A look back at 100 days

100.  One Hundred.  C.  Cien.  Hundra.  Mia moja.  Hundre.  Šimtas.  Un centinaio.  Céad.  Εκατό.  Hundert.  Isang daang.  Yüz.  Njëqind.  1100100. 

Yep, no matter how I say is, 100 days of photos is a lot of days.  True, I still have 265 days to go, but I honestly think the first 100 were the “hardest” and I think these remaining 265 will, at least in theory, be easier.  Though-out these first 100 days, there have been many o’ times I have thought about stopping or just doing 1-2 pictures a week.  But, I made myself take a picture everyday – true some of them were pretty bad, but some of them turned out pretty good as well.

 

While posting these pictures, I kept asking myself: Why am I doing this!?  At first, I thought: Because I am a sick, sick person!  Now, while this is true, over the 100 days I’ve learned it’s more to it than that.  First, I learned that I don’t know nearly as much as I thought I did about taking pictures!  Now, this isn’t necessary a bad thing, quite the opposite, it just means that I still have a lot to learn.  But, I am enjoying learning it.  I’m still struggling with some technical aspects of photography, such as proper lighting and portraiture.  Hopefully, over the next 265 days I’ll be able to expand in my knowledge of those areas.  Included with this “learning” theory, is that I really wanted to learn how to use Photoshop with more confidence.  I think that any truly professional photographer needs to master Photoshop to be competitive in today’s “art” marketplace.  (Not that I’m saying I’m anywhere near professional – but every road has to start somewhere!) 

Secondly, I enjoy all of the projects and ideas that have come from this project.  Many of my shots were staged (aka: I purposely setup the environment of what I wanted to shoot and tried to control as many of the factors as I could), and I don’t think I ever would have taken some of those pictures if I wasn’t motive to work every day on something.  Some of the “theme” weeks included: Games, Science, Santa Cruz, and this weeks, Spices!  I have more theme-related ideas for the future that I think will be interesting as well.

Third, I wanted a place I could write a little bit.  I enjoy writing, but normally “blogs” are either a) political, b) religious or c) egotistical.  Now, I’m not really into having giant internet-based fights about politics or religion (I’m not going to say anything about the ego one), so I gave some thought to what I would like to writing little ‘blurbs’ about, and I thought – coins or art… I think coins would have scared folks too much (my geek level is high when it comes to coins).  So, art it was!  Now, true, so far all I’ve really done related to art is photography, but you never know what’s to come!  (Ok, more photos are what’s to come, but I could throw other things in too!)

Lastly, I just wanted a place to show my work, be it for friends, other artist, or just the random “internet viewer”.  Now, as of the 100th photo, I don’t exactly have a ‘cult following’, but I do have a nice group of folks who look at the site at least once or twice a week.  A few of you crazy folks actually read it daily!  Scary!  Honestly, I’m not really sure who is actually reading this thing.  I know a couple of folks are (because they are uber-cool and comment!  Woo!).  But, for all I know, everyone else is a random SpamBot looking to send me emails about my Uncle in Lithuania who just found 45 million dollars in un-recycled soda cans and all he needs from me is a rock and a bank account.  Still, for those few of you who are real (ish), thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy the next 265 days. 

I also encourage any of you to start you own “Project 365”, be it photography, short stories, Haiku’s about Spam, or anything really.  I’d love to see it!

Enjoy!

Anthony

Ps: This was also a double-bonus nifty week, because not only is this my 100th photo, but my FLICKR site got its 10,000 view today.  Crazy. 

Some Interesting Facts about AntTree Blog (up to Day 100):

Total Viewers: 2462

Followers: 7

Daily Viewers: 24 (average)

Top Countries of Viewers: US, Canada, Germany, Russia, UK, Denmark, France, and… Latvia (woo!)

How Folks Find The Sight: Facebook (1^st), Bogger Website (2^nd), AntTree.org Home (3^rd), and AntTree_Art Twitter (4^th)

Most Viewed Photos:

Day 1 – Fireworks

Day 42 – Wave Crash

Day 28 – Kite Festival

Day 12 – Meeting Morimoto

Day 35 – Scrapbooker’s Dazzle

Prints Made – 2 (Thanks to those two folks – I’m still stunned someone would want to hang my work, but I very much appreciate it.)

Weekly Hindsight and Photo 365, Day 22 (Metric Rocks!)

