Educator, Thinker, Consultant
The 52Frames challenge this week is “centered”. This is basically ignoring the rule of thirds and centering the subject.
The Extra challenge is “leading lines”.
This week, I think that I was able to meet both challenges. The lighthouse works centered and the pathway forms the leading lines.
This is the Spring Point Ledge Lighthouse in South Portland, Maine, USA.
This was taken with Canon R8, f/5.0, 85mm, 100 ISO.
The challenge this week was shadows. I had a few options, but this was the one that I liked best.
The shadow is cast from another gravestone. The shadow reminds me of a pawn in chess.
Today is the day that I officially wed my wonderful, fun, loving, smart, intelligent, beautiful wife. Turns out that the priest didn’t actually file some paperwork, so we got to do it again with our kids as witnesses. So many great years together.
This year is going to continue to be about AI in schools. There are lots of concerns (e.g., water usage, power consumption, copyright, moral, etc), but the reality is that AI will be part of our (and our students) lives. I’m planning on lots of training and information for our staff.
I had an interesting chat with a fellow Tech Director the other day. We were doing the general chat thing when the other Tech Director noted that Technology Directors are the “Rodney Dangerfields” of education. (*To those of you unfamiliar with Mr. Dangerfield, he was well known for the line “I get no respect”). The Tech Director noted how difficult it was to get training time with teachers. Teachers have so very little professional development time. There are so many things that teachers could grow and develop with opportunity.
The other Tech Director went on with another example. “I was at XXX, and noticed that there were reserved parking spaces for the Superintendent, Director of Business, Director of Curriculum, and Director of Food Services”. Notice which Director is missing? It’s not about the parking space, but the mind space.
Yeah, not my most shining moment. On one hand, I’m so used to wearing hearing aids that I don’t really think about it. On the other hand, I thought that I wasn’t getting close enough to be an issue (wrong on that one). Those little wire tubes do split nicely, though.
In Maine, businesses may not update their website (check Facebook, they may update that). The kids invited us to go skating. They checked the website, and the skating rink was open from 7:30 – 10:00 p.m. The kids picked us up and we headed off to skate. However, when we arrived, they were pretty obviously closed. A little more searching, AN there is a Facebook post stating that they take July off and are closed. I don’t use Facebook.
My wife has done an absolutely fantastic job of planting, cultivating, and growing flowers around the house. The yard looks absolutely fantastic.
It turns out that you can order an Olga’s Snackers Kit directly from Olga’s. I can confirm that they are wonderful. I would lower the air fryer temperature just a bit though.
I broke my string of a year and half of posting in 52Frames. The killer is that I had a picture ready to go, but decided to wait until Sunday. See, I was taking a hike with my youngest, and knew that I was taking my camera. So, week 30, Unusual Crop has no entry from me. My submission would’ve been a whale seen from a boat.
I’m finally making progress on organizing my garage. I still have a ways to go, but the tool organization means that I can actually find tools now. I’ve also made efforts on small parts.
We went on Monday night to see Jesse Terry. Jesse Terry is an independent artist who has created some wonderful music. We had to go to Castine in order to see the show. This is a two-hour drive. Gee, if only we had a concert venue* near us.
On the way, we stopped in Bucksport for dinner at Chalee Thai-Sushi. The food was terrific. The place is small, with three dine-in chairs, but obviously owned and operated by a passionate couple. We chose to “take out” and walked down the stairs to a picnic table.
It was a good show. He played straight through for a little over two hours. It is absolutely wonderful to hear the story behind the songs. This just deepens and enriches the song.
(* We have a terrific concert venue, which is wholly underutilized. A local restaurant has more events at Johnson Hall than Johnson Hall does. However, most of those are posted on Facebook, so I can’t see those.)
Living close to the Atlantic, water was going to be an easy assignment. I headed out and took some shots of boats, a lighthouse, and more. While I was shooting, I captured the tide coming in and out. I was surprised at the clarity of the ridges (terraces) formed by the tide.
I love the serendipity of finding this structure in the tide.
I also considered a couple of other images as my submission.
(the potential title was worth considering for submission)
I also liked the feeling and the seaweed on the rock of this one.
Well, I did it. I completed the 52Frames challenge for 2024.
