I hope none of you will mind but I will be combining both of these projects into the one post. One of my aims for 2014 is to work on improving my photography; to take more photos and take better photos. I love photography but have never been great. Even with a good camera I don’t seem to get the right shot, whereas my husband can take brilliant photos, even on an iPhone! I’m sure with a bit of dedication and further practise, I will eventually get there and take shots I can be proud of.
So, to introduce these projects in case there is any one who is not familiar with them.
Project52 involves taking and sharing one photo per week every week of the year, run over at Practising Simplicity
There is also a Project365 involving taking a photo for every day but I felt that may be ambitious for me at the moment. I actually do take photos every day anyway, it’s just whether there would be enough good ones and whether it would be too much to keep on top of. So if I succeed in Project52 this year, I will be trying my luck with Project365 next year!
Here is my photo for this week – 52:1
Mr Z and his Arabic work book. As I mentioned in my aims , as well as photography, one of my family aims was to work more on the children’s Arabic so there he is making a good start on his handwriting practise.
The Better Photo Project is a linky that has started with a tip each week to help us to work on our photos. This week is all about natural light, something I definitely need to work on with my photos. I am often finding that my photos are too dark, and I am meaning to buy some more lighting to help with this indoors in the evening – but of course natural light would be a much better solution where possible! Food photography is something I do struggle with and am hoping to improve, so I thought I would take this chance to compare a couple of shots lightingwise – both are taking indoors but one is during the day time near to the window and the other is in the evening.
Day Time
Okay, so by no means perfect but the natural light coming in from the window has kept the shot quite light and allowed the colours to show up brightly. (This photo is from my #Ryvita31Ways post)
Evening
Despite everything I have tried to do with this photo, it is just not looking great and the lighting has a lot to answer for with it (Okay, it probably would have been better on a plain white plate too as it clashes with the background, I know I know…) These stuffed peppers actually looked nice in real life (and tasted nice too) but the picture is looking quite grainy and the vibrant colours of the peppers are not doing themselves justice. On the plus side though I think this hijab makes quite a nice background and I will be using it again on another occasion, in better light and with a more suitable plate!
My problem is that a lot of the time when I cook, it is evening so the natural light is all gone! Lighting definitely makes a noticeable difference though (As my blogging friends have kept telling me over the year when I post rubbish photos!) so I really do need to think about ways to work around this. Hopefully you will see some improvements over the year as I give myself a kick to stop taking pictures of food in low light!
Linking up to:
Anna Marikar, mum of four and seasoned blogger, has spent over a decade sharing her parenting journey and passion for kid-friendly crafts and free printables.
Her easy-to-follow craft ideas and practical parenting advice have transformed In The Playroom into a cherished resource for parents.
Fabulous Anna – really great photos. You’ll love taking more photos too 🙂
They are really nice photos. I like how you capture the light, i always find that a hard thing to do.
Photos look fab Anna.
Hope you took tips from Eileen 😉 x
It is difficult to get good shots of food in the evening. I’ve found that too. Love the arabic handwriting picture.
Lovely photos – good luck #365
Great photos. The food ones are beautiful and the colours are fantastic. I love the photo of your son doing his homework. He looks like he’s engrossed in it.
The ryvita looks lovely
I adore the first photo, what a great thing and he has such concentration.
Thank you for linking up
Love the top photo. I find food photos difficult to get the lighting right on… The colours are great in the first one One of my 365 photos this week is food actually!
the shot of him focusing on his arabic book is really good. Nice soft skin tone and good angle.
Love your project 52 photo the lighting is brilliant something I really struggle with! I really want to work on my photo skills (or lack of them) too so will be interested to see how you get on x
i adore the photo of your boy doing his writing – lovely to see him concentrating so much he is not affected by the camera.
i know what you mean about taking a photo in the evening due to the dish not being finsihed until then! x
I think your photography is great but I also think its always good to try to improve. You’ve inspired me…thank you 😉
Lovely photos, and the best thing by far anyone can do to improve photos is to take more and more and experiment just as you are doing. I love that plate by the way – is it an Olpro one?! Looks very familiar.
Thanks for joining in ! x
Yes! My Olpro camping plates – using them indoors too as they are quite handy around the kids, being unbreakable and all!
I think your photos look great! I have definitely been struggling over the winter months to take decent photos and it is something I want to improve on this year too.
I think those photographs are great, I love the concentration on his face. Thank you for also linking up with The Ordinary Moments too. Looking forward to seeing what the rest of the year has in store, all these photo links and projects are so exciting and I hope that they will help me improve my photography too. xx
Good luck with your 52!!
Love the picture of him concentrating so hard on his arabic. MashAllah! x
I love the top pic especially! I find when using natural light for food photography, there tends to be one hour just before the sun goes down, when you get perfect light, but only if the sun’s out! 😀
I love the lighting on the first photo of your son. x
Great photos, well done! I have to say as I scrolled the Ryvita picture made me hungry!!! Great photography, looking forward to seeing more!
The photos are great
I can definitely see an improvement in your photos Anna, I love the top one. Food photography is hard, I’m yet to take one I’m truly happy with.
Nice photos! And such a wonderful idea. I need to start doing something like this too….
What a great look of concentration. A lovely capture.
Thanks for linking up to Living Arrows. x
You have inspired me to try to improve my photography! Thanks, I needed a little push…
I have a problem with lighting – it’s dark here except for about 4 hours a day, so I end up trying to take pictures between 10am and 2pm – whatever it is 😀
This time of year makes it so difficult to get decent lighting for photographs, the top one is brilliant though; love the concentration.
Thanks for linking up to Project 365.