Trying out my new wide-angle lens

What a chunk of glass. I bought an old secondhand wide angle zoom 14-24/2.8 (full frame), I’m going to be careful so I don’t topple over 😄

From today’s lunch walk

On July 1, 2021, I started a “200 days” project, i.e., I wanted to see if I could take a photo each day and put it online (I have many that I haven’t posted yet). Yesterday, 18 January 2024, the streak ended when I unfortunately forgot to take a photo. So the big question is, what should I do now?

The very ironic part is that I was in two meetings yesterday talking about photography, then I edited a photo to see if different crops could improve it. So, two hours of talking about photos + editing, and I still couldn’t remember to take a photo … 🤦🏻‍♂️

When I mentioned this online, I got several comments.

@odd @jean @pcora @jeroensangers @maique McTwist thinks that I should carry on, saying that I’m allowed to have a free day or use the photo I was editing. @bryan suggests that I check for an automated photo from a surveillance camera (unfortunately, I don’t have one).

@birming thinks that 2 photo meetings + editing equals one photo. @Miraz andseachanged suggests that it’s the end of a project, that I should enjoy the achievement and just relax.

@gregmoore asks a few interesting questions that need answering:

Now that the project has an end date, what it mean to you? I had to think about this. At the beginning, I was anxious about missing a day, a bit too much I would say. However, when I started this project I decided that I shouldn’t try to take a good photo, instead it would be enough with a photo. This has made things much easier and I stopped worrying.

Later, it became a habit that I’ve enjoyed (almost every day) and it has made me look at the world in a slightly different way.

It has also taught me that not every photo has to be the best photo, even a really “bad” photo can be a good photo.

Did you learn anything from so many hundreds of successful days? Yes, photos that are important to me, are not necessarily the objectively best photos. It has made me realize that I should take more photos of my daily life and save them.

Also, that “having” to take a photo each day has forced me to look at the world in a slightly different way. And that no matter what, there is always a photo to be taken … you just have to see it.

Did you learn less than you thought? I have to admit that I didn’t expect much, I expected to fail before getting to 200 days, so it has been a very successful project - regardless of what I decide to do now.

Will you restart or is another project calling to you? This is what I need to think about. As I see it I have three alternatives:

1. Start over, ending the project and see if I can get 933 days this time. Most honest.

2. Say that I’m allowed one free day/1000 days, post the edited photo and continue.

3. Start a completely new project that doesn’t involve taking a daily photo.

I need to think about this, I’ve taked photos so all three options are open to me.

Greg ends with “You’ve reached an exciting moment”.

Yes, I need to think about this over the weekend. which of solutions listed above should I choose … because I need some kind of project.

I wonder if Adobe has decided that’s time to kill Lightroom Classic. There are several bloggers/youtubers who suddenly are saying that they are only using Lightroom “cloudy” now.

I’m getting more and more impressed by Ricoh GR IIIx. Today, I got the idea to try to use it for sports photography … indoors … and I’m impressed. Sure, I used a flash but still.

The combo of a GR IIIx and FlashQ20ii is a small and very powerful combo.

I’ve had a number of surprises lately, most of them have been “Ohh no, even more problems/complications that needs to be solved”, but yesterday I got a nice surprise.

The last few days I’ve seen posters all over, they announced a martial arts competition that will be held in a few weeks. The poster had a nice design and in addition to the usual info (when/where/etc) there was a nice action photo that showed what it was all about. I really liked the editing of the photo and started to wonder if I could do the same type of editing to one of my photos - I had been photographing the competition last year. So yesterday evening I opened Lightroom and started to search for a photo to try this style on … and after a minute I realized that it was I who had taken the photo on the poster 😋. Since I don’t have the poster at home I can’t be 100% sure but just 99% sure. So the answer was “Yes”, this kind of editing works on my photos 😁.

I usually remember or recognize photos I’ve taken, but this was edited (background removed) and I probably took around 750-1500 in two hours at this event, so I think I have a good excuse for not remembering it.

(and yes, I’ve had given them my photos to be used freely … you have to help other martial arts clubs)

Hmpf, I had decided that I wouldn’t but any new photo gear this year, but during the weekend I had several “interesting” experiences with the Tamron 70-200/2.8 F-mount that I use with an adapter on my Z7. Let me put is this way: angry, missed shots, and elevated blood pressure. And I have two similar events scheduled in the future … so here I sit with the cursor hovering over the “buy” button for a new lens.

Using this F-mount tele zoom on my Z mount camera using an adapter isn’t without problems. Lots of “lockups” (camera needs to be restarted), problems with auto focus (total lack of focus, hunting for focus, no auto focus at all), and various other things. This isn’t good when doing sport photography.

I see a new native Z mount tele zoom in my near future.