During this pandemic year of 2020, I was reflecting on how I share with others and tried to think of other ways that I could support people’s learning about photography.
Years ago I wrote my digital ebook, The Photographer’s Toolkit to help people learn skills that they could use when capturing images. I also joined Instagram and only posted images captured with my iPhone because I wanted people to see that one could capture great images with a mobile device.
A Summer Stuck at Home = Opportunities
Because of the Covid pandemic, we couldn’t travel back to Canada as we normally would for our summer holiday so I started a couple of new projects.
I created a Tiktok channel to teach people how they could use their phone to capture powerful images with their mobile devices.
I had been thinking about sharing in the form of a blog for a while and with the extra time at home in the summer I took the plunge. I created The Photography Toolkit but I wanted it to be more than just sharing of skills involved in capturing photographs.
So I came up with the idea of photo challenges where I could set myself a challenge and capture first person video of what I was seeing while trying to capture the images. I thought it might be a good insight into my process of making an image.
I have had a lot of fun coming up with ideas for challenges and so far I have done the portrait challenge with the 105mm F1.4 lens, the digital pinhole challenge, the 300mm lens challenge, the infrared camera challenge, the black and white film challenge, the digital black and white challenge, the 24mm F1.4 lens challenge, the movement challenge, the macro images outside your front door challenge, and the 50mm challenge.
Of course I also created The Photography Toolkit YouTube channel to share the videos that I was putting on my blog.
I thought the end of the calendar year would be a good time to reflect on the photos I captured for the challenges this year by sharing 5 images that I connected with in one way or another. They aren’t necessarily my 5 favourite photos – they just helped me learn. And isn’t that what it is all about?
24mm Portrait
I would never have chosen a 24mm lens to capture a portrait if I had other lenses with me. But as I was only able to use the Nikon 24mm F1.4 lens for the 24mm challenge, it was that lens or nothing. I tried to get close to make the most of the wide aperture and I love the eye contact that I got from the subject.
My main learning was that you don’t have to have a traditional portrait lens to capture beautiful portraits. I may even have a future challenge where I bring a traditional portrait lens like an 85mm and an unconventional lens like the 24mm and capture portraits with both.
Vortex Tunnel
I love movement images but I mostly capture panning images or images where I stay still and objects move through the frame. At the end of the movement challenge I was heading home on the Singapore MRT and this particular train had a window at the end of the carriage where I could see where we were going in the tunnels under Singapore. I had some trouble with the reflection in the glass at first but after some adjustments with my position and my shutter speeds I was able to capture some images that I liked.
The thing that this image helped me learn was that challenges are a great way to get me out and look for images that I might not otherwise be looking for. I don’t capture many movement images when I am the one moving and this was the perfect opportunity to do so.
Blue Portrait
After lots of practice, I am now really comfortable asking people if I can capture their portrait. I was excited to use the amazing Nikon 105mm F1.4 lens for the portrait challenge. One of the first people I saw was this man sitting in front of a blue wall wearing a blue shirt. He was happy for me to capture his portrait and I loved the connection the viewer gets because of his eye contact.
One thing that I learned from this image is that even though I am using a portrait lens, I should try to capture more full length portraits and not just the closer up portraits of people’s faces. The next time I do a portrait challenge I plan to capture some full length portrait images as well.
Rusty Colours
I have always known that telephoto lenses are great for isolating subjects. The 300mm challenge allowed me to use one of my favourite telephoto lenses, the Nikon 300mm F4 PF for the whole challenge. I really enjoyed capturing images of subjects far away as well as subjects that were closer to me. I was amazed how close the lens could focus and I loved the colours on top of a rusting metal barrel in the image.
The Nikon 300mm F4 lens can focus on an object that is 1.4 meters away. It wasn’t a macro lens, but the compression offered by the 300mm focal length and the close focusing did a great job to capture close up type images. I learned that it is really important to get to know your lenses really well because they may be able to do things that you didn’t know and the results might surprise you.
Digital Black and White
I often say to my photography students that they should look through their viewfinder when composing an image instead of the LCD on the back of the camera. That really helps them to concentrate on the frame and keep the camera steady. But for the digital black and white challenge I almost exclusively used the Nikon D850’s LCD to compose the images because, after changing my camera’s picture control to monochrome, the image on the LCD was in black and white.
My big learning from this image was that I should always be open-minded towards options even if I haven’t liked them in the past. It was fantastic to see what the image would look like in black and white before capturing the image. I could evaluate whether or not the image would work in black and white right then and there.
Looking forward to more challenges in 2021
I hope you have enjoyed what I have shared this year through my photo challenges and other posts. I really appreciate all the support that I have received this year.
I would greatly appreciate if you subscribe to my blog and my YouTube channel as it lets me know that the content I am creating is valuable to you. I also have an Instagram account and a Facebook page where you can connect with me and see some of the upcoming projects that I am working on.
If you have any suggestions for future photo challenges, please share them through one of the social media options.
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