Self Assignments

[bmac]

Hey guys, how about using this tread to list your favorite self assignments. It can help other members who are seraching for a project to work on. I'll start off with a few I have though about doing.

* 24 hours in a single place (store, laundromat, park, mall, school, train depot, etc)
* Faces (different expressions on the same model
* Ordinary Objects (still life)
* Night Photography around your home town
* A day in the life of a person you admire (or hate

)

What are yours?

 

[lee]

I finished up a 20 print series this last year on the Missions of South Texas. I am still working on a Working Cowboy Portraits series. I have about 20 that I uses but I need more. I am trying to be a landscape photographer. and I love photographing old turn of the 19th century country churches in Central Texas. That is what I am currently working on.


lee\c

 

[Jorge]

You know, I am terrible at this kind of thing. I have no imagination to come up with something like this, but recently driving to an abandoned mission in the middle of the Sierra, I noticed there are many little shrines on the road. Perhaps for people who died on car accidents, I dont know. But some of them are quite beautiful, I am thinking of doing a series on this once I find out what the heck they are for.

 

[David Hall]

OK, three things.

1) I'll tell you what I would LOVE to do, and I will tell you that I will be heartbroken if I see a Met or Guggenheim exibition that says "Gasteazoro: David's Idea". I would love to make a series of portaits of workers in China holding the everyday things we use that are made there. A little old woman, for example, holding up a Barbie doll in Mattel's Made In China Factory. If you take the idea and run with it...do it right. Large format, contact prints, take my breath away.

2) In 1999 I did a series of portraits of radio listeners that was really very good. I surprised myself. Black background, serious, holding up pieces of paper describing their listening habits. I would like to do that for other groups.

3) Lee, I was just in South Texas, checking out the missions around San Antonio. They are BEAUTIFUL. Old and still looking much more authentic than most of the California missions or San Blas, south of Tucson.

dgh

 

[Aggie]

..

 

[Nige]

well Aggie, based on the fact that our bathroom has a floor to ceiling window made out of those blocks... I hope you can't see much at all!!!

Here's things ratteling around my head.... (some I've started)

1. Lollipop people (they supervise crossings for school children)
2. Dead Flowers
3. Pics of people answering our videophone (door bell)
4. Abstracts of my old car


I'll think of more later.

 

[Prime]

I've been thinking about creating a series of images of blue-collar, African-American workers. I'm intrigued by how often they are nearly "invisible" to many white-collar, European-American workers.

I might like to create a series based on the patterns found inside fruits and vegetables. Red cabbage (which I have photographed) has amazing patterns inside.

I'd like to create a series of images of the fruit stands of Florida. There are still places, usually outside of urban areas, that sell everything from watermelons to boiled peanuts.

I might like to create more images of some of the other old things of Florida. Shuffleboard courts (still used) come to mind.

 

[Ed Sukach]

I have a few "on hold" that I will be done - sooner or later:

1. A series of Doorknobs. I've already been saturated with "Doors" and I think the mechanisms that operate them - and form the connection betwen man and machine would be of interest.

2. Two slightly different "landscapes":

One made by taking individual exposures on a "grid" pattern - four horizontal by three vertical - overlapping slightly - to be exhibited in a single frame in a twelve- window mat.

Another done by holding that camera overhead at arms length and facing across the street, walking and tripping the shutter at two - or three step intervals. To be mounted and viewed sequentially.

3. A collection of the simplest geometic forms possible to be found in nature.

 

[lee]

I agree that the San Antonio missions are very old. They were in very bad disrepair until just recently. I liked the Mission at Carmel, Ca. It is the only CA mission I have photographed to date. Next week end I am going to that Mission Just south of Tucson to photograph. We'll see how that turns out.


lee\c

 

[SteveGangi]

One summer, the project was Calla lilies. The next, it was birds. This year, it's shaping up to be sunflowers. I want to do one about barns or smll farms still standing in LA, but we will see.

 

[David Hall]

Lee,

San Blas. Go in the early morning; at this time of year the light is softer than it is in the afternoon.

