365-days of photographs -- DAY 1

So I've been thinking about setting some goals to improve my skills.  Some times I feel like I dabble in a bunch of things, but really haven't become an expert at any of them.  Sooooo, I decided that the only way to become an expert at anything is to practice.

Practicing photography, a skill I would like to vastly improve upon, means that I have to take more pictures. And hopefully, as I analyze what I take, how I take it, and then refer frequently to the experts, I can improve upon this skill.

This in mind, I've decided to take the 365 challenge.  I am setting a goal to take at least 1 photo a day for 365 days.  I would prefer that this is a "good" photo, but any photo will do.  My goal is also to share them with you.  I'm not saying that I will be blogging once a day for 365 days, but at least a few times a week in order to share with you what I've captured.

I found out more about this 365 challenge from the "CaptureYour365" website.  They explain this whole "thing" so well...

365 is about your life. It is about capturing, documenting, and preserving all that is important to us. People come to this project for so many different reasons, with so many different motivations. 

 I thought about starting this off as a New Year's resolution, but who cares when I start this goal.  Whether I start today or on January 1st it will still be 365 days and I need to get over my tendency to procrastinate (another one of those improvements I need more practice with).  I'm also hoping this will end up being a good photo-journal of my life, not just the "events' but the day-to-day living.

So today marks the start of my 365 - A Photo A Day Project.  And my first photo is

The soda cans sitting on my desk right now.  I'm in love with the Black Cherry Fresca.  I know, not necessarily a monumental work of art, but it's late and I'm ready to go to bed.  I'll shoot a better subject tomorrow.

AZ Desert Botanical Garden

Last week a good friend of mine invited me to join her for a visit to the AZ Desert Botanical Garden.  Sara is an amazing photographer and I was so excited to be able to go out with a semi-professional and get some tips & tricks. And the bonus was a visit to the Desert Botanical Garden.

This time of year the garden is in FULL bloom.  All the flowers, trees and cacti are blossoming, the colors are magnificent.  The best lighting for outdoor photography is around dusk just as the sun is just starting to go down (at least in my humble opinion).  Fortunately the weather was absolutely PERFECT -- temperatures in the low 80s with a slight breeze.

I had soooo much fun practicing my photography and I couldn't have asked for better subjects -- they stayed still longer than my nieces and nephews.  Here are a few of the highlights of the evening



I'm definitely going to do this again.

Depth makes for better vacations photos - a trip down memory lane

A good friend of mine recently returned from a beautiful multi-country tour - Egypt, Greece, Italy, etc. She also happens to be an AMAZING photographer. I absolutely loved looking through all of her photos. I realized that one of the key differences between good vacation photos and AMAZING vacation photos is depth.

Sara is wonderful at taking pictures of the city skyline of Jerusalem, but even better are the narrow alley ways of Venice, and even better are all the masks on the vendor's cart in Milan. The variety in depth really brings more humanity to the photographs. Rather than just taking all vacations photos from 20 feet away (you know how it goes..."Everyone line up I want to take a picture"...*snap*...), get in close, look for textures and variations in light, look for high contrasts in colors. And then those types of photos, coupled with the cityscapes make for a richer story of your vacation.

Thanks, Sara, for the lesson!

Here are a few of my favorites from my trip in 2005 to Italy...I've had a serious camera upgrade since then and have a few new tricks up my sleeve. Now all I need is another trip to Italy.

The Coliseum in Rome.
A column outside the Pantheon.
Grapes from a vineyard in Tuscany.

Beuoooootiful lasagna in Sienne.
And here's one for the "20ft" album - Pompeii.