52 Week Photo Project Wrap Up

Week 1 – A Self Portrait Without You In It – I set up a lightbox with three lights, set up a few objects that show a bit about me (photographer, climber, writer), and made a few shots.

Week 2 – Your Front Door – At the time, the front door was ugly, so I took a panorama of the hallway and turned it into a twisted stereographic projection.

Week 3 – Your Favorite Thing – The original suggestion was to think of something you’d grab if the house was on fire and I concluded that I’d probably just grab the camera bag. HDR.

Week 4 – Self Portrait – I set up on the third floor of the Waumbec Mill with a tripod and remote shutter and changed clothes between shots to create this composite.

Week 5 – Favorite Place – This is the only image that I shot prior to the project. Eastern Sierra near Bishop, CA. Processed through Color Efex Pro for finishing touches.

Week 6 – Song/Movie Title – I was listening to Small World by RCPM and thought it would be fun to create a panorama to show off an actual small world. Taken beneath the Amoskeag Bridge in Manchester, NH.

Week 7 – Light – The light is real, not something I did in Photoshop, it was just a matter of being creative.

Week 8 – Laughter – I figured laughter could include something that makes people laugh, so on a whim I set up this shot to take a bath in a washing machine.

Week 9 – Abstract – It’s actually intertwined plastic tubing, but it kind of looks like the Firefox logo.

Week 10 – Looking Up – Standing outside the SEE Science center in Manchester, NH.

Week 11 – Luck – I wanted something goofy, so I ran to the store and picked up a Lucky Shirt and some Lucky Charms, then topped it off with a Lucky lottery ticket.

Week 12 – On a Shelf – My first idea was riding Battlecat from the He-Man cartoons, but I wasn’t completely satisfied with the shot, so I opted instead to use my head as the base of a lamp.

Week 13 – Spring – One of the more mundane photos of the year and another case where I should have used the alternate photo that I took. As is, this is a flower just outside city hall in Manchester, NH.

Week 14 – Think Small – A little disturbing maybe, but setting up the ritual sacrifice of gummy bears was a lot of work. It was my first attempt at stacking focus and came out very colorful. I used jelly for gummy bear blood.

Week 15 – Paper Airplanes – This was the first time I wore the gas mask in public. I set up the shot, stood in for a few frames, and then spent a good chunk of time throwing paper airplanes around. In the end, everything was composited together and processed into one of my favorites of this past year.

Week 16 – Ways To Get From Point A to Point B – I had wanted to stick myself in a pet carrier on top of a car, or even just strap myself to the top of a car, but with a lack of time, I just made do with a pet carrier. Yes, I get carried around in a pet carrier.

Week 17 – Coffee – I don’t drink coffee, so I didn’t know what to do. I settled on the idea of a Jedi making a mess while pouring coffee.

Week 18 – Shadows – Not one of my favorite photos, but it was interesting to make. I cowered in the corner for one shot, then tried to position myself and the flash just right to create an imposing shadow on the wall. A headband with horns on it did the trick.

Week 19 – Shoes – This is about the time that my photos were getting darker and darker, but I was still trying to inject some humor into things. Whatever you do, don’t taste the shoes.

Week 20 – Jump! – I wanted something colorful, so I put on bright clothes, pointed the fisheye straight up at the blue sky and set the interval timer so that I could jump over the camera. In post, I actually removed an entire house.

Week 21 – In The Fridge – I saved the chia kombucha for this photo because of the interesting texture. I also upgraded to Photoshop CS6 at this point and started playing with the new oil paint filter.

Week 22 – Memorial Day – With my new 80-200mm in tow, I took a walk to Arms Park in Manchester, NH to have a look at the Blackhawk helicopter that they flew in for the holiday. As I was walking away, I turned around to catch the National Guard in front of the chopper.

Week 23 – Blue – Another series of embarrassing photos came out of this week. I found bubble bath that turned the water blue, grabbed a blue Powerade, and climbed in.

Week 24 – Monster – This was done last minute, so I ran to the store and grabbed two cans of Monster energy drink, took a handful of shots with and without flash and then composited everything together in Photoshop. It was meant to look more like I’m levitating than falling.

Week 25 – Looking Down – My HDR breakfast scene. I set up the tripod looking straight down at the meal, used window light to keep everything natural, and then tried not to process it much.

Week 26 – Yellow – I was inspired by the Office Space movie poster and covered myself in Post-It notes. It actually involved a lot of tape because they don’t really stick to anything very well.

Week 27 – Reflections – My first shot was an infrared reflection in the river and I lost a lot of blood to mosquitoes to get it, however, I found it pretty boring. On a whim, I gave the insane dentist thing a try and used the original shot as texture in the final.

