52 Weeks of Composition – Week One

Many photographers decide every year at New Year, or with some other important date throughout the year, that they will begin a 365 project. What this means is that they will take one photo per day, usually themed with something like a self-portrait, and they will share it on their photography blog, Flickr, Facebook, or some other form of online forum. The idea behind the project could be anything. Last year I attempted the 365, but fell very short of completing the year. I had hoped that by doing the 365 self-portrait project, I would force myself to get in front of the camera more, and get more comfortable with it as well. Did I mention I fell very short of completion? After all… there are only so many times I can look at a picture of my foot or my reflection in the mirror. Who has time to set up a big artistic setup for some portrait style self-portrait ever single day? Not me! I have too many other important things to do.

However… I love the idea of the challenge, and what I can learn from forcing myself to keep trying. So I am going to try again this year. However instead of attempting a non-realistic 365 project, I am going to attempt the 52 week project. ONE PHOTO PER WEEK! I can do this!

Also instead of the theme being a self-portrait, it is going to be composition. I am going to focus completely on the composition of a photo. I may still take a picture of my foot, but it will hopefully have an artistic or interesting composition. More than likely I will try to find a more interesting subject than my foot! Maybe a sunset? Maybe one of the Danes? I may even choose to shoot one of my children. WHO KNOWS? The great part about this is that there are NO RULES other than composition. And I am excited. Why? Because as a wedding photographer, I may shoot over 1000 shots. If I have a second shooter, they may also shoot over 1000 shots. That is a lot of photos! And regardless of my choice to edit them myself or to outsource my editing, that is a huge number of files to cull and crop if I need to crop. So with the composition challenge, I will force myself to compose each shot correctly in the frame, which will eventually lead to fewer shots that I have to remove during the culling process. COOL HUH?

So here it is! Here is my first weekly installment of 52 Weeks of Composition! This is a shot of my daughter after she returned home from school one day this week. You can see there is nothing spectacular about this shot. Her hair is hardly brushed, and she is wearing one of her brother’s old frumpy t-shirts. But hey… sometimes we have to make the best of what we are given to work with, right? But what I really wanted to capture was that light in the background where the sun was setting through the trees! I LOVE LIGHT!

I would love to challenge other photographers to join me in this. If you feel that you could benefit from a composition challenge, then feel free to post the link to your blog post in the comment section so that we can all view your photo. Join in anytime!

I think it is a great way for us to learn something new about ourselves, and challenge ourselves to reach further away from the “safe shot”! I’m tired of all of my photos looking the same! So hopefully I will learn something new during this challenge that I can carry over into my work. Maybe I will even learn something from you! So come on guys! Join me for 52 Weeks of Composition! Post your links to your blog posts with your photo in the comment section!

Just remember… the idea here is to compose it correctly in camera. No cropping. You will only be cheating yourself if you do.Can’t wait to see what you post!