52 Weeks In...

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About 52 Weeks In...

Ladies and gentlemen,

I don't find a lot of time these days to work on personal projects. I know many of you feel the same way. Between work and life and life and work things can get hectic. I was talking to my pal and fellow SPC alum Len Payne about this very thing the other day. I was encouraging Len to shoot again - photographers tend to do that from time to time - and suggested he might start up one of those 365 or 52 projects. I also suggested he come up with a list of themes to keep him on track.

Len has done just that. He's put together a list of 52 themes - one for each week, if you're keeping score - and he's going to check them off in turn. Being the kind of friend that I am, I'm going to go along for the ride and do this project with him. To provide a little extra motivation, you see. I can be persuasive.

In turn, I'd like to open this up to each and every member of the SPC. Just another opportunity to stretch your creative muscles. Sure, there are a million groups out there that do this kind of thing, but we've never done one together.

The challenge begins Monday, February 28. You'll have one week to complete each section. If you fall behind... catch up. But you can't skip ahead.

If you plan to participate I encourage you to reply below and update your entry every week. Head it like this:

Week 1: {THEME NAME}
then post a medium photo. ONE PHOTO PER WEEK!

Even the busiest of us can surely find a time to make one photo a week. I know I'm going to try.

If you have any questions, please do let me know. As we have a few days before we go live with this, if you have an suggestions - changes to the list, perhaps - throw them out there. We're all ears.

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From Len:
Here's the list, ordered and dated. Dates are for the Monday at the beginning of the week. Pictures for a week should be completed before the following Monday. If you're going to start changing around dates, keep in mind that a lot of these sort of need to be done outside. So, for example, Night Long Exposure I put in the middle of the summer so that folks aren't sitting out in the snow, trying to get a long exposure shot at night in the blistering wind. Similarly, the ones that are really easy to do indoors, I put in the deep of winter.


1. Feb. 28 - Fluid Freeze-frame * Splash/Flash Photography
2. Mar. 7 - Environmental Portrait * Capture someone in their natural habitat. Not a candid.
3. Mar. 14 - Shadows * General Shadow theme.
4. Mar. 21 - Urban Decay * Old things fall apart, let me see that.
5. Mar. 28 - The Camera Toss * Chuck your camera with the shutter open. See what happens. I can't imagine people are going to do this one.
5. Mar. 28 – Self-Portrait
6. Apr. 4 - Bikes * Foot-powered bicycles. Get the Helje bike shot, or the painstaking bike pan. We already have transportation/cars. We can cut this.
6. Apr. 4- In the spirit of spring, this week we're working with umbrellas.
7. Apr. 11 - Repetition * Lather, rinse, repeat. Lather, rinse…
8. Apr. 18 - Street * The greatest street photo of all time. Or the worst. Who can ever really tell?
9. Apr. 25 - Dave Hill * Create a full Scene. High contrast, super-wide DoF, push highlights, lights absolutely everywhere.
10. May 2 - Get High * Get up in the air
11. May 9 - School * A school. Doesn't have to be yours.
11. May 9- Natural Environment/Landscape
12. May 16 - Compression * Bring things together using a long telephoto lens.
13. May 23 - Contre-Jour (Against Daylight) * Silhouette w/ Lightsource Directly Behind Subject
14. May 30 - Church * A church. Doesn't have to be yours.
14. May 30 - Church is too specific. We're going to open this up and say FAITH.
15. June 6 - Daylight Long Exposure * Take a long exposure shot (>1s) in daytime
16. June 13 - Proper HDR Usage * Multiple exposures, joined in post.
17. June 20 - Sunset * Not just a sunset, but what happens at sunset. Context is important.
18. June 27 - Sunrise * See above. What do people do in the morning that they aren't as likely to do at night?
19. July 4 - Fluid Long Exposure * Get some running water/fluid/whatever, and make it smooth We already have water (week 1) so we’re going to roll with a new category here.
19. July 4- Tacky. Use this as you see fit!
20. July 11 - Forced Perspective * Super-huge DoF with a tele lens to make things like the "pushing over the Eiffel Tower" shots We already have compression. Again, we’d like to open this one up.
20. July 11- Supernatural. Get spooky.
21. July 18 - Park * Go to the nearest park and take the best shot you can. Parks can, of course, be incorporated into many of the other areas.
21. July 18- Monochromatic. All shades of blues….all shades of green…pick a color
22. July 25 - Get Low * Get down on the ground
23. Aug. 1 - Nighttime Long Exposure * Take a long exposure shot (~30s) at night
24. Aug. 8 - Macro * Take a very big picture of something very small
25. Aug. 15 - Star Trails * Time to get out of the light pollution and see what's up there. We already have night long exposure.
25. Aug. 15- Weather!
26. Aug. 22 - Then and Now * Find an old picture of your town, take a new picture of the same place, with the same perspective.
26. August 22- Texture
27. Aug. 29 - Cars * Pretty self-explanatory. Vehicles. Still or moving. Singular or plural.
28. Sept. 5 - Light Painting * Get your light paintbrush out
29. Sept. 12 - Panorama * Stitched shot creating a much larger picture than normal
30. Sept. 19 - The Big Grain * Use grain to your advantage for striking effect. We already have ISO Bomb.
30. Heavy. Dig it.
31. Sept. 26 - Trees * Stupid things just stand there all day. Get me a good shot of one.
32. Oct. 3 - Fluid Reflection * Get that shot with the crystal clear pane of water/coffee/whatever that causes a perfect reflection Again, we have a water shot and reflections.
32. Oct. 3- Cleanliness is next to godliness
33. Oct. 10 - Panning * Sharp focus on a moving subject, with motion blur on background
34. Oct. 17 - Fake Tilt-Shift * Do it, at least to learn how it's done
35. Oct. 24 - Work * Take the best picture you can of your workplace. Do we want 500 photos of the inside of schools?
35. Oct. 24- Isolation/Rukenfigure
36. Oct. 31 - Zack Arias * One light is right. A portrait - full length, headshot, anything - using one off-camera flash.
37. Nov. 7 - ISO Bomb * Shoot with your highest possible ISO and largest possible aperture (the 6400 ISO f/1.4 mix).
38. Nov. 14 - Faces * Just the face.
39. Nov. 21 - Combine Two Scenes * Take a shot of two disparate scenes, and combine them into one smooth picture in post.
40. Nov. 28 - Vanishing Point * Leading lines to a visible vanishing point
41. Dec. 5 - Food * A feast for the eyes. Your best food shot. Ever.
42. Dec. 12 - Zoom Burst * Zoom in, zoom out. Snap, Snap, Snap.
43. Dec. 19 - The Reflections Among Us * Seek out the reflections!
44. Dec. 26 - Hands * Just the hand(s).
45. Jan. 2 - Hard and Soft * Combine two frames; one in focus, one out of focus.
46. Jan. 9 - Look Down * Take a picture straight down
46. Jan. 9- Framing. Creative use of frames, natural or articual (but not photo shopped!)
47. Jan. 16 - Home * Take the best picture you can of the place you call home.
48. Jan. 23 - Tonemapped Stickerwhore * First one to get explored owes the others a beer.
49. Jan. 30 - Harris Shutter * Same shot with three filters, combine
50. Feb. 6 - Family * Take that family portrait you've been putting off for years Great idea, but how many people in Korea are near their families? Not many.
50. Feb. 6- Minimalism.
51. Feb. 13 - Jill Greenberg * Headshot on plain background with light from everywhere. Can probably skip the naked children part.
52. Feb. 20 - Look Up * Take a picture straight up