foto Priority

“Taking photographs, taking candid photographs, means that the photographer is an invisible man. Whereas there is still a feeling that in having a photograph taken there is a loss of face: something of the soul is gone” – Bruce Davidson

GET FAMILIAR WITH BRUCE’S WORK

This months Student focus (no pun intended) is on Chris Belyea. Chris is working on an interesting project that we had to share with you all, it’s no doubt inspiring to all up and coming photographers and enthusiasts a like, and a great way to keep those creative juices flowing. Have you got the commitment?

Read below where Chris explains Project 366-1

“… How hard can it be ? You take a photo every day for a year. Simple ! …”

In case you’re wondering, Project 366-1 is a Flickr group, and there’s quite a few of them, where you take a photo each day for an entire year, and after 239 days (as of today) I can still hear myself saying those exact same words.

Is it as easy as it sounds … far from it !

Is it rewarding, and will you develop as a photographer … without a doubt !

OK, maybe a little background will help

I’d dabbled with various cameras over the years, but certainly nothing more serious than holiday and birthday happy snaps, and in July 2007 my wife presented me with my first DSLR, and after the initial burst of enthusiasm that everyone has, motivation and inspiration began to fall right away, and the DSLR began to gather dust.

That is, until I came across a Blog in December 2008 that made mention of Project 365, so I had a look, signed up and hence the basis for

“… How hard can it be ? You take a photo every day for a year. Simple ! …”

The simple part was taking the first image on Day 1.

After about Day 10, reality bites and you very quickly realise that there’s a huge difference between taking birthday snapshots and actually making an image that you’d feel proud (well, most of the time) to post on Flickr for the world to see.

Like most people, I strive to be reasonably good at what I do, and Project 366-1, from a photography viewpoint, has inspired me to learn more about the craft, to experiment and generally be a lot more creative, and as with most things in life, the more you practice, the more skilled you become.

Every now and again it all comes together … I’ve thought about what I wanted to achieve, given it a try and managed to produce a few images that I’m actually proud to call my own.

Now, to put things into perspective, I’ll give you the Pro’s and Con’s of a doing a Project such as this, and then you can decide if it’s the right thing for you

Pro’s

-You’ll be exposed to a lot of good work on Flickr that will just possibly inspire you.
-You will be part of a larger photographic community that will inspire, support and provide feedback on a daily basis.
-You’ll challenge yourself to explore different areas of photography that will challenge and inspire you.
-You’ll actively seek new avenues to learn about photography, and Sydney Photographic Workshops is a good place to start.
-You will DEFINITELY improve your photography !

Con’s

-Time consuming and addictive
-Frustrating beyond belief at times
-You’ll immediately realise that you’re not as good as you thought you are … that could also be a Pro
-You’ll quickly understand that you can’t, and won’t, produce a masterpiece each day (see the Con above)

Would I do another Project 366-1 after I finish this one ? … quite possibly … so that I can go back and re-shoot most of what I’ve already done, armed with what I’ve learnt and experienced so far 

There’s a quote by Kent Reno that I came across a while ago

“I discovered that even if I didn’t always take a picture, the simple act of carrying a camera and searching for something to photograph greatly sharpened my powers of observation and allowed me to experience much more life”

That quote is printed out on a card that is fixed firmly to the bottom of my PC monitor !

For anyone that wants to have a look at what the current Flickr group is up to, point your browser to The Project 366-1 flickr group.

Chris Belyea ( aka CB 357)

You can also see more of Chris’ other work at by visiting his Photostream at http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisbelyea/

Wow what a night! One of Shots biggest turnouts with almost 40 students pre-booked for a night of learning and inspiration.

Our model for the evening was Olivia. She certainly earned her money with all those lenses focussed on her. I would say she was thankful no one used a flash!

This week’s topic was Composition & Light. Daniel ran through some techniques on how to improve composition and gain an understanding of photographic light and how it behaves.

The night concluded with more opportunity’s for the students to practice their shooting. As you can see by the images, everyone was getting right into it!

We also had the first “shot of the week” The winning image is chosen from our Shots @ the Arthouse Flickr group and presented to the budding photographer on the night. This weeks winning image below was taken by Chris Belyea (CB 357) the image is part of his Project 366-1 series, you can read more about it in our Student Corner. Chris won a $50 gift voucher to use on any of the SPW workshops of his choice, and a free drink!

Upload your best 5 images to the Shots@Arthouse flickr group to be in the running for “shot of the week”