You can check out all of the photos that I submitted in one go. Some of the photos were definitely less, er, considered, than others. Still, I’m kind of proud that I was able to submit a photo every week. I did learn a good bit on the journey.
I think that I’ll do the 52Frames challenge again this year. I may not meet every week’s challenge this year, but I think I’ll do it again.
I did find the challenges very helpful in getting out to take pictures. Plus, some of the challenges required me to do some research on exactly what the challenge was. Thus, I learned some language, styles, techniques, and processes.
Oh, Hi. It’s hard to believe that I’ve been able to complete 42 weeks of the 52Frames Photo Challenge, but here we are. This week, I really wasn’t sure of my submission.
I reached out to my mini-group, and they voted for the picture below. Their comments included that this one met the challenge better and was stronger in technical aspects: focus and centered subject.
I like the shell, but I was leaning toward one that told more of a story. This was my second choice.
I submitted the shell as I do agree that there is something missing about the lobster trap. I like the story, but I think that the framing could have been better.
What do you think? Let me know in the comments below.
The 52Frames challenge this week is Panorama.
I stopped in Hallowell on a sunny morning. The sun was bright, but I like the clouds reflecting in the river.
I tried to use the Hugin plugin, but that wouldn’t open. I switched to the AutoPano Gigi plugin and successfully created the Pano. I’ll need to play around a bit more, but I can definitely see creating more Panomaras in the future.
This week’s challenge is “negative space”. My first thought was about creating the negative space with black as the negative space. Hm. I thought about it some more and realized that maybe not black was needed, but a plain color. I like a local lighthouse, so maybe a shot of the lighthouse and sky.
Off I head to the lighthouse.
On my way in, I see a sign “Fresh Lobster Rolls”. Something about the sign grabbed my attention. I also looked at the American flag blowing in the breeze. But I was there to take the lighthouse picture. I parked and headed off to take a picture of the flag and the lighthouse. I took several of the lighthouse.
I took several shots of the lighthouse. I think that this one worked well for the negative space challenge. The sky is pretty consistent coloring with just a hint of the clouds on the far right.
I liked this one as it includes more of the lighthouse. Including the water adds a bit to the picture as well.
I took a few shots of the flag. I like the balance of the clouds and the flag with this one. However, I worry that the clouds are a bit distracting for the negative space aspect.
On my way in, I saw the “Fresh Lobster Rolls!” sign. I thought that it might work well for the challenge. Even though I had my lighthouse pictures, something about the sign stayed with me. On my way out, I stopped and took a few images.
I liked the coloring of the sign. I like the handwritten aspect of it. In the end, there was just something about it that struck me. So, this is the entry for this week.
The challenge this week is for a photo that describes a line from a song.
This week’s challenge is Line From a Song, and it might strike a chord with music lovers and visual storytellers alike. Dive into your favorite tunes and pick a line that resonates or sparks your imagination. Your task is to create a scene that embodies this specific lyric, capturing its mood, story, or message through your lens.
Whether it’s a dramatic scene inspired by a powerful ballad, a serene landscape that echoes a soft melody, or a bustling street scene that fits a rocking pop lyric, let the music guide your creative process. It can be a literal representation or a metaphorical one.
Naturally, please write a little in the description so your fellow Framers can know the actual line (maybe include the name of the song!) and have an idea about how the image and the song lyric speak to you. Rock on!
52Frames PHoto Challenge #23 of 2024 – Line from a song
After thinking about a bunch of lyrics, I decide to go with “Black Coffee in Bed” by Squeeze. I figured that I could actually accomplish this one.
The above was my original shot. I wanted it just slightly underexposed and with a bit of bokeh. After thinking about it, I decided to try switching to monotone.
I decided that I preferred the monotone version as it conveys more of the mood and feeling that I was going for.
The challenge for this week was “wide aperture”. I usually shoot with a pretty wide aperture, so this was a “normal” challenge for me. I kind of wanted to shoot an image with a variety of lenses to really learn about the differences, but I didn’t get the time.
I did get to think about it though. That is something that helps me. I do plan on taking an image (with the widest aperture) with a variety of lenses in the future.
In the meantime, my photo submission for this week is below.
Troy Patterson
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