Sunday, November 8, 2009

365 Project Update - Month 2

37 (1012)Month two was even harder than month one. There were many days that I just phoned it in and I struggled to take photos on some weekdays. It would be 10pm at night and I would still have no clue on what to take a photo of.

So I came up with an idea to theme my weekday photos and try to tie them together. I had a week of just dinners and a week where the subject was soft glowing light. Hopefully this should help me. I think I need to stay focused and make sure I'm not doing this as a chore but to represent my year as well as try new techniques and learn my camera.

I am happy to say that I am using my camera's manual mode more and more. There are times where I just don't like how the camera meters the light and I need more control. Even in Av mode I will use exposure lock more now than ever before.

Like last update, I went through and picked three of the photos I really like but did not include because another photo won out that day. This is kind of cheating, I know, but oh well :). I find ritually going back over a months worth of photos to find overlooked gems is encouraging and inspires me to do better.

The rejected photos:

Rejected- Rejected--2 Rejected--3

Monday, November 2, 2009

Alum Rock Park

IMG_1018Did some light mountain biking yesterday at Alum Rock Park, one of the oldest (if not the oldest?) city park in the valley. It's fairly big in size and provides a decent amount of trail. It was really easy to get to which is good because even with the time change we were getting a late start. Plus everything seemed to be going wrong that morning, including someone stealing my bagel at the coffee shop. I'm surprised the bikes didn't fall off the Amigo.

We started at the parking lot just outside the gates and went up the main bike trail (marked Bicycle Path on the signs) that goes the length of the park. Donna's head started hurting so we stopped at the visitor center playground area for a rest and took some time to take some photos for my 365 project.

IMG_1024Donna not feeling up to it, I left my pack with her and continued along the main path until the end where it's open to horses and hikers only. Lots of old stone bridges line the trail and I almost regretted leaving my SLR with Donna (almost :), I still had my powershot). There is also a bunch of remains of old hot spring baths.

It's a pretty level trail, it's a very gradual uphill going in and a fun downhill going back. On a warm sunday the trail from the parking lot to the visitor center is pretty crowded so we had to take it slow on the way back or risk running into children :).

I would have liked to explore the other trails but we'll have to go back.

Click for Route:
click for gps track