30 Days & 30 Clicks: January

While I think that the photo-a-day projects have become cliche and overdone on some photographers’ blogs, I was motivated by Rosh Sillars’ New Media Photographer podcasts at the end of 2009 to begin one myself. He spoke of how posting one’s results frequently can both improve SEO and motivation to shoot daily.

I chose to post just once a month, instead of every day, because that format just fits better with my blogging habits. These will fit in well with the monthly rotation (time lapses and audio slideshows) mentioned at the conclusion of the previous post.

A caveat to the first month’s worth of images–not all of these images were shot on separate days, so this month doesn’t feature a true photo-a-day project.

Regardless, here are 31 images from the  first month of 2010.

These first dozen or so images are from the first two weeks of the second half of Mercyhurst’s winter term, when we received several total feet of snow. Miserable. I enjoyed trying to isolate the falling snowflakes with a wide open aperture to blur the background, be it trees, people or campus buildings.

This next image was inspired by one of my favorites from Carlos Delgado’s portfolio (second image from the left). I met Carlos two summers ago during my first internship with the Erie Times-News, and his work has continued to impress and inspire me.

I have to walk down the path pictured above each day on the way to and from classes, jobs and my apartment. It’s not fun when crowded and surrounded by two feet of snow on each side.

Though I shoot a lot of sports as the Multimedia Editor of The Merciad and as a freelancer for Mercyhurst’s athletic department, I’m going to try to shy away from including very many sports photographs in this series. Just a few sports features will be shown.

While keying into my apartment one day, I felt the drips from these massive melting icicles above my head.

This next one is a nod to my fall project of capturing Erie’s evening autumn skies. Most of these in winter are nowhere near as dramatic, but the wispy clouds and silhouette worked for me here.

Here’s a non-traditional view of Mercyhurst’s Egan Cafeteria, where many students spend their mealtimes.

These next few display the ugly side of winter, a theme which I plan to follow extensively in February.

A couple interesting perspectives coming up here. First, a dew-spotted Jesus just behind Christ the King Chapel that I spotted one morning during a winter rain between classes. Also, a glance at the results from what students have to smell after walking out of class in Hirt each day.

These next few came from my evening bus rides to desk shifts at the Erie Times. First, one image from the Dobbins Landing time lapse sequence.

Anyone recognize those golden arches in this long exposure?

I finished with a return to the beginning of the month’s images–isolated snowflakes against the backdrop of Mercyhurst’s most recognizable building.

As you might notice, clicking on these images will take you to a hyperlink of my Photoshelter commerce page. Each photo is available for prints and licensing, a system I plan to use for each successive post with event photographs.

Thanks for viewing!