - recording video with a dSLR; and Fridays - flash photography.

My 365@50mm Project

In October 2009 I started a photo project to take a shot with my camera every day using my 50mm lense for a year. I was pretty religious for the first few months, only “falling off the wagon” a few times, missing day here and there, but eventually, I starting missing larger gaps of time so that by now, almost ten months later (which should put me somewhere in the low 300’s for images), I am only at image post # 207!

I have come to realize - or resign myself - that it’s “all good,” as our son would say!! It is not so much about the “image every day” thing as about making images and, more importantly, making images you’re proud of or, at least, images that you shot to try something, a new technique, new angle, or....whatever.

One thing I have learned from this experiment is that it is better to have some focus (really, NO pun intended!) about what you want to shoot. I have tried topics or themes and they help. Now I’m trying “places” so that I am shooting things in the bathroom or, the kitchen. It is surprising what nice images - at least, to me! - one can get in unusual places. But, more importantly, it gives purpose to otherwise just random shooting.   

If you’re interested, check out my daily (almost!) posting at http://booz50mm.posterous.com. 

Trying MacJournal as Blogpost Client

I recently purchased MacJournal to use with the classes I will be teaching in the fall and decided to try out its feature which allows one to use it as blogging client. So this post is really just to test out whether it works with this particular blogging software and how the post ends up looking.

Trying Out Photrade.com

Sell photos on photrade | By billbooz

I have created an account with photrade.com where they offer 2GB of space for free, but also have pro accounts through which one can sell one's photos in a variety of ways. I have posted the 20 "selects" from the several hundred images I shot while in Seattle, Washington over last weekend. The one pictured here is actually my favorite and it was a spur of the moment shot before we got on the water taxi to go to a wedding across Elliott Bay on Alkai Point.

"From My Porch"

Trying to come up with other ways to purposely improve my photographic skill with my - relatively - new dSLR (Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi [actually Japanese version, the 'Kiss EOS Digital X']). The 'daily' photo thing is just not working! I have been inspired by Matthew Boyle, a young Scotsman who is documenting his experiences in improving his portrait-taking skills in his "100 Portraits" blog (http://www.100portraits.net).

So, my plan is to take image shots when I sit on the porch of a little house my wife and I own near Charlottesville, VA (U.S.A.) in Ivy. It's a side porch and the 180 degree view encompasses the upper yard, driveway, and street and railroad tracks that pass in front of the house. Pretty boring, actually, but it will be interesting to see if, besides seasonal changes, I can spark up shots with the occasional deer couple in the yard (should they dare venture there when I'm on the porch...unlikely), a male and female cardinal who frequently prance around on the walk way or a passing cyclist (a group of 10 went by together last evening!) or walker. We'll see...