Thoughts on Photography Challenges post SoFoBoMo

Curved Panes – Downtown Cedar Rapids, Iowa

In Paul Butzi’s latest post “Beyond SoFoBoMo” he pitched an idea called the “Brandenburg Challenge” where you would take a single picture a day for 3 months and make a book with those images. I find this idea fantastic and might actually do that on my own here soon.

I think this is a good idea because, at least for me, I could think about the image I want to make that day and go try it out. If I fail, everyone will see it and be able to critique and give good feedback. It wouldn’t feel as rushed as SoFoBoMo, but I think there will be a little pressure to get an image a day.

My only question is this, does the book have to be written in the 3 month period or can you do it once the images have been gathered (a 10 day grace period)? Seeing as Paul only laid out the idea, I guess I could interpret it in my own way for my own personal challenge.

In other exciting news, I sold my first 2 prints. I could have used the money to buy the rest of the stuff for my darkroom, but I took Erica to dinner at Genghis Grill.

I’ve Reached the Finish Line

Hot Air Balloons at the Tanager Fest Balloon Glow

I can’t believe I was able to finish my sofobomo before the end of the weekend, especially when I started taking shots yesterday morning. I’m kind of relieved that it’s done, but I’m also 50-50 on whether I like the book or not. It’s not what I originally wanted to do for a theme, but you can’t always do what you want. I have ideas for next year already, unless I do them alongside my experimentation with new photographic techniques I am picking up by reading the internets.

The book can be found here. Definitely let me know what you think by throwing a comment in my direction. I’ve gone through a couple of the books already complete and there are some good ones.

Blind Man’s Arrow

Star Trails – Matsell Natural Bridge Area – Bronica ETRS

I got to thinking today, mainly since my student loans are killing my income, of selling the Bronica and using the money to buy food. Don’t know how I feel about that, since I really like the camera and have used it quite a bit when I’ve had the film for it. I have one more roll of Ektachrome 64T that I think would be good for star trails, assuming I start them in complete dark and let it expose for a couple of hours with a polarizer on the lens.

Saturday is the start of my SoFoBoMo project (limited since I have less than 30 days left). I think I’m going to sort of expand upon the new idea to include other cultural events around Cedar Rapids. There is evidently some balloon glow Saturday night as some park that should be interesting. Erica mentioned going to the Farmer’s Market with me to take pictures, but I was going to shoot all digital for the project and if she goes, she gets her D80. I guess I can roll with the point and shoot Sony of hers. I can assume that most all of the people who would be reading my SoFoBoMo book wouldn’t enjoy looking at crappy scans from Target.

I did get a chance to try out the overlapping frame panorama technique when the family went to Palisades for a picnic. I took a shot of one of the foot bridges and have no idea if it’ll come out well, but at least it was an attempt.

In crazy engineering land, I have a couple of personal projects I am currently working on.
 - Pentax Winder ME Vertical Shutter Release
 - Controllable Macro Focusing Rail (with Eric)
 - Panoramic View Camera
 - Bronica ETRS Remote Flash Trigger Bracket

I just thought of the vertical shutter release idea today, to make shooting vertical with my Pentax ME Super’s easier. All I need to do is get a momentary contact switch and a small sliding switch (on/off) and create some sort of housing I can attach, probably mold some fibreglass. I already took the winder apart, so I know where I need to solder the wires to get it to work. I’m pretty excited for this because it’s a relatively cheap project