A few days ago I posted my intention to photograph every single day of 2014 and publish the photographs on my Runaway Brit Facebook page. Each week I will write a round up on this site. I will not publish every picture from the week in my summary, if you want to see them all click here, but I will comment on any that I think are particularly noteworthy: whether for good or bad!
I quite like my photo from Day 1 (above) Storms were approaching the UK and the sky was threateningly ominous. I went for a drive around Cornwall and took this picture of the sea frothing and churning. I like the contrast of the dark sky and the white foamy waves. A day later large parts of the Cornish coast flooded.
On Day 5 I had a revelation when I published this picture that I had taken from a walk around Hammarby Sjöstad, the posh part of Stockholm.
Looking at the album I realised that I didn’t really like any of the pictures that I had taken so far (with the exception of Day 1). My pictures were grainy (the iPhone 5 camera seems to take particularly ‘noisy’ pictures) and most of them are, quite frankly, boring. As my goal for this project is to improve my photography, then I had to step it up a few notches.
I decided to implement a plan of action.
Subject
The first problem is the subject of the pictures. The shots are too generic. They don’t show anything unusual, interesting, or even have a focal point. They seem careless and rushed. There is no reason for them. To address this problem I am going to have a ‘Theme of the Week’, something that will connect the 7 pictures and give me a reason to take the photograph.
Composition
The pictures are snapshots; they are not carefully crafted compositions. I know enough about photography to have avoided this—I was simply being lazy. It was good to be reminded of this.
Noise
Having already committed to using my iPhone5 for this project I am limited by the function of the camera, however, I did spend a few pounds and invested in the Photo Shop Express Noise Reduction application. Hopefully, this will make a difference. Here you can see Day 5 again, this time with reduced noise.
Day 6 marked a new beginning when I put my plan of action to the test (apart from the theme, which will begin on Day 8) and, sure enough, an improved result was immediately apparent with this image of graffiti in my neighbourhood. I love the colour and texture of the wall on the left hand side of the picture.
My theme for Week 2 is going to be ‘Reflection’. I can’t wait to get started!
If you’d like to follow my 365-Day Photo Project then check out the album on my Facebook page. Don’t forget to give the page a ‘like’ and help get me to 1000 likes in 2014. Any photos that don’t make the cut are on my instagram page; so you can check those out too!
Do you have a suggestion for a Theme of the Week? Leave a comment and maybe your theme will be featured some time this year! If you have any comments or suggestions to help me improve my iPhone photography, I’d love to hear them!
Keep up the good work Elaine. My little boy and I love looking at your pictures every night. I’m sure you’ll manage 52 weeks 🙂
Thanks so much for the comment! I really appreciate it when I hear that people are enjoying it 🙂