Nature Light Photo

Looking Forward to a Busy October

This is going to be a great month. I have three events planned that I am really looking forward to attending.

The first is a photographer’s day at Bodie State Park. I discovered Bodie in late June and fell in love with it. I find the fact that a town of its age and location is still standing. As an environmental science teacher, I like looking at the town and wondering what it must have been like to live there with all of the waste, trash, and other cast-offs created by placing several thousand people in close proximity.

I like wandering around the town and wondering what it must have been like to live there during the height of the boom. The sounds, the smells, the people. It must have been overwhelming in some ways and really difficult in others. I’ve never lived through a winter in the area, but I have heard that they are REALLY hard and demanding. Summers are hot. Life was hard. And there are reminders and remnants of past lives. Everywhere you look there is something that was a part of some one’s life and I always wonder how they used it and how it affected their.

On photographer’s day, for $50, they open the park up at or just before sunrise and close it down at or just after sunset. This allows photographers access to the town and park without a lot of people and at a time that is most advantageous to the golden hour in lighting. I’m really looking forward to seeing what I can get from the situation.

A week after going to Bodie, I am going to the Morro Bay Photo Expo hosted by George Lepp. I heard about this on Twitter and signed up early this year. While there are several social events, I signed up for as many workshop/classes as I could fit into my schedule. I figure that for a relatively cheap price of $75, I was going to get as much photo education as possible, so I skipped the social events and signed up for lots of photography information based workshops.

The weekend culminates with a one day seminar lead by George Lepp. I am REALLY looking forward to this. I have been reading his column in Outdoor Photographer every chance I get and now I have the opportunity to listen to him in person. That should be educational. I’ll be writing more about what I am taking and why later.

Finally, on the 27th, I will be attending Dane Sanders’ REAL TIME COMMUNITY with Dane Sanders, Scott Bourne, and Chris Becker.

I have heard Becker speak before at a SMUG (Smugmug Users Group) and he is very well know for not only his photography, but his business prowess and community building skills.

I first heard of Scott Bourne on a podcast and over the last few years have come to respect Scott Bourne for his knowledge and insight into and about the photography industry. He is one of my favorite Tweeters and ALWAYS has something important and educational to say.

I don’t know Dane Sanders’ work well, but I know he is VERY well respected in the photographic community and I want to hear what he has to say about the photography business.

Of course I will keep you posted as the month progresses.

An Idea to Improve

I follow Scott Bourne on Twitter and ran across a post of his that I found VERY interesting. It linked to a blog by Tarsa Mar, a photographer who had talked to Scott about how to improve her photography. As a result, he challenged her to become better.

His challenge to her was simple.

• View another professional photographer’s work.
• Read one page in her camera manual.
• Take at one picture.

Each day. Every day.

She is blogging about it in order to document it and to encourage her to do it everyday.

I LOVE this idea. With some changes.

Instead of reading one page of the manual, I will read at least one page of a photo related book. I am always trying to find ways to be utilize the camera to it’s fullest capability. I have read my manual three times and will continue reading it.

I will be taking one picture each day, but with my iPhone. I think that a good photographer can take a good picture with any camera and I ALWAYS have my iPhone with me. In addition, I have several apps that I can use to edit/manipulate the images and then upload them to this site. In other words, every image posted to here for this assignment will be shot, edited, and uploaded with my iPhone.

I will view at least one other photographer’s images each day, but they don’t have to be professional. I think there are some GREAT amatures .

When I say once each day, I will try to average five times a week. Being a teacher, water polo official, and actually having a life, I think that 5/7 days is a very reasonable and doable goal. Yet, it will still be challenging and educational.

Why change the challenge? Because every individual needs to be challenged in a unique and personal way. As long as the challenge is real and goal oriented, I think that every person should modify their goals to fit themselves. I can’t be Tarsa Mar. I wouldn’t want to her any more than she wants to be me. Therefore, I choose to modify the challenge.

As I said, I will be posting five times a week and will include my reading and whose images I viewed. I encourage your comments and input. Be brutal, but be nice.