365 continues

Several times in the past, I've written about the 365 project.  I wasn't sure I was going to be able to attack something like this.  Although I do tend to take a lot of pictures, I don't necessarily take them every single day.

When I looked into this project, it was in the middle of December.  I posted a picture on the 18th following a geocaching trip up in the desert on a day where it rained up there for most of the day.  But I didn't take another picture until a week later on Christmas Day.  I suspected that I might not be up to a project like this.  I was wrong.

I started posting photos in succession on the 30th of December, once again after a geocaching hike.  I have yet to miss a day.  I've played little tricks with myself that has helped me out tremendously.  I have my fall back pictures in case I end up with no inspiration that particular day.  My fall back pictures tend to be flowers.  Living in Southern California, we have flowers blooming year round, so it's relatively easy to take pictures of flowers.  I think I could post a different flower picture ever single day.

However, I didn't want to be known as the "flower" guy.  I follow several photographers on the 365 Project, and while their photos are excellent, I also find them rather repetitive.  They do certain things very well.  I'd like to see them expand into other areas, just to see them stretch themselves a little.  This is one of the tacks I'm taking.  I'm trying to take a bunch of different photos of different things, just to expand and stretch myself.  I know I can take good landscapes and flower and plant pictures.  Can I take a good street picture?

I don't think I'm that good with portraits or with black and white photography, so I've been experimenting in that area.  My daughter issued me a challenge for the month of March - no flowers.  That's been tough, but I've worked other things in.  I kind of cheated today, not taking a picture of flowers, but taking pictures of the aftermath - the berries.  And now, as I look at my monthly calendar, I've seen March peppered with pictures of birds.  My daughter has already said I can't take pictures of birds next month.  We'll see how that goes.

I've been lucky to have included a couple of geocaching photos into my 365 project.  I actually thought the bulk of my photos would be geocaching photos, but that hasn't turned out to be the case.  I haven't been geocaching a lot this month due to other commitments, but with a two week break looming on the horizon, that might change shortly.  Either way, I'm glad it hasn't happened that way.  I'm enjoying working on still life, playing around with different objects just to see what the light will do.  Almost every photo I think about posting goes through the black and white processing just to see what it might look like in that medium.

I've gotten into the habit of taking my camera with me almost every where I go.  Sometimes, I go out with a specific goal in mind, other times, I just take pictures and hope for the best.  Ironically, that's what I ended up posting today and I've already gotten some very nice comments back on that particular photo.

I guess what I'm really trying to say with this is I'm actually surprised that I'm still doing this.  As I posted in an earlier post, I didn't think I would be able to do this.  But I can and I'm finding it easier and easier to find good quality subjects to photograph.

Pictures were taken for the following dates:
March 1st, 2011.
March 10th, 2011.
March 13th, 2011.

Wordless Wednesday

Picture was taken near the following geocache:

NEP_pd8 - by Ranger Rick

More than I can chew

Earlier this month, I mentioned that I was going to attempt the 365 project.  I figured that I'd start the project on the first of next month and just end up taking a picture every day for the next year.  Already, I now know, I've bitten off more than I can chew.

I uploaded two pictures earlier this month, just to see if this project would be difficult.  In one sense, I can see where I could do this, but in another sense, I know myself well enough to know that I won't be able to do this every day over the next year.  I love taking pictures, but at the same token, I'm also a perfectionist.  I will not publish a picture of my toenail just to satisfy a daily challenge.  It would get onerous very quickly.

Several years ago I challenged myself to try and find a cache for 33 consecutive days.  At that time, I was the main person picking up the Tadpole from his elementary school.  Because of when his Spring Break was and my Spring Break, I figured there was going to be a 33 day window where it would be relatively easy to find a cache every day during that period.  And so I attempted it.

Once the 33 days went by, I continued finding caches each and every day.  Some days were relatively easy, while others were more difficult to accomplish but I persevered up until day 57.  That day, I ran into a string of caches that I couldn't find and it became frustrating enough after five DNFs that I just said to myself, enough.  I wasn't having fun anymore, so I ended the streak.  There is no way I'd ever want to attempt any kind of consecutive streak again.  I think the longest streak I've had since that time has been 11 consecutive days.

And so I thought I'd be able to take a picture every day for 365 days.  Uh huh.  Right.  The nice thing about the 365 Project is you can upload pictures to specific days.  It doesn't hold you accountable for an every day post.  So this project will take several years to achieve fullness, but I can live with that.  The quality of the pictures will be much better than if I ended up taking a picture every day and I will also continue to enjoy the project as it develops.  I know myself well enough that if I were to attempt this, I would end up hating it in the end.  I don't want to do that.

In the meantime, from time to time, I will post updates of my progress on that project.  I've noticed many other bloggers contributing to their own blog by having a Wordless Wednesday every week, which just includes a title and a picture.  I may end up doing something like that as well, although the way I like to write, actually having to have a wordless day might be painful to me.  But I can always try it and if that doesn't work out, so be it.

The two pictures posted here are the two I've posted thus far this month.  One is of an inch and a half long millipede we spotted out in the desert the week before Christmas Day.  We actually saw two different ones, but this one was a little bit more cooperative than the other.  The second picture is of our California Desert Tortoise (yes, I have a permit for it) that lives in our back yard.  It came out of its burrow on Christmas Day and was sunning itself under one of our orange trees.  Today is the first day since Christmas where I haven't seen it wandering around in the back yard.  I suspect the rain today had something to do with that.

Please enjoy these offerings and others in the future.

Night caching and photography

Every now and then there are surprises that show up while you're out.  Chaosmanor and I, while on our road trip last month, stumbled upon a cache at night.  Now, I don't do much night caching and we weren't really going to do any night caching on this trip, but we were on our way back to our hotel room and I spotted this cache just off the freeway, so we thought we'd attempt it.

Once we got there, we discovered this particular cache was a virtual cache.  After we got the requirements for the cache, I went back to the van to get the camera to get some shots of this statue.  Had I had my tripod, I might have been tempted to try some long exposures, but I figured some flash shots would work this time.

This leads me to another topic, that of the 365 project.  Chaosmanor showed this to me, so I thought I'd look into this as well.  I'm going to try and do a literal 365 day project, starting on January 1st, 2011 and work through the year.  I probably won't get anything really earth shattering on some days, maybe even just the top of my foot or something along that line, but I do take a lot of photos and I think I'd like to try something like this.  I keep seeing the 12 on 12 projects, taking 12 photos on the 12th, but for some reason, I always seem to forget about the day until after the fact.  Perhaps with this, since I know I'll need to take at least one photo each day, I'll persevere.  We shall see.

Picture was taken at the following geocache:
Worthy Steed - by Original owner gallahad Adopted by Pamelot 7-2007