Daily Challenge Vision 2022 - How's it going? (discussion thread)

I find something about the nature of a Challenge - to be akin to the nature of how I go about writing, day in, day out. It's one of the untaught lessons which most writers learn somewhere along the line: that especially on the days when one feels blocked, or you really want to do anything else rather than sit down at the keyboard for awhile, those are the times when you have to find a way to do it nonetheless. The theory being that 'creativity' doesn't happen either magically or by itself, but emerges from the daily grind. Not that this Challenge has been a grind for me (yet, knock on wood) - but there have been days when either a) I didn't feel like shooting, or b) I had a camera with me and couldn't for the life of me figure out what the hell I wanted to take a picture of, or c) I forced myself to take a handful of pictures in spite of all of them seeming (at the time of taking, at least) to be supremely uninteresting or visually boring.

The cool thing that happens occasionally, especially when you've got your camera with you, and are despairing of ever finding a worthy subject or even a photo you would consider framing... sometimes, you will 'see' something that you hadn't noticed, or possibly walked right by, 5 minutes before.

But the opposite happens with me too: taking a number of pictures of something I'm convinced will turn into a photo or an image I like, and then adding one or two others afterwards almost at random, 'just because', even though I'm pretty certain they will suck; and then, later, discovering the ones I thought were the 'sure thing' actually didn't come out at all, and the ones I thought sucked, are much more interesting than I had previously imagined.

But...hey! Today is the 15th so... we're halfway there!
 
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A halfway point is a good point to reassess what has worked and not worked and to think about any changes in the second half.

So far I’ve enjoyed the challenge of photographing something every day. What I’ve found less enjoyable is my personal challenge of using only primes and no cropping. Whilst I’ve photographed several things which I’ve never done before I’ve felt quite restricted in what I “can” photograph and had to plan much more and be less spontaneous. I like trying to photograph what I've seen in the moment rather than planning what I can use a specific lens for. The positive is it has allowed me to have a better understanding of the primes I'd like to keep and my camera's unused functionality. I am happy to admit that it has also shown me that I am a lazy photographer – I rely on the modern technology too much, I miss my zooms and my self imposed constraints took some of the "fun" out of my hobby.

For the second half I’m ditching the primes (although the 9mm BCL could well resurface) and will be going back to my zooms. I normally only use my telephoto lenses for motorsports so my self imposed challenge will be having a week with my telephoto zooms and then think about what I want to do for the last week.
 
I find something about the nature of a Challenge - to be akin to the nature of how I go about writing, day in, day out. It's one of the untaught lessons which most writers learn somewhere along the line: that especially on the days when one feels blocked, or you really want to do anything else rather than sit down at the keyboard for awhile, those are the times when you have to find a way to do it nonetheless. The theory being that 'creativity' doesn't happen either magically or by itself, but emerges from the daily grind. Not that this Challenge has been a grind for me (yet, knock on wood) - but there have been days when either a) I didn't feel like shooting, or b) I had a camera with me and couldn't for the life of me figure out what the hell I wanted to take a picture of, or c) I forced myself to take a handful of pictures in spite of all of them seeming (at the time of taking, at least) to be supremely uninteresting or visually boring.

The cool thing that happens occasionally, especially when you've got your camera with you, and are despairing of ever finding a worthy subject or even a photo you would consider framing... sometimes, you will 'see' something that you hadn't noticed, or possibly walked right by, 5 minutes before.

But the opposite happens with me too: taking a number of pictures of something I'm convinced will turn into a photo or an image I like, and then adding one or two others afterwards almost at random, 'just because', even though I'm pretty certain they will suck; and then, later, discovering the ones I thought were the 'sure thing' actually didn't come out at all, and the ones I thought sucked, are much more interesting than I had previously imagined.

