Project 52: Week 53; Bonus Round – My Choice

So as I suggested last week I might return to my 52 week project for a bonus 53rd week, and low and behold I have. I thought that as there isn’t a specific brief or theme for this week then I would go for whatever the hell I wanted, so that’s what I’ve done. Below is a landscape shot that I actually did shoot during this 53rd week, stood at sunset on Caerphilly Mountain looking down into the valleys below. I love the fact I was able to capture the rolling early evening fog condensing in the valley, it’s lie looking down on a calm sea. I really love the colours of the sunset light poking out underneath the heavy cloud as well. Finally I really like the lines created by the pathway bisecting diagonally across the image as well, leading your eye towards the misty valley. Nikon D5200, Sigma 10-20mm EX DC, ND Grad 0.3, ISO 160, f8, 1/6th Sec

Project 52: Week 52; Portrait – Another Self Portrait

So the 52 week project has finally reached it’s climax, 52 weeks of sometimes slightly random theme’s and assignments designed to force me to branch out my photographic perspective, or something like that anyway. As many of you may be aware I’ve not been enjoying this project as much as I thought I would, sometimes it’s felt a chore, sometimes I’ve struggled to fit the brief for a particular week, sometimes I just haven’t bothered and then plastered out a number of posts quickly in succession. I will say this, it’s done.

Project 52: Week 51; Artistic – Art

We’re coming up to the end of the 52 week project, thank God for that I hear you say, although in the last couple of weeks I’ve realised that technically I could squeeze a 53rd week into this before the year is over. This week the theme is “Art”, another nonsense theme I would never choose myself but there we go. It does mean I get to use this image below, a few months ago my Grandmother found an old painting her Father had done decades ago, it’s nothing special, was really dirty and had just been done on a piece of thick cardboard he’d had to hand one day, but I like it. She asked me to take a photograph of it so she could send it as an image file by email to a relative overseas, so I did, she also said she’d like to see it blown up on a canvas to put on her wall so I’ve gone and done that for her Xmas present (shhh she doesn’t know yet, obviously).

 Nikon D5200, 35mm Nikkor DX 1:1.8, ISO 400, f8, 1/1250th sec.

Project 52: Week 50; Landscape – Symmetrical

Second post of the week for my 52 week project as I’ve fallen behind, this one’s theme is Landscape and symmetry. As a guy who shoots very much rule of thirds, especially with landscape, this is not an easy task for me to do, I prefer a nice solid foreground feature at the bottom/mid left or right and then big empty open space for the rest in my landscape images. However the one below, which yes has been posted previously, sort of fits the symmetry bill I guess.

Project 52: Week 49; Portrait – Dancing

OK yet again I am late with posting an update to this project, if I’m honest with you all I can not wait for it to be over, it hasn’t really live up to the expectations I wanted of it and it’s been more of a look back through my portfolio than something that’s encouraged me to get out and shoot. That being said once again this week has two entries as I didn’t get around to posting last week’s, that being “Portrait – Dancing”. This shot is taken from the UK Photography Show earlier this year.

Project 52: Week 48; Artistic – Bokeh

Another week and another entry into my 52 week photography project, this time around the subject is Bokeh, something I would be surprised to hear any photographer say they don’t enjoy. Bokeh is the pleasing blurred out of focus area of a photograph beyond the subject you’re capturing, it’s easiest t capture with a wide aperture hence why the below shot is taken at the widest setting available on the lens.

 Nikon D5200, Nikkor 35mm DX, ISO 800, f1.8, 1/15th sec.

Project 52: Week 47; Landscape – Abandoned

For week 47 of my 52 week photography project the subject is once again landscapes and this time the theme of “abandoned”. I have a surprising amount of images of abandoned places, be they industrial or historical as I really like the idea of seeing something that mankind has created being claimed back by the ravages of time. That being said I thought rather than just showing either an old, overgrown building or rail line or a touristic medieval ruin (there’s plenty of those in Wales) I’d go for something a little different. So this is the image I’ve chosen, it’s the remains of a neolithic burial chamber here in South Wales, it’s historical but it’s not a place people often visit or even know about as it’;s just standing, alone, in a field some way from any major towns or roads.

Project 52: Week 46; Portrait – Backlit

Week 46 of my 52 week photography project and the themes this time is “Portrait – Backlit”. I don’t like using flash most of the time so try to use natural light as much as possible, luckily when I took this shot the sun was low in the sky and behind my girlfriend, hence why i looks so nicely lit and the trees and grass behind are lit up behind the fence. This is one of the first shot’s I’ve taken with my new (well new to me) Zenza Bronica S2A, very pleased with how it’s come out.

 Zenza Bronica S2A, Fuji Pro 160S, f2.8, 1/125th sec.

Project 52: Week 45; Artistic – Nostalgia

So the brief for week 45 of my 52 week project is “Nostalgia”, makes sense for me to go back in time with the image I use for this one I think. This was taken from the window of a bedroom in a house I no longer live in using a camera and lens combination I no longer own and is of, arguably considering the amount of people who use mobile or cell phones, a fading technology, that being the landline telegraph wires.

 Nikon D40x, Nikkor 55-200mm, ISO 200, f5.6, 1/1000th sec.

Project 52: Week 44; Landscape – A Tree

For week 44 of my 52 week project I’ve decided to do a slight re-edit of an older image of mine for the subject of “Landscape – A Tree”. To be honest most of the landscape images I take tend to have something as a bit of foreground or mid-ground interest in them, and it usually is something like a tree as that’s such an easy subject to find in vast abundance.

 Nikon D5200, Sigma 10-20mm EX DC, ISO 100, f16, 1/4th sec.