2000 Pictures, part 5

I haven't included an entry about this exercise in over a month, so here's a quick review.

Last year I took a class about thinking creatively in photography. Our first assignment was to take 2000 pictures in one week. Sounds easy, but it wasn't.

I decided to follow our dog around one afternoon in an effort to get some more shots since I wasn't even halfway to 2000.

Our dog's name is Pepper and he's a Carolina dog (also known as the "American Dingo"). We found him at the local SPCA in 2003. He's great with the kids and is afraid of house flies if they're actually in the house. If they're outside he usually eats them.  

For this series I followed Pepper around the backyard. I just took random shots of him doing whatever he happened to be doing. It made me just sort of observe his behavior. An interesting life this dog leads, as I imagine all dogs do.  One thing I've noticed about trying to take pictures of an animal...they don't like to pose and never smile. Every shot is a candid shot when you're taking pictures of a dog. They don't even mind if you take a picture of them while they're fertilizing the lawn. At least Pepper didn't mind.  He seemed to enjoy my company and never seemed to mind me taking pictures.

I managed to grab a couple of interesting shots while he was shaking himself off after running around (is there a word for that?).  I was able to catch his head in these strange contorted positions that the human eye can't really isolate when it's happening.  

What a hard life a dog leads. All the free lunch you can eat and you can sleep whenever or wherever you want.

2000 Pictures, part 4

Continuing with the exercise, I decided to take a walk around downtown McKinney early one morning before the crowds showed up. McKinney is the county seat for Collin County, and the downtown area has several very old buildings and some interesting architecture. These days, it's mostly antique shops and boutiques, cafes and restaurants, etc. Again, my goal was just to take as many pictures as I could without trying to find a good subject and getting good composition. These are my favorites.

So I literally put the camera around my neck and clicked the shutter every 4 or 5 paces. Many of the pictures were just out of focus shots of random lightposts, trash cans and street signs, but I occasionally got an interesting shot, like this one of birds flying away as I approached:



Smith Drug Co. has been a staple of downtown McKinney for over 100 years. I have other pictures that I have taken over the years, but the store closed for good not long after I got these shots. I've always loved that sign.



There are a lot of glass storefronts downtown and ended up getting several shots of those. Some including my own reflection:


This guy was staring at me from inside a restaurant as I came around a corner so I took his picture:



A few random ones:



This one is probably my favorite, and I'm pretty sure I composed this one and it wasn't randomly taken while I walked down the street. I really like the shallow depth of field.

2000 Pictures, part 3

So now we move on to stuff in my backyard. Again, I'm just trying to take 2000 pictures, not picking specific objects and trying to photograph them well.

I'm into tiki stuff, so you'll find a few scattered around:





Bark peeling on one of the Crepe Myrtles:


Edge of a birdbath:

My favorites are the first two. The rest of them don't do anything for me. I even tried setting the timer and throwing the camera up in the air just as the shutter clicked. I didn't bother to increase the shutter speed so they all came out blurry. It wasn't a smart idea anyway. I had read somewhere that it was a way to get some interesting shots. I don't reccommend it, especially with a good camera.

2000 Pictures, part 2

These are from Day One of the exercise. I had to drop my car off to have some work done, went across the street to Starbucks, then walked home 1.5 miles taking pictures of random things. By the time I got home I had taken 60 pictures...barely scratched the surface.


Again, all done with my 50mm 1.8. I liked these in color rather than b&w.






BOOORING...people are so much more interesting to photograph. I was in Starbucks, but walking up to complete strangers and asking to take their picture is something I still don't feel comfortable doing. Maybe it's the funny looks I get from people...