7 Photos a week for all 52 weeks of 2013

Brian & Michelle's list of 52 Topics

Architecture

Automobiles

Beach

Bricks

Climb

Close

Connected

Cozy

Deep

Deep freeze

Disappear

Early

En Fuego

Fall

Fallen

Five

Float

Free

Games

Good morning

Good night

Half

Hundreds

Jump

Late

Light and shadow

Lines

Looking up

Loose

Missing

Nightlife

Pairs

Perspective

Planes

Quiet

Reflect

Rivers

Roll

Rough

Round and round

Secured

Seduction

Self

Skin

Soiled

Something old

Stuck

The letter K

Together

Treasure

Words

X marks the spot

I am using this site to learn how to better handle Adobe Muse. Unfortunately that means I can't add a typical Comments section as I don't have the server-side ability to do that. This isn't blogging software.

Week 8 comments

It's been more than a month since I updated this with any comments so I decided to finally get around to doing something I have been meaning to do for awhile--write about my method and ask the rest of you for yours. Yes, this is a kind of homework assignment: How do you shoot, organize and post pics? What's your process from picking up the camera to posting the pictures.

Once I have one from everyone I will add them under Profiles.

 

Week 4 comments

Just a quick note that I hope no one finds cause it proves how stupid I can be. Friday night I shot the photo of the sunset that I posted this week. In taking it, the autofocus on my camera kept wanting to focus on the dirty window I was shooting through, so I turned it off. And left it off. Right through our family Christmas event where I took more than 100 shots, most of which were out of focus. Note to self: Your a dumb ass. Check all your camera settings before you shoot.

Week 3 comments

Someone asked me if I am post-processing my pictures. I said yes since I shoot everything in Camera RAW format, I have to process just to convert them to JPEGs and I usually do more.

Brian asked me how I changed my boat pic and I responded:

"I don't think I have ever posted a photo in my life that I didn't do something to. First, since I shoot everything in RAW it all has go through the Camera RAW process. Then if I like a photo but it doesn't just scream at me that it is "special" I will do what Photoshop guru Dave Cross calls "spending 9 more seconds" trying something in Photoshop that just might make it "special." This one has the ever-popular Plastic Wrap filter applied to it."

One commenter on my boat pic said, "Is that fair to the thingy?"  meaning the boat. I answered:

"No, I am creating a photo that I like. Not one that this boat likes. I like it this way. The original was BORING! My extra few minutes got me an exceptional and interesting photo that has gotten a lot of comments. Many people think that using post processing is "cheating." Cheating who? A wise friend of mine once told me a great thing. He said, "It isn't a race." Since this isn't a competition, why not make the photo look as good as I can and make it look the way that I want it to look. I truly do not believe that this boat cares. In fact, I truly believe that this boat is totally unaware of its existence."

I am (as most of you know) a big believer in Photoshop.

So I would love to know a little bit about how you shoot and post process but I would like to know some other stuff about cameras, etc.

Brian sent me this today

I'm glad you sent this email.

Between you and me, I should clarify that I knew all photos are post processed, all of mine are, every single one, not only am I not Ansel Adams, but sometimes I need to clean up minor areas of dirt or other imperfections. I just didn't know how you got that texture on the boat (which you then answered = plastic wrap). I don't have any issues with filters of any kind, I'm not one to draw the line between unsharp mask and solarize. I asked my question in a way that your response would hopefully serve to educate people as well as figure out what filter you used, this email goes much further (since everyone will see it) and I think it can go a long way to helping everyone improve their photos! Kudos.

 

Then Bill sent me this later today

You can look at this way.  Your digital image is your negative and Photoshop or what ever program you use is your darkroom.  When I use to do darkroom stuff I always enlarge and crop my photo and then went to work on time exposures to see which times would work best for the image I was trying to print.  I would also dodge and burn my images and used other techniques to get the image I wanted.  A lot of old time famous photographers would work on an image in the darkroom until they got on paper the image they wanted.  Once they had the print they wanted then they would take a photo of that image and use that negative to makes prints.  The only difference between now and then is that you are using a computer as you darkroom.  If a person still has a need to feel like they working in a darkroom when using Photoshop then I would suggest opening up a jar of vinear putting it on your desk, screw in a red light bulb and be as nostalgic as you want.

Then Bill sent me this this link and note

Take a look at this photo.  My wife Dona found it.  I can tell you it was not a direct printing of a negative.

Click here!

 

Michelle told us that for great pics, you should learn to FART

Clck here to read about it.

Week 2 Comments

 

Ideas?

Hope the second week is going well for you. Brian wrote me and reminded that he and Michelle  had done this type of project a couple of years ago and when they did, they did a different "theme" each week. He was nice enough to send me their list. It is below.

So what do you think? My thought is that if you like the idea of a weekly theme, it would be totally optional and you could do one or all seven photos about that theme.

It seems to me that Bill did something like this a couple of years ago as well.

Let me know what you think. The list is at left.

A fan from Canada says,

Wow what a great start..Did you give any thought to kinda an overall site where "Your People" and others (me) could just put general comments on the 7/52 site rather than on each site?

My weekly comment to this point would be.

Wow what a great start everyone.  Cats = boooo.....:)   rocking chair yeah!  ... I would walk on that golf course in January & the shadow actually looks like you Jim.

You guys with pics on the 500 site...is there a way to go from one pic to the next from your main page without the slide show?

I answered our Fan from Canada's questions but will mention the answers here. Obviously, the comments thing has been solved to the best of my ability and as to the 500px site, if you are looking at our pics as a slide show there should be a controller at the top that lets you stop the show and then click right or left to advance or go back.

 

A J-Rep from NY says,

Good stuff in there Jim.

 

Tim G (who is one of us) was nice enough to post this on Facebook

At the encouragement of Jim Bellomo, a Seattle bon vivant we met on our New Zealand cruise (along with his lovely wife Kathleen), I've taken on a new photographic challenge for 2013 -- the 7/52 project. A group of us will be taking seven photographs a week, each week, for the entire year, and posting them to Jim's website. First week's pictures are already posted!

Mike P (who is one of us) responded to Tim G

I couldn't agree more Tim.  When Jim brought this up a few years ago, it sounded interesting; but not something I had time to deal with.  The 7/52 format fits my schedule a lot better; so I am glad to be able to join everyone.  Just spending the day yesterday taking different kind of photos than I normally do, showed me that this is a great idea.  Thanks for encouraging us all Jim.

 

I was really thrilled to be called a bon vivant. And thanks to all of you for getting involved in this.

 

© Jim Bellomo 2013