Si0 2018 - how's it been, and how to move on ...

Location
Switzerland
Name
Matt
As per Bill's announcement, here's your place to look back and vent - and to discuss future adaptations of the format.

In spite of the fact that it was a real rollercoaster ride for me (mostly due to the unpredictability of my chosen setup), I loved most aspects of the challenge. Once more, for me, it was all about the images; the one thing I'd do differently next time is that I'd really like to see more verbose mutual support and chatter accompanying the challenge - I witnessed people really missing that, and I wouldn't have minded a bit more of that, either. There are several ways of providing this - either by using the Gallery as a place to post and comment on images (has been done before, can get stressful) or by establishing weekly or otherwise regular threads for comments, feedback and discussion. There's a good case for encouraging a bit more direct feedback in the images threads too, even though there's a rather fine line between just enough feedback and distraction.

I'm very glad it's over - because I put a bit much on my plate by using an untested, analog camera with somewhat limited and pretty capricious film stock. But I'm also really happy with the fact that I made it - and the camera (that is actually not seriously damaged, if at all) proved a much more versatile tool than I had predicted; that alone makes it extraordinary in my collection - I don't own another instant camera that could do the same.

I hope you all had fun and haven't suffered too much - it's not been easy, but IMO, definitely worth it. Thank you all for your participation and support (and yes, I definitely felt it, all the time).

M.
 
Weather-wise, it was more amenable to getting out there and finding your shot(s). Unfortunately, what should have been a quiet month was punctuated by multiple bad weather events where I was (and still am - October will go out with a bang as a continent sweeping storm is set to arrive 01-NOV) precluded some good opportunities. January was always a cringey month for me - frozen face and all.

It's funny - I keep thinking I know everything about the camera I'm using, not just button and menu-wise, but how it reacts to certain lighting and movement setups. And yet, I keep finding out one or two more nuances as the month progressed. My post-processing is getting better every time we do this exercise, and I'm hoping by the next time, I've developed more steps in my workflow that I can publish from the camera to one device (not a PC) in the field. We shall see.

What I really need to do is get more subject matter, maybe stick to a theme. But so far, what I would characterize most days as grab shots turn out to be not too bad for the day's take.

I second the call for more discussion. It certainly makes for good fodder at the end of the day, it's the other half of the enjoyment - sharing the keepers and talking about what it took to get it or how we felt getting it.

Looking forward to the next Single.
 
While using the GR for the challenge I was also shoot-the XPro2 andthe 16mm. What I found was very little difference image quality wise. The 16mp from the GR certainly holding it’s own against the Fuji and the 16mm. I also found the GR more fun to use. Probably the size. I have pre ordered the new GR. the XPro2 will be going shortly I think. In the meantime I’ve bought a Fujifilm X70. I need to try a couple of months with a tilting screen.
Apart from me missing a day and struggling with internet for 2 weeks of it,
I enjoyed the challenge. It also confirmed that I am happy with a 28mm focal length.
 
I’m really proud of myself that I managed to get through this challenge in the maybe busiest time of the year at work. The selected theme helped a lot. All I needed was to pick up at least a little bit ‘photogenic’ church and shoot.

The deeper meaning for me being able to concentrate and finish the challenge is that it tells me the worst part of the difficult times are past. I feel myself relieved.

And I hope you didn’t bore to death with my churches and short notes. At least I learned a lot of history and stories of the capital area where I now live. It only took a bit more than thirty years to start learning ones ‘new’ neighbourhood :D

Now I’ll take the 12-40 zoom off the camera and start shooting with PL 25mm f1.4. I’ve been already waiting this day.

Congratulations to all of you who made it this time. I’ve really enjoyed to seeing your work, also. My vote to usage of gallery again next time. It feels easier to comment there than ‘interrupt’ normal threads.

See you again in next challenge then.

