a simple year long photo project
I’ve been writing quite a bit lately so today’s post is purposely short and simple. That doesn’t mean it was quick to create, though, it actually took about a year.
Over the course of a year I documented the twin Bradford Pear Trees in my front yard, following them through the seasons. Stepping outside my front door with a 24mm lens on a Nikon D70 “carry about” on the way to the studio, I would carefully place the center focusing spot on the house across the street to keep framing consistent.
The purpose? I like the old saying, “you don’t get the chicken out of the egg by breaking it, you have to wait for it to hatch”. Rather than always looking for the fast, easy way to do things, I often look for ways that reinforce discipline and the belief that patience is, indeed, a virtue. It’s my way of using photography to cope with a world accelerating ever faster.
Thank goodness for photography, it can be used in so many ways for so many purposes.
Hi Jim
Great stuff, I did a similar thing a few years ago from my balcony in Moscow. Check it out if you have time:
http://rooski.net/moscow/seasons.html
Cheers
Dave
[...] Read More… [...]
That’s beautiful, Dave, I wish I could view it projected about 20 feet long on a wall somewhere!
I saw these shots scattered through out your “Thirty Seven Seconds” site and wonder if these would show up as a compilation presentation someday. Low and behold, they did. LOL
Jim, great stuff! Quick question though, does the pear tree leaves turn orange in the fall? If they do, it would have been great to have that one for Autumn, instead of the ones without leaves. BTW, you do a great job in the Spring and Summer to keep your grass green. Don’t know how you find time to do photography, blog, and grass maintenance =)
Anyway, I think having discipline in shots like these makes the whole difference. One can always take the picture and then crop it to the exact composition, but getting it right with discipline is way more fulfilling in my opinion.
Jim, cool idea. I have been thinking of a series I would call “from my porch” as I find myself sitting there in the evenings after work or after lawn maintenance, etc. That could, naturally, turn into a seasonal change series as well, I guess.
Dave, I like the way you have presented your seasonal change images. Great idea!
Bill
I finally went through and migrated all my photographs from photo-a-day project (from Nov 21, 2005 to Nov 28, 2006) into my blog. Some of them would not get published if they were not part of the project, but …
Results can be found through links at http://www.ylitalot.com/pad-2005/
Nice, Juha, thanks for sending the link!
Leave your response!
Search Prophotolife.com
Recent Articles
Most Popular Posts
Further Reading
Pages
Categories
Archives
Recent Comments
Most Commented
Tags