Week 28 – Texture – This is actually the bottom of my shoe. I set it up in a lightbox and blended exposures to capture all of the detail.

Week 29 – Summer – I had no idea what to shoot for this week, so I took a walk in the heat and came across the sign on Valley Street in Manchester, NH. I shot brackets and processed it to keep it on the natural side.

Week 30 – Water – I dropped by Pine Grove Cemetery one afternoon and started shooting the little bridge over the water. I liked the wide angle distortion and the extremely saturated colors. The clouds and pond are water after all, so despite being a lot of green, it’s all about water.

Week 31 – Friendship – Why is it so difficult to find a seesaw? I wanted something a little crazy and envisioned myself alone because sometimes all we have is ourselves as friends, but once at the park, there was a family watching and I couldn’t do anything insane without being self conscious about it.

Week 32 – Motion – This one was easy. Just set up the tripod in the back of the car and turn on the remote trigger. A long exposure in the dark yielded the light trails. I’m not sure which lights caused which colors though.

Week 33 – Red – Oil and water as seen in the Playing With Pyrex post.

Week 34 – Vegetables – I was trying for something very clean and fancy albeit cliche. Each plate was shot separately in a lightbox and then put side by side in post. There was an alternate image involving corn, however, it’s not technically a vegetable.

Week 35 – Looking Out – The return of the gas mask. I had the idea of looking out from inside the oven, so I set up the camera inside with a wide angle lens and triggered it remotely. Once I found the right composition, I started playing with bursts of flash, then incorporated myself into things.

Week 36 – Sunset – It was cloudy for most of the week and this was the best sunset I found in the limited amount of time I had. Not terrible, considering.

Week 37 – Football – I don’t play or watch football, but I went out with a ball to a nearby field that I hoped was secluded enough and tried a bunch of things. For this one, I made sure nobody was looking.

Week 38 – Pink – When I bought the wig and feather boa, I got strange looks from the cashier. I’m sure they’d give me a far stranger look now. A high powered fan would have been more fun, but the hair dryer helped make things a bit more crazy.

Week 39 – Funny – A bit of my twisted sense of humor, although this image apparently offended someone. I set everything up in the bathroom and wore the tie to hide body parts.

Week 40 – Round – I’m not sure how this one started, but once I was shooting the round jar full of roundish olives, it just made sense to add the eyeball. This wound up being one of my favorites.

Week 41 – Fall – This one was more of an inside joke related to a story I wrote years ago. A person was attacked by vicious gourds, so for this, I bought some gourds and set them up outside the door. The leaves and colors help illustrate the fall theme, but I wished the gourds could have had teeth.

Week 42 – Antique – I didn’t have anything antique, so I took a walk through the mills in Manchester, NH and found a couple of complimentary shots.

Week 43 – Brown – Brown rug, brown chest, brown stuffed animal. I thought it would be fun to add a splash of color and added in an ominous hand as well.

Week 44 – Spooky – I was kind of going for the Psycho inspired image, so I just stood behind the shower curtain with a knife. Creepy enough, I guess.

Week 45 – Black & White Portrait – If it came down to it, I was going to shoot myself yet again, however I went out with some friends and brought the camera. Little did they know that they’d become part of my project.

Week 46 – Symmetry – I’d spent most of the week getting ready for vacation and didn’t have a clue what to shoot, but after sitting at my desk and staring at a motherboard, I figured it was worth a try.

Week 47 – Feeling Nostalgic – A campfire in front of the tent beneath the stars. It made me think of past trips, old friends, and good times. I got lucky with the long exposure by setting the camera on the ground.

Week 48 – Winter – I wanted something simple and clean with a hint of color, so I scrapped my original complicated idea as soon as I saw that it had snowed and put a Christmas ornament outside.

Week 49 – Family – With no family in the area and not enough time to photograph another, I played with an alternate definition by using lead type to show part of a font family.

Week 50 – Flash – The recliner hadn’t been in a photo before, so I set up the shot with a softbox camera left and played with exposure until I was happy. Then I strapped a flash to my forehead, put on a lampshade, and blinded myself.

Week 51 – Fire – I had wanted to light my hands on fire, but settled on burning ice cubes. The melt water carried the gas away and caught the bookshelf on fire. Fun times.

Week 52 – Choose Your Own Adventure – The finale. I scrolled through all 51 other photos and wanted something that fit in and summed it up all at once. Unsure of whether or not it would work, I photographed all of the characters I’d come up with in bed together. The result was this deranged and kind of funny shot.