Day 22 (July 25th, 2010)
Title: Metric System Rocks!

Largest centimeter ever!  I'm really enjoying the macro lens. 

Weekly Hindsight (Week 3)

I though I would also throw in my "Weekly Hindsight" comments with my Sunday photo, just to save having to create a new post!  Go me being all efficient (re: slacker)! 

This week, at least artistically speaking, has been a bit chaotic.  I started with a nice black and white scenery shot and was originally thinking, "Hey, not just macro's all week!", but or course that plan was quashed with the next few shots.  I did get a nice nighttime moon shot mid-week that I personally really enjoyed.  For my other project that I was working on this week, I fell a bit behind.  I was supposed to practice my photoshop skills a bit more, but other than the one selective coloring project I am behind in my weekly projects.  I did start working on my new video, and while its still in "rough draft" form, its nice to have something to work with.  Lastly, I did make some large format prints (13"x19") of two of my daily photos (Fireworks and Craps) and I think they came out well.  The Fireworks print will soon be hanging on my wall and the Craps print is going out as a gift. 

This week I really noticed that I've been focusing on macro-type photography.  I know I just recently got a new macro lens and I want to play with it, but I think it is more than that.  I really like showing how the small things in life have a lot more complexity and depth than we might give them credit.  It's probably also because without my glasses, that's how I see the world.  Anything past around 2 feet becomes just a blurry colored blob, but up-close I have very strong "macro" vision.  I'm not going to stop taking macro photos by any means (because as I mentioned, I do like them), but I am going to make a conscious effort to take at least 2 photos each week that are non-macro.  I think this is important, because one of the key elements for me with this project is trying to expand my photographic skills and stretch my comfort level in the types of things I shoot. 

For this coming week, I have a few things I am going to work on:

1) Try and complete 3 photoshop projects (including a collage using layers, getting a better upstanding of masks, and another selective color photo).  I'm doing another selective color photo, because its always important to practive what you just learned so you won't forget it (like I am very prone to do)!

2) Create and map-out the complete timeline for my video and try and get many of the materials (re: photos and sound effects) organized. 

3) Update the anttree.org website with more photos and information! 

I think that should keep me busy this week and provide me a good jumping-board for some more long-term projects as well. 

Some interesting "tidbits" about the blog for the last 21 days, which I find quite fun:

• Over 650 views during the first 21 days
• My AntTree_Art twitter feed has gotten up to 7 followers, none of which I actually know!  Go random people!  
• The most viewed photos are: Fireworks (Day 1), Meeting Morimoto (Day 12) and Painting 1 (Day 5).  

I hope to share some more facts as this project continues and I hope you all have enjoyed the last 21 days as much as I have!  Only 343 to go! 

Anthony

Weekly Hindsight (Week 2)

This week was a bit hectic, but also quite a bit of fun in regards to my photos.  I started the week with the intention of focusing entirely on games, but, as with all good plans, things went "narky".  The first three days came out quite well (Domino #1, #2, and Card Trick), and I still have some great ideas for the other missing four days (including: Craps, Poker, Scrabble and one other random game).  Unfortunately, I was unable to "complete the plan", because we had some crazy events that happened that just HAD to be in the project. 

First, Thursday we got crazy-lucky when our friend invited us to go with them to the grand opening of the new Morimoto Napa Japanese restaurant.  I'm not going to call it a sushi restaurant, because it was soooo much more!  If you can afford it, I would *highly* recommend going at least once.  It was, hands down, the best Japanese food I've ever had (and that sentiment was echoed by the whole party we were with)!  And if you are lucky, you can meet an Iron Chef!  What more could you ask for!

This weekend was also very crazy (in a good way) and as such it altered my desired photos for the end of the week.  On Saturday, we visited two museum's, California Academy of Science and the de Young museum.  The CAS was a lot of fun, just to see all of the fish and animals, but WOW was it packed full of yelling, screaming, crying, children... I tell ya, at one point I was thinking; "I wonder how many kids I could fit in the octopus tank?"  I was able to get some good shots without using a flash using my f1.4 lens.  I really wish everyone else would read the signs that *clearly* state no flash photos because the flash scares the fish.  But, ever two seconds, "flash, flash, flash".  I wanted to walk up and shine one of those 1-million watt lanterns in their eyes and see how they felt about getting "flashed", but I just walked away shaking my head instead. 


