50 With A 50 – Week 50

Posted on December 31, 2019 by declan

I was trying to decide how to finish my #50WithA50 project so I decided I would take and post a photo on the last day of 2019. The subject was a little more in doubt. I couldn’t decide how to end the project. Should I take a family photo, a self-portrait, a photo of snow. None of them appealed to me as the right way to end. Then I remembered, I have a older broken 50mm lens. It seems only right to end my 50 with a 50mm lens project by taking a photo of a 50mm lens. Not the one I have been using all along but pretty much the same.

I’m glad I did this project. It got me out taking a lot more photos and even though some weeks were a struggle to find something to take a shot of being forced to go out helped inspire me. Also the limitations of only using one lens help me appreciate the other lenses I have when I use them. I’ll have to find a new project for 2020. I’m thinking of doing more printing so maybe I’ll aim to take and print one photo a month for the year. But that’s for next year. In the meantime Happy New Year everyone and see you in 2020.

50 With A 50 – Week 49

Posted on December 17, 2019 by declan

Christmas time is here and with it comes a whole lot of things that have to be done. I did some photoshoots for friends and family which I enjoy and which gave me a chance to try out new light modifiers and backdrops but which took up a lot of time especially in the editing afterwards. I’ve never been able to “get it right in camera”. I can get close but there is always some work to be done after. The good news is I had some slack in my #50WithA50 project which has to finish by the end of the year so I was able to take a little time off. I had a hard time finding something I liked for this photo. I’d takes shots earlier but none of them worked for me. This one I just took tonight of some red Christmas decorations hanging from lights and I liked it because it’s nice and simple.

50 With A 50 – Week 48

Posted on December 4, 2019 by declan

I felt for sure that by week 48 of my #50WithA50 project I’d be waste deep, literally and figuratively, in snow photos. Instead we are having what I’ll call a nice Irish December. Mild, not too cold and no snow (apart from one morning). Fine for Ireland, bit unusual for Canada. I’m beginning to think I might finish this project with no more snow pictures. Anyway here is one for Week 48, some chains across a little wooden dock, not sure what they are intended to stop or what these hooks are for but they are there and caught my eye for a shallow depth of field shot, the sweet spot of this lens.

50 With A 50 – Week 47

Posted on November 26, 2019 by declan

My friendly neighbourhood squirrel is back for this weeks #50WithA50. Ok it’s probably not the same one, same forest, different path, but he is just as fearless as the one from a few weeks ago. Not angry this time, he just wanted to climb up a bank I was on the top of, walk around my leg and cross the path to the trees on the other side. Clearly he’s used to humans, probably not a good thing. My 50mm is not a great lens for fast moving animals since it takes about 10 seconds to focus so this was the only shot I got of him that was, mostly, in focus. I don’t know if the lens was always this slow of if it’s just a side effect of all the damage it has taken lately.

50 With A 50 – Week 46

Posted on November 19, 2019 by declan

Week 46 and almost back where we started. At least the Christmas lights are going back up so the year is coming to an end and we enter the home straight of my #50WithA50. I wont turn them on just yet, I’m not totally crazy, but I always like to get the lights up around the middle of November before things get tool cold and there is snow on the ground.

50 With A 50 – Week 45

Posted on November 14, 2019 by declan

Week 45 of my #50WithA50 and I took my camera to a hurling practice in St John’s. Maybe a 50mm prime is not the best lens for sports photography but isn’t that the challenge of this project. I decided to focus on the details like this image of a sliotar on the ground. Yes my Canadian friends that’s what the ball is called. First time in years I’d held a hurley and I was surprised I could still remember how to pick up a ball and shoot. These days the only shooting I do is with a camera. By the way, the front of my 50mm fell off again. I got it back on but if it insists on falling off regularly it looks like the last 5 weeks of the challenge is going to be a challenge. Tough little lens though, still working after falling apart 3 times. Sometimes the simplest things are the best.