Photo 52 - Week 12, 13 and 14

You get a 3-for-1 special in this post.  I've got some catching up to do. 

Week 12

First up, a shot from a very empty week.  Lacking any inspiration, I went on a walk with Christina and Thor, and out of nowhere this Pit Bull decided he wanted to walk with us.  I never know what Thor will do in these situations, I had Christina pick him up while I tried to shoo the dog away.  I only managed to get this one shot. 

It has a lot of issues.  The composition is boring, and awkwardly amputates the dogs front legs and rear end off.  And it's just a picture of a dog.  Nothing special.  But in a week of non-inspiration it's the best shot I had that week.

Week 13

Week 13 was a lot better, since Christina and I went to Chicago for my Birthday.I tried to get some architecture shots, but really liked the texture of this building facade, and this is my shot of week 13.  This is a building on Michigan Avenue near Millenium Park.

There were a few other decent shots from that trip.  I was able to bump up my ISO all the way and get a shot of one of the subway tunnels.  I like the lines and perspective.

And finally near Millenium park, I found this black bird perched on top of a Chicgo sign near Millenium Park.  This shot was almost my shot of week 13.

Week 14

And to take it back to basics, I ended up not having a whole lot in week 14.  I did spend some time with Thor in the backyard, and I like how this shot turned out.

Photo 52 - Week 11

Well, it might not be an exciting shot or even a unique subject.  But, it does show off my new lens, my 28mm f/1.8 prime.  It is gorgeous, light, and great for indoor shooting!  It's a great compliment to my 50mm f/1.4.  As you can see it's got super silky bokeh and is really, really sharp even wide open.

It fills a nice hole in my lens collection, and I struggled with my decision to even get it.  It's a little expensive for something that I technically didn't need, but I found that with my 7d I have been shooting a lot more, especially indoors.  My 50mm f/1.4 is fast enough to get some great shots indoors, but it is too tight on my camera, especially since it is a 1.6x crop (a camera like a 5dMkII, for example, is a "full frame" 35 mm sensor), so effectively it's an 80-something mm lens.  Too tight for most indoor shooting. 

I also love shooting wide when I'm outdoors too.  I knew I'd get more use out of a wider lens, and when I shoot with my 28-135mm, I typically am below 50mm when I'm shooting outside.  I paid attention to all of the photos I've been drawn to when viewing photo blogs and browsing through flickr groups (my primary source of inspiration), and they were on the wider end of the spectrum.

While my 28-135mm can get wide enough, it wasn't fast enough for indoor shooting or for that nice silky depth of field that all the kids are crazy about.

So, at the end of the day, I justified it as filling that one hole in my collection, and I really feel like I won't need to buy any more glass for a long time.

At least, that's what I tell myself.

Photo 52 - Week 8

We round out the second month of the year, and the 8th week of my "Photo 52" project.  I'm sorry that it's another picture of one of my dogs.  Unfortunately, with the weather as it has been (Winter is stubborn around these parts) I didn't get the motivation to go out and shoot.

I'm loving the high ISO performance of my 7d, and the above is a shot I couldn't have imagined taking before, lest it be a staticky, noisy mess.  And what noise is present in the image (you need to zoom in to see any) is cleaned up in Lightroom.

Photo 52 - Week 7

Spent some time this week learning my new Camera.  Who better to pose for me than Cleo?  Turns out this was my favorite shot of the week.