2018 SiO Churches.png
 
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Congratulations to all who made the challenge. And also to those who attempted it.
Really enjoyed it. For me, it brings a way to include photography into my daily routine. Having the portrait/people theme helped me keep going because there is almost always a potential subject close by, I just needed the extra push of the challenge to make myself ask permission. The E-P5 and 20mm were used in January and again this time did not disappoint. That lens turns out to be quite amazing wide open. And makes a satisfying portrait lens.
However, I did miss using a different camera. That's my own fault as I got a D850 a day before we started. I really had the urge to use it instead of the E-P5, but resisted.
I also looked forward to seeing each of your daily uploads.
Agree there should be a format for more commentary next time(maybe the gallery).
Looking forward to next time.
 
First of all congratulations to all who finished and participated. I didn't come close, and it has convinced me I will not enter another until I retire. Last year I shot with my 35 f2 and loved it until I hurt my back. This year I shot with my 35 for as long as I was in and almost hate the lens now. I know now my job is too demanding and putting pressure on myself turned me off to photography. I'm up for retirement next year and I'll see how I feel then. I have a vacation in late November and I'll see if I can recharge. Great job everyone
 
I guess I won’t officially finish this challenge for another week or so when I can finally sit in front of my computer at home and work out which photos were taken with the 12-32. I’ve been interchanging between that and the 15. I tried using my phone to link to my camera at first to upload the pictures but found it too flaky. Or maybe it’s just me.

Still not sure how my challenge went to be honest. My preference, I think, still is the winter months as it is really challenging with the poor weather and limited light. I find it forces me to be more creative. That said this time I’ve found it difficult to stick to a theme that worked both when at work and when travelling.

Anyway will post them, likely after I catch up with Dr Who!!!

Congratulations to everyone who took part, both those that did it in part and also those who made it all the way through.
 
This has been the most enjoyable of the Si?'s for me so far, probably because spring was in full bloom down under. I bonded strongly with the X100T and looked forward to getting a shot most days.

To keep my interest up I used over a dozen different software programs, usually multiples per image. A shot per day does not come naturally to me, I'm more of a 'binge' shooter so I found myself repeating a lot of the opportunities in subsequent days.

I enjoyed posting the new daily threads and hope you found them of interest. Regarding comments, they were more evident in the second half and felt 'about right'.

Overall, well done to everyone and hope to see you for the SiJy 2019.
 
I took a diametrically opposite approach to Bill and used one post processing technique throughout the whole month, namely RawTherapee followed by GIMP, in my bid to finally escape from the windows operating system. I recently looked at processing some of the images in my windows based editors and found I was struggling to replicate what I had achieved using RawTherapee, possibly due to lack of practice with the raw editor being used.

I found it interesting to see some older cameras in use for the challenge, in particular a GF1. I found some of the images produced with that camera to be of a high standard although perhaps they exhibited some blocked shadows. Was that I wonder a limitation of the dynamic range of the sensor or could it have been corrected to some extent in post processing. The images were certainly taken in very bright, contrasty light conditions. I shall have to dust off my own GF1 although sadly high contrast light conditions for me will be in short supply over the next few months.

For my part virtually all the images I obtained were taken within my small rural parish and most within walking distance of my cottage. That presents a problem with time since I would be repeating images in subsequent challenges. Before this challenge I'd always used a fixed focal length lens, this time I elected for a short range zoom lens which enabled me to vary my subject matter. I was surprised how many images were taken at rather longer focal lengths, I'd expected most to be at the wider end.

I've enjoyed my choice of camera, the Leica D-Lux typ 109, mainly for the ability to manually set parameters such as f stop, exposure compensation etc with well thought out control wheels. I still struggle a little to replicate the smoothness of tone that I obtained in my early days (1970's) when I was using medium format cameras, specifically a Voigtlander Bessa 1 and a Mamiya Press, that perhaps is related to the bokeh of the lenses used. Despite, or perhaps because of the relative simplicity of the lenses used on those medium format cameras, the bokeh was better than I can obtain with the otherwise more versatile lens on the Leica.

Finally the last few days have been a struggle, I think I reported feeling nauseous on day 20, that turned out to be a protracted attack of either gastro enteritis or food poisoning which I've yet to fully recover from, thank goodness for photo opportunities close to home, my energy levels of late have been very much reduced.