But...hey! Today is the 15th so... we're halfway there!
Very interesting ... what you write about writer's block (or "block" whatever, I guess) is what I find, too, on inspecting my own usual experience; thank you for putting it in clear words - it definitely helps self-inspection (in my case, anyway) (y)

And what you say about the "planned" images versus those that just happen: That's very true. And I think I can explain some of the what's happening: At the moment of capture, we tend to fuss over images we consider worthwhile - meticulously framing, adjusting, doing all the "right things". If the resulting image doesn't look as perfect as we tried to make it upon close scrutiny on the screen, we're dissatisfied, either with the image or, more often (in my experience), with ourselves. The "grab" or "crap" shots, on the other hand, often turn out better than we thought them to be - and are easier to like. I also find myself way more willing to "make something out of nothing" by cropping, adjusting, playing with it for a little while. Some of the shots I really quite liked were of this variety - so, just don't underestimate the ugly duckling ...

I forsaw difficulties for myself in completing this challenge alongside everything else that's on tab this month, and I was sort of right - but the open format allowed me to pick up posting again after having to skip single days (I've never had to make the gap wider yet). However, as a personal requirement, I try only to post images I can see myself proposing for the final collage. And there have been days I came home with only one or two shots of dubious quality - which, after some fiddling, I entered into the current "Today" thread because I don't intend to break that sequence (as long as nothing serious happens - life's life).

So far, it has been quite inspiring, or challenging in a good sense - because even though I post daily, I will content myself with playful shots in the "Today" challenge regularily, and I will not do that in the Vision challenge. So I *need* to stay on my toes - and while that can be a struggle that has me try harder than usual, t's also rewarding whenever I succeed.

Thanks a lot, everybody, and kudos - as Miguel stated, we're halfway through the challenge, and I really enjoy everyone's contributions!

M.
 
I'm not sure how often I will be contributing to this challenge, as I suggested at the start. The natural world is at its least appealing here over the next few weeks, and I don't know how many puppy photos I can get away with posting 😚. I will probably stick to other threads instead, to be honest, as I don't want to be posting stuff here for the sake of it.
 
I find something about the nature of a Challenge - to be akin to the nature of how I go about writing, day in, day out. It's one of the untaught lessons which most writers learn somewhere along the line: that especially on the days when one feels blocked, or you really want to do anything else rather than sit down at the keyboard for awhile, those are the times when you have to find a way to do it nonetheless. The theory being that 'creativity' doesn't happen either magically or by itself, but emerges from the daily grind. Not that this Challenge has been a grind for me (yet, knock on wood) - but there have been days when either a) I didn't feel like shooting, or b) I had a camera with me and couldn't for the life of me figure out what the hell I wanted to take a picture of, or c) I forced myself to take a handful of pictures in spite of all of them seeming (at the time of taking, at least) to be supremely uninteresting or visually boring.

The cool thing that happens occasionally, especially when you've got your camera with you, and are despairing of ever finding a worthy subject or even a photo you would consider framing... sometimes, you will 'see' something that you hadn't noticed, or possibly walked right by, 5 minutes before.

But the opposite happens with me too: taking a number of pictures of something I'm convinced will turn into a photo or an image I like, and then adding one or two others afterwards almost at random, 'just because', even though I'm pretty certain they will suck; and then, later, discovering the ones I thought were the 'sure thing' actually didn't come out at all, and the ones I thought sucked, are much more interesting than I had previously imagined.

But...hey! Today is the 15th so... we're halfway there!
Repetition is certainly a pedagogical cornerstone in the STEM fields. Heaven knows grad school in chemistry is the daily grind on steroids.
 
I'm not sure how often I will be contributing to this challenge, as I suggested at the start. The natural world is at its least appealing here over the next few weeks, and I don't know how many puppy photos I can get away with posting 😚. I will probably stick to other threads instead, to be honest, as I don't want to be posting stuff here for the sake of it.
And what's wrong with puppy shots?
 
I'm not sure how often I will be contributing to this challenge, as I suggested at the start. The natural world is at its least appealing here over the next few weeks, and I don't know how many puppy photos I can get away with posting 😚. I will probably stick to other threads instead, to be honest, as I don't want to be posting stuff here for the sake of it.
I would suspect quite a few.
 
Doing OK so far. "Something Interesting" is my personal challenge so it's more like the random picture thread. I had to reduce the intensity for now because my schedule is packed. I am online, though, and working on 3 to 4 workspaces so I still get to browse some threads in my break time.
 
