TECHNICAL DETAILS
Rule of Thirds, Crystal Court, IDS Tower, Minneapolis, MN, USA, 2017
Leica D-Lux typ 109
1/15 at f/5.6 ISO 200 24mm equivalent focal length. Hand held.
#dogwood52 #dogwood2017 #dogwoodweek1
52 WEEKS: A CHALLENGE
I’ve generally not been much a fan of, nor a participant in, organized photographic endeavors. I’ve usually been pretty much a lone wolf, and looked to find my own vision and follow my own creative tendencies. That door cracked open a bit one year ago when I did a 30 day photo challenge. My goal was to shoot one ‘publishable’ photo each day of January, 2016. So that was actually 31 days. I chose to do the challenge all in black and white, as a creative exercise and to bring me back to thinking more consistently in that medium. I was happy to complete that challenge, and though I posted on the older version of this site, I didn’t share the effort very broadly.
This year, I’ve elected to participate in a much more public photo challenge. This time, it’s a 52-week challenge called #dogwood2017. Where last year’s effort was to force me to find inspiration of some kind — any kind — this year I’m shooting one photo a week of a prescribed subject or topic, laid out in the challenge. There are a couple of thousand photographers participating in this world wide, and sharing their output on a Flickr group each week.
I was initially quite reticent to join into such a prescribed program. I was leery of it stifling creativity rather than spurring it on, because I didn’t want to find myself passing up a good shot just because it wasn’t in the program that week. But some introspection and meditating on what I wanted to get out of the experience pushed me into giving it a try. I do not intend to write about it here every week. I may occasionally if the subject matter warrants, but that’s not the goal. Consider yourselves apprised, and follow along on my #dogwood2017 Flickr album to see the progression. Information about the subjects each week is available on the challenge website linked above.
The challenge alternates subjects each week in three categories: storytelling, technical and artistic impression. The first week kicked off with a story using the Rule of Thirds, one of the pillars of basic photo composition. I happened to be in downtown Minneapolis for other reasons, and as I was walking through the busy Crystal Court at high noon, I was struck by the juxtaposition of the people on the skyway level walking so purposefully and at pace, while below in the courtyard, there was an island of calm. A few people sat under the trees on benches. There was relatively little movement, and the sound of the water cascade hitting the catch basin drown out much of the clatter and chatter of those one level up in the hustle.
I stood on the side of the second level for a moment, wondering how the Rule of Thirds played into the equation, and made a few exposures. I went through the rest of the day knowing I had a usable image for the first week of #dogwood2017. Stay tuned for more!
Leave a reply