Barrie

P.S. Well done to all participants
 
My experiences this time:

Gear
I used the Panasonic GX9 and 20 1.7II. This is a fairly compact camera (it fits in a Mirrorless Mover 5, the largest bag I can relatively comfortably attach to my belt when cycling). The small size, the image quality of both sensor and lens, and the chosen focal length (40mm equivalent) suited the PAD very well. If we'd do a PAD again, I'd probably make a similar choice.

Theme
I find it helps my creativity to limit myself to a theme. Looking at the photos of SiJ, I noticed that the images not only showed the subject, but also documented the weather in that month. Next to that, I made some pictures on my last holiday looking up showing only the top of the buildings against the sky, and this led to my theme. Pictures of the sky, with an earthbound object, without showing the earth. I knew this would be a hard theme to stick to when all we'd get was grey skies, but my prayers were heard. A lot of blue skies!

Processing
I knew I'd be travelling to Italy in the month of October, and I never bring a computer on my travels. This meant that I wanted to try out truly mobile processing. All processing was done in Lightroom CC on iOS (iPad when that was around, but a lot of the time iPhone). The first day I transferred the JPEG over Wifi (easily done with the GX9, also thanks to the bluetooth setup). But I really wanted to benefit from RAW, and the Wifi connection only transfers the JPEG in iOS. So I did some searching in my drawers and found the Lightning SD card reader I once bought but never used. From there it was easy:
1. import the RAW file
2. start Lightroom CC
3. add the imported RAW file to the Lightroom files
4. edit the RAW file (Lightroom can apply the camera profiles)
5. share to Smugmug
5. copy the BBCode from the Smugmug site
6. past the BBcode on cameraderie.org
The workflow was very easy. At home, when I fired up Lightroom Classic CC, all files (and edits) transferred from the Adobe cloud to my desktop. I read a lot of bad press about the cloud based subscription model, but it came in handy this month.

Social interaction
For me, Si? is about using the gear I have in stead of looking for something new. Si? invites me to occupy myself with a bit with photography every day and hopefully create something better than a mere snapshot. Photography is helping me to balance my life, as it is a way to take my mind off of other things. I personally don't share images online to solicit feedback. I know what I like, what I want to create and I don't mind showing that to others. But I don't care much if other people like my images. Of course it strokes my ego when someone finds my image a winner or a wow, but I actually don't mind it much if no one but me sees the point in what I created. Back when we did discuss in the galleries, most entries were very polite and short. In my opinion the icons we now use are a good substitution. My days are filled enough as it is, with a taxing job, family life, picture taking and processing. I feel I don't have the spare time to really sit down and discuss all entries. The daily threads do provide room for comments if an entry really stands out, and I see that sometimes that is used. My good intention for a next time is to do that more often, and hopefully be meaningful in my entries.

My conclusion
All in all, I'm glad I participated, but am also glad the month is over. As always, after four weeks, it started to be less fun but more of a daily chore. But it didn't ruin my love for photography. Today, I went out there again, and took some pictures. With another camera, and TWO lenses!

Other participants
As always, I love to see all the different angles when several photographers go out on the same journey. Thank you all for sharing your results, I really enjoyed it. And for those that didn't participate, or had to step out: there's always next time.
 
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Aside from the fun of doing an exercise like this, I really like that it forces me to continue along a track I have laid out. Mnay times I might have quit when I hit difficulties but will often work through them because of the commitment. I do like the idea of have 2 of these per year during different months.
 
I found the LX100 a good choice for this SIJ. A little more zoom would have been nice but mostly I shot at the widest FL anyway. In terms of theme, I didn’t really have one in mind after the house move at the start of the month, but it turned out to be a very parochial view of things in/seen from the garden or on my daily walk with the dog.
I did very little processing of images. The filters in camera gave nice results if I felt the need for a particular mood, especially rough monochrome. A couple got cropped and minor edits either in iOS photos or Lightroom CC on the iPad. In fact that was one major departure from previous months, in that I copied all images with wifi from the camera to the iPad. No raw files that way, but I can always import them to my Macbook some other time.
All in all I enjoyed the challenge. I found myself looking for stronger but simple compositions, so it was definitely worthwhile from a continuously improvement point of view. I think there were some really good contributions from everyone. I am kicking myself for missing the 23rd but sometimes life gets in the way....
 