After the CAS, we headed over to de Young for the "Birth of Impressionism" exhibit (May 22-Sept 6, if you are interested.  Web site is: http://deyoung.famsf.org/).  It was a nice exhibit, GO MONET, but way too many people.  I thought the kids at CAS was bad, this was much worse.  Hundreds of people being rushed through tiny rooms with large, intricate paintings that deserved more time and contemplation.  Still, since most of these works are housed in Paris, this might be your only chance to see them "in person".  I would recommend a weekday rather than a weekend to see them, if you can manage it.  Also, be aware if you aren't a member its $25.00 to see the exhibit (and there are no bathrooms in the exhibit hall itself, so use them before you get in line to see the works!).  Lastly, unlike the CAS, they will not allow you to take any pictures (flash or otherwise) in the exhibit... they are quite strict on this and they have many a guard in each room that will remind you of that fact.   
Saturday night, on our trek home from San Fran, we decided to stop at Best Buy to pick up some small things and as it goes with trips to BB, I decided to look in the camera section, only because I was sure there was something there I needed to drool on.  And by golly, there was!  They were selling a Canon 100mm USM Macro lens.  As soon as I saw it, I was nearly attacked and beaten to death by our Best Buy credit card in an attempt to purchase it.  To protect both Theresa and I, I had no choice but to but it and begin drooling. 

Sunday morning we made the trip to Santa Cruz (some family fun time!) and well... Macro lens + flowers = woo!  Ever since getting my first real macro lens in 2005, I have been in love with macro photography.  This lens is quite a bit more impressive than my older lens, but I think with a bit of practice I'll start getting some good pictures again. 

For next week, I do want to do at least one or two game shots, but I also want to explore the macro world a bit!  I'm also going to start investigating some lighting kits so I can work on both my staging and portraiture skills.  I found a few on Amazon, but the cost and quality varies quite a bit so some more research is in order. 

I hope everyone has a great week and finds something artistic everyday!  And advise or comments you have are welcomed and appreciated! 

Thanks again!

Anthony

Weekly Hindsight (Week 1)

My first week of “Blogging” has come and gone and I have to say, so far so good!  I’ve started a few different photo projects (Photo 365 and Photo Games), which I don’t think I would have started without knowing that I *HAD* to post my daily update.  Some of the pictures were (trying to keep a positive outlook here), “weaker” than others, but all in all I was pleased with this week’s photo’s.  

My particular favorite was Fireworks (Day 1), only because I never could have planned to get that shot.  It was just total luck (“dumb” or otherwise!) that allowed me to capture that perfect moment of a firework exploding in focus while creating what I call “stunned light fish” with all the other lights.  I think I took about 500 photos that night, and only about 15-20 were salvageable, and only 2-3 were “keepers”.   I hope that every week I’ll get at least one shot that I feel as good about as I did with that first one.

A few other fun things that came out of this week (at least related to my blog/art work):

1. After the first week, I had 300+ views on the blog, which means either a, people are actually looking at my work or b, spam-bots have already found me and I’ll soon have 2.1 million emails regarding the billions of dollars that I need to claim from my 4^th cousin in Zambia. 
2. With the start of my blogging I also started “tweeting” and within this first week, I got 4 followers and started stalking 30 people who I find interesting! 
3. I feel very motivated to get out there and just shoot, shoot, shoot!  I’ve even dug out my smaller cameras just so I can make sure to always have one with me, in case the opportunity comes up that I need to shoot something.  In fact, two of this last week’s photos came from such opportunities (Day 3 – Black Cherry and Day 4 – Irony Sign). 
4. I’ve enjoyed some lovely art-related conversation with my friends on Facebook.  It is nice to reconnect with them and talk art again. 
5. Because of all the positive reaction in getting back into the world of art, I’ve decided to set a bit of a big goal for myself in the next few months (not to say that the Photo 365 project isn’t big, but it is very “open” and doesn’t really have any guidelines).  I am going to try and submit my work to at least two different photo competitions that are happening later this year.  I don’t expect to win anything, but I am more interested in the process and procedures that one much do to enter such a event.  

Well, that just about does it for me for this first week.  I want to thank everyone who’s had a chance to look at my work and a special thanks to those of you who have commented (both publically and privately) on what I’ve done so far.  I hope my future works will be just as fun, interesting and enjoyable!

I hope everyone has a great week!

Anthony