I'm still enjoying photographing something every day but I've found that my style of photography (taking too many images one day then culling and editing the following weeks/months) isn't really compatible with the challenge of shooting every day. I've now got a good few weeks of culling and editing to look forward to in addition to reviewing several thousand of my 2021 motorsports images. Thankfully I'm retired but I'm still struggling to find the time to fit everything in.:eek:

When the challenge started I initially challenged myself to use my underused prime lenses with no cropping which also meant I had to plan a lot more. With my attempt to use my telephoto zooms for a week I've reverted to more spontaneous photography and I've decided that from today I'm not going to restrict my choice of lenses as the daily challenge is challenging enough!
 
Congratulations David @davidzvi for sticking to your challenge throughout the month(y). From your posts it appears, to me at least, that the different lenses again all have strengths and weaknesses but what have you concluded? Are there any particular lenses which you've fallen in/out of love with and why?

I gave up on my original attempt to just use primes for the month as I was coming up with the conclusion that they all had their place in specific situations. Whilst in my case I didn't use them a lot I have concluded that I should make more use of them when I know what I want to photograph. When I don't know what I want to photograph then I'll stick with my zooms.

The only one of my primes which I didn't really enjoy using was the Panasonic 25mm 1.7 not that the quality wasn't good but that over the years I've tended to go either wider or narrower and that 25mm felt "restrictive" - bit weird really as that is what I'd used for years in my film days:rolleyes:. Having said that it doesn't owe me a lot (It was "free" in a Panasonic G9 deal) and I'm happy with the quality so am unsure as to whether to sell or not or find a purpose for it.

My favourite prime lens was 9mm BCL fisheye which I enjoyed using and was pleasantly surprised at its' quality in the right circumstances (bright sunny days). I think I could be tempted by the Samyang 7.5mm at the right price which is a bit of a disappointment as I thought that the challenge would convince me to reduce the number of lenses which I own and not be tempted to increase them:doh:.
 
Congratulations David @davidzvi for sticking to your challenge throughout the month(y). From your posts it appears, to me at least, that the different lenses again all have strengths and weaknesses but what have you concluded? Are there any particular lenses which you've fallen in/out of love with and why?
......
Easy answers first. Nothing that I have fallen in/out of love with other than maybe the new Olympus 20mm Pro. While I do wish it were smaller it compares nicely to the PL25 since the hood is reversible where the slight smaller and lighter PL25 hood is not.

Definitely they all have their strengths and weaknesses. The P20 might actually have been the most consistently sharp through out the month. And specifically I mean that the shots taken by me, the way I shoot, and what I shoot. So more to do with me than the lenses.

The PL25 has great bokeh, better than the P20 as similar apertures. I haven't used the O20 enough yet to get a true comparison of the two yet.

Both the P20 and the PL25 can hunt at times. The P20 notably more. This did surprise me a little, I hadn't noticed the PL25 having trouble before. The other lenses I used during the month were all faster and more consistent. I will point out that in truth m43 and Olympus have spoiled me. Neither the P20 or PL25 are any worse than many of the older screw drive Nikon lenses I use to use.

I think I'm going to enjoy the small kit I have building. The E-P7 + O17 f/1.8 as the main combo with the P12-32 and O9mm BCL to cover really wide to just beyond 50mme. I am tempted to add a P42.5 f/1.7. I've noticed that I tend to like the longer end on shots like the stone walls (i.e. shoots with a closer focus object and shallower DoF).

My 3 middle lenses are really fine on either body (O12-45 Pro, O20 Pro, and Sigma 56). And the only thing I'd really like for my bigger kit is a Pro telephoto to 200/250mm (without a TC), until then I have the O75-300.
 
I think I could be tempted by the Samyang 7.5mm at the right price which is a bit of a disappointment as I thought that the challenge would convince me to reduce the number of lenses which I own and not be tempted to increase them:doh:.
Talk about a lack of willpower :rolleyes: have already succumbed and traded the Panasonic 25mm for the Samyang 7.5mm. Looking forward to photographing my feet ;).
 
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