As many of you know, I had a hip replacement operation in November, and although the recovery’s been easy, it was tough being holed up in the house for 6 weeks, then with limited mobility after that. Thinkin’ stir-crazy! But something on Facebook caught my eye at the beginning of January… a 52 week photo challenge #dogwood52 group. This was great, because it forced me out of the house, and because each week’s task was a preassigned, also force me out of my comfort zone photographically. It’s been quite a while since I did a blog, so here’s my first 10 weeks of the 52 week challenge. Can’t believe how quickly 2016 is flying by.

Week 1: Portrait: Self Portrait

Week 1 was a selfie. I hate doing these, as I’m always afraid I’ll break the camera… drop it, that is 😉 So I’ve been wanting to try out a photographic technique called “high-key“. [note: you can click on any image for a lightbox view and slideshow]

Week 2: Traditional Landscape

Week 2 was supposed to be a “traditional landscape”, but I didn’t know what traditional meant, and it was foggy, so I made this photo at the end of the pier at Marie Curtis park. Again, close to home because I still had limited mobility and was hobbling around with a cane. 🙁

The water was pretty choppy, so I tried to smooth it out with a 10 sec. exposure. Obviously I was using a tripod and neutral density filter.

Week 3 – “Artistic: Red”. I knew about this fire hydrant in the

Week 3: Artistic Red

forest at the Adamson Estate, close to our place, by the lake. The hydrant looks so lonely, but dramatic. Would there ever be a fire there? So I drove over there with my Fuji x100s, which has a built-in tilt-shift setting that I wanted to try.

There are a lot of weddings photographed here, and I saw a sign “Photography only allowed with special permit, trespassers will be jailed”. But, I was already there with the x100s setup for tilt-shift, so I thought WTF, just do it. But actually, if I was thrown in jail with my camera, think of the human interest photos I could make. 😕

Week 4: Portrait: Headshot

Week 4 -” Portrait: Headshot”. In the 52 week challenge guide, this was described as a “selfie” of someone else, which seems to be an oxymoron to me. If I made a selfie of someone else, wouldn’t I have to be in it? But then, wouldn’t it really be a group shot. Anyhow, again, trying to get out of my comfort zone, I thought I’d do a double exposure. The x100s has a double exposure feature, which I’ve never used. I wanted to get something really creepy, but the only person in the house was Chantal. 😀 To get her creepy looking, I added the hoodie and the ski goggles. Yeah, I know… but we had fun doing this. This is also a high-key image.

Week 5 – “Landscape: Black and White”. I had in mind that I

Week 5 – Landscape: Black & White

wanted something very grungy, so what better then the Hamilton industrial skyline. It had to be a high contrast black & white. It was a very cold sunny day with lots of clouds in the west, so I was ok with the high contrast. I drove to the pier on the harbour side of the Burlington Canal, because I figured there would be a good view from there. Again, a no trespassing sign on the roadway, because there’s lots of bridge construction going on. But, I was already there and nobody around, so I just drove in. Good view, but there was something missing for the foreground, which is just as important as the background for a good landscape. Then I saw the dead seagull… perfect.

Week 3 Artistic: Candy

Week 6 was “Week 3 Artistic: Candy”, for Valentine’s Day.

I know what I wanted to do here, but I needed a young beautiful model. Well, I was visiting my aunt in Hamilton, and her grand-daughter, Andrea, showed up (and I just happened to have my camera with me). She is beautiful and has fabulous skin and lips, and my aunt had maraschino cherries, so we were all set. I really wanted stems, so that she would hold the stem in her teeth and let the cherry hang over her lip, in a hungry look way. But we only had stemless.

Week 7 – “Portrait: Faceless”

Week 7 – “Portrait: Faceless”. Some of my friends are shooting occasionally with film and I thought I’d like try that again. I found a Pentax ME (circa 1974) for sale on Craigslist in the east end. The seller was a professional photographer, so the camera was in excellent condition, almost brand new. I bought it, which is ironic, because one of the last film cameras I owned was a Pentax ME Super. On the way home, I went to the AGO, having in mind to make a photo of the back of someone looking at a painting.

Week 8 – “Landscape: Panorama”. I’m not crazy about panorama because they never look good on regular prints or screens (but they do look great in photo-books). The x100s has a pano feature where it’s almost like you’re making a video, by panning across the horizon. Then the camera produces a single still photo file in panorama. Here’s some pickup hockey on the frozen Credit River.

Week 8 – “Landscape: Panorama”

Week 9 – “Artistic: Shadows”

Week 9 – “Artistic: Shadows”. These bicycle locking posts are along College Street, in the UofT area. Couldn’t believe my eyes with the shadows they were casting. 😮

Week 10 – “Portrait: Environmental”.  Environmental portrait shows a subject in their natural habitat

Week 10 Environmental Portrait

or place of work. Pretty obvious what this guy does… fish market in Kensington Market.

[note: you can click on any image for a lightbox view and slideshow]