A Personal Creativity Challenge

I tend to get in a photographic rut.  I take my camera out to some really cool places and come back with photos that are similar to what I have taken many times before at other places.   I shoot from a comfortable place where I compose similar shots using the same lens.  Not good and definitely not very creative.  Every once in a while I need something to bump me out of that rut.

Today I took my camera and one lens on a little hike at Bays Mountain Park in Kingsport.  The lens is a Rokinon 12mm f/2.0 manual lens on a Fuji X-T2 mirrorless camera.  This lens is completely manual.  No automatic aperture and no automatic focusing.  It is also a wide angle prime lens (18mm full frame equivalent), meaning the only way I can zoom is with my feet.  My creativity challenge to myself was to see what photos I could come up with using only that lens.

I found this lens is very sharp when focused properly.  At 12mm I can get a nice deep depth of field, making everything from the sign post to the far trees in sharp focus.

I was lucky enough to have some cool clouds building up while I was there.  These looked good reflected on the surface of the lake.

Spring has not really gotten started yet at Bays Mountain. When there is not a lot of colors, I like to remove all color and convert to black and white.

Despite the clouds, there was enough light to make it difficult to get an exposure long enough to blur the water.  One-half second was the slowest exposure I could get.

1/2 second exposure, f/22

Ruts are not fun.  Challenges like this are what I need to make myself tackle from time to time to get bumped out of the rut.  I am also participating in the Petapixed 52-week photography challenge where I have a new challenge each week for an entire year. I find I have to stretch my creativity muscles to come up with new photos to meet the weekly challenge.  

Getting Out Of The Slump

Everyone has one from time to time.  That period where we are not doing our best and are having a hard time getting motivated to pull ourselves out of the slump.   Each year when winter rolls around I fall into a photographic slump.  I look outside and see brown and gray.   I don't see anything that makes me want to pack up my camera gear and head out looking for interesting photographs that might be waiting to be captured.   My camera can sit on the shelf for weeks at a time.

Today I have decided to do something about it.   I'm starting a weekly photo challenge put on by PhotoChallenge.org.  Each week the photo challenge authors will throw down a challenge in the form of a photographic theme.  The challenge is to go out and make a photo within the theme of the week.   The themes are designed to challenge photographers to try new things, get a bit out of the box, and best of all -- practice the art of photography.

I made my decision on day 6 of the first week so I had to move quickly.  The theme for this week is MACRO - KITCHEN.   I needed to quickly  make a close up or macro photo of something in our kitchen.   After spending about one minute looking around the kitchen this evening, I came across my subject for the week -- toothpicks.

Week 1 - MACRO KITCHEN - Toothpicks

These are in a little round plastic bottle designed so you can shake one out of the top at a time.  Taking the top off the bottle reveals a repeating pattern of miniture logs daid out in a spiral pattern.

I tried shooting this with my 100mm macro but the depth of field (DOF) was too small.  I couldn't get a photo with most of the toothpicks in focus.   I switched to a 70-200 zoom with a 36mm extension tube, which allowed me to focus closer to the subject.  This was taken at 200mm f/29 and then cropped down to a square image.

I'll learn what the next challenge is in the next few days.  I can hardly wait.   The slump is over!