Having switched back from primes, to the 16-55 2.8. Which I know very well from working with it for a couple of years. Made this challenge easy for me. Also factoring in that I shot my daily family life. And did all but the last few days in sooc jpgs. The real challenge was grabbing a shot on the really busy days. So this go around was very enjoyable for me. By the time July rolls around, I may have a telephoto zoom to try this with. Aside from one I borrow from my son's kit :D
 
I didn't set out with a specific theme at the start of the month, but I guessed I would process black and white since that seems to be where my head is at nowadays. Changing bodies (X-T1 to X-T3) mid-stream was a surprise (the camera was a reward after getting promoted at work) but was tough for the first couple of days after the switch especially whilst I was waiting for Adobe to provide X-T3 raw support in LR. However, using it every day means that I am now very comfortable with it and looking forward to taking it over to Texas for a few days next week.

I deliberately chose the 16/1.4 because it is so versatile but I made myself post everything uncropped so it would show off the lens' ability. I hadn't planned this but I realised after a couple of days that this was something I wanted to do.

We are very, very busy at work at the moment so some days were a real struggle to get anything. However, that forced me to look round the house for something to use and also gave me an excuse to play with off-camera flash (which I love doing, but never do enough of). Looking back I think that some of my pictures are little better than snaps but some I am really happy with.

I'm glad that I stayed the course and I have really enjoyed seeing everyone else's pictures and reading some of the background to them. I do hope that I can get involved in the next SIx...
 
I enjoyed this challenge. It was fun to be forced to use my R-D1s for an entire month non-stop. Admittedly, I did have to change lenses near the end of the month because I sold my Voigtlander Nokton 35mm f1.4 Classic.
The weather and seemingly endless rainy days did make things a bit of challenge a couple of times.
I enjoyed viewing other's work and the spectrum of images present.
Nice work all.
. . . David
 
After a short period of adjustment to using a older 12 meg body with no IBIS I had a ball with the SiO. I shot in RAW+ and setup one of the MY presets to a dynamic monochrome with increased sharpness and contrast. I went fully mobile with my processing, using my SD to Lightning reader to upload the files to my iPad.

Processing the files in Snapseed was quick and easy, although after a few days I pretty much gave up trying, as the Panny jpgs were so good and I couldn’t really pull anything else out of them. The only exception was the night where my flash settings were all fubar and I managed to save pretty much all the files except the ones that were taken with slow sync and had huge amounts of motion blur...


I really enjoyed seeing everyone else’s daily contributions and am looking forward to the next Single In... :2thumbs:
 
I started this SiO wondering if I was going to be able to be able to find worthwhile photo opportunities but as last time (SiJ) after the first week I got into a bit of a pattern and thanks to the weather being kind there was only two days where I was unable to get an outdoor shot. More than a few times I went out with something in mind and finished up taking something totally different. I found the last week a bit difficult when the camera started playing up but it saw the month out with a bit of TLC (just). While I found the 35mm focal length OK there were a few times when I really could have done with a 28.
It was always interesting to look at all the other posts and good to see most people staying the course.
I'm looking forward to SiJy next year and if the weather is as good as July this year it will be interesting to see what I can come up with as I find the winter months my most productive time.
 
It remains a challenge to take a photo every day. We /I have made it again. Because of the use of the 18-55 mm, which I seldom use, I have learned to look differently. In the beginning it was difficult, especially in terms of horizon and compostition, but during the month I learned to look in a wide-angle perspective ;). Still, I will not use this lens more often after this month (I think). I continue to find it difficult and am happy to be able to put my favorite lens back on the body (35mm).
What I will use more often is film simulation Velvia. I think the colors are great.
I have enjoyed all the photos posted, I find it special to follow others for a month in the daily activities. The photo posted daily gives an idea of what is going on. :bravo-009:

Until the next challenge.
Hanneke
 
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