A very cool thing happened to me there once. I was there before dawn, waiting for the light, and got a little spooked. Then, out of nowhere, this very old friendly dog came and stood right next to me. When I set up the tripod, he parked between the legs. Just stayed with me. Then After I had made the last photograph, he just got up and walked away. Like he knew I was spooked, knew I needed the companionship, and knew the moment I was done, before I had even started to break down the equipment.

The mission is run by Franciscans, VERY nice people. You will love it.

dgh

 

[lee]

thanks for the info. were you able to go inside and and photograph? I like to do interiors and the like. I want to do some real close up stuff too. I will let you guys know how it turned out.


Oh, do they charge anything for entrance or photographing?


lee\c

 

[David Hall]

Lee,

They do not charge. Yes, you can go inside. But the REAL interiors treat is a little shrine outside and to the left as you face the main building. A little chapel just filled with candels and statues. It's very cool. When I was there last I made the huge mistake of shooting it on Velvia, and the contrast just killed the picture. So prepare for high contrast. It is always breezy in the chapel and the candles flicher a lot, so you might also plan for a long exposure to turn the flickers into more of a glow. I think you'll be happy.

dgh

 

[lee]

thanks for the information

lee\c

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

If you're looking for assignments, check out usefilm.com, which is a critique site based on projects that change periodically. There is always a current project that is the most active, but you can go and do any of the earlier projects as well. The user base is more mixed and weighted toward beginners over there, but Al Shaikh, the organizer, has attracted some really good people and professionals working in a variety of areas.

Personally, two of the projects I've been working on lately are reflected in the Postcard Exchange, and one in my current Traveling Portfolio submission.

Since we moved into an apartment with a great view this past April, I've been doing the old "View from the Artist's Window" gambit under different lighting conditions, with different cameras, and different films. Here is the one on Postcard #1:

http://www.echonyc.com/~goldfarb/photo/grant.jpg

Our place is in a high-rise building that looks South over a park, but walk behind the building, and you're in an industrial zone that includes a former Singer factory (maybe they made Graflexes there, who knows?) now a gourmet supermarket, a number of meat packers, a bus depot, a tire repair place, car wash, some abandoned buildings, and such, all under the archways of a viaduct that connects eventually to the George Washington Bridge. Here are three from this area (the second is Postcard #2):

http://www.echonyc.com/~goldfarb/photo/pigs.jpg

http://www.echonyc.com/~goldfarb/photo/blacktie.jpg

http://www.echonyc.com/~goldfarb/photo/cclub.jpg

I have a whole stack of images to print from last summer in Moloka'i, Hawai'i, and we hope to spend more summers there in the future, and I see this becoming a long term project. No scans yet from these, but the portfolio includes one of these images from the steep trail to the historic leprosy settlement at Kalaupapa.

 

[chrisl]

I've been thinking of this exact topic trying to come up with a new project. I, like Ed actually, have done some prints already of antique parts, like doorknobs, doors, stained glass, hinges and architectural elements you see at used antique shops. Been using 35mm for now; waiting to find some 4x5 I can afford and try out...but all this talk around here has me second guessing for an 8x10! lol Other ideas are a family project....shots from each family members favorite environment, and something about the San Francisco Bay...tugboats aren't a bad idea Aggie!

Chris

 

[baronfoxx]

an assignment that I am trying now is to go out picture taking with one fixed focal lenth lens only and one body, I intend to look at different subjects and tackle then in various ways with the one lens

 

[David Hall]

I am doing that too, in a way. I am travelling with one camera and one lens, to lighten the load. At first it was a little frustrating, and after awhile I notice I just start seeing differently before I consider mounting the camera. It's a very interesting exercise.

dgh

 

[baronfoxx]

david , how do you "mount" a camera. From the left or the right and do you use a saddle

 

[Nige]

two others that I've taken but not done anything with yet, are a roll taken whilst riding my mountain bike - 35mm zone focus camera... not that I have a view camera but I thought I'd better clarify that!

and whilst driving (probably not recommended!) I intend to do a web story out of them.. I don't think they'll stand being printed!

 

[David Hall]

Baron,

You mount it very, very carefully. With the lights ON.

dgh