MWAC Loc: Somewhere East Of Crazy

Just putting this out there, I know we have a daily photo challenge here on UHH hosted by photogrl57, I believe the idea behind her thread is to get people out and using their camera every day. Now I don’t want to step on her toes but I was thinking of hosting a weekly photo challenge that would be more geared toward learning how to use your camera, what changing certain settings will do and helping members go from using a pre-program mode to learning how to use the scary M mode (manual). There would be weekly assignments and we would discuss as a group what we learned each week, maybe even take a selected group of images from the lesson and discuss them as a whole.

Let me know if anyone is interested in something like this.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Sounds good to me, as long as it's not too much like school. I've had enough of that.

tk Loc: Iowa

Hip hip horay!

Kestrel1029 Loc: Philadelphia, PA

I think it sounds like a good idea too.

chapjohn Loc: Tigard, Oregon

Not trying to be negative, but I have to ask how many things have to be duplicated here on UHH? I ask this because 365project.org has several challenges going, one of theme is weekly theme. One of the purposes of 365project is to get people using their camera better.

tk Loc: Iowa

Trying to be polite. I didn't know about the 365project. Never saw it.

cosmo54 Loc: Easton, PA but will travel for photos

I'm in MWAC! I need help. :-)

MWAC Loc: Somewhere East Of Crazy

If you want to get picky about what is dupllicated here as to what else is available out on the web, we could actually just do away with the site as a whole. After all there are NUMEROUS other photography forums out there, many have been around a lot longer than UHH and all of them offer the same topics, threads, information and sense of community as UHH.

tramsey Loc: Texas

I did a forum search for 365 project.org and didn't find anything except Jerry complaining he was doing Photogirls thing and complaining that he had to take a picture every day; a whole picture, every day.

I'm in

Have a question, of course, I don't have a dslr, I have a bridge camera. A Panasonic Lumix DMC FZ20, it has mode settings and M,A,S. Is this camera passable for what you are going to be doing?
I don't have much time to play. My wife has severe health issues and requires my undivided at times. That's the main reason I'm not doing Photogirl's project. But once a week sounds like I can make that.

MWAC Loc: Somewhere East Of Crazy

As long as you can switch between, shutter speed priority, aperture priority, and manual settings you will be fine. Your bridge camera is more than passable, I believe many P&S cameras even have these settings now. :)

* How is your wife doing by the way? I'm sorry I haven't asked in a while.

martinfisherphoto Loc: Lake Placid Florida

I'm in. :thumbup:

Moray Loc: East Coast Canada

Please count me in as well

tramsey Loc: Texas

I just took a look around and Coyote Flatz has a thing going he calls 52 week Project for 2012. It has twelve pages. I didn't even know about it! Maybe that's what chapjohn was referring to.
I think his is different. I understand yours is going to be helpful critiques, his appears to be just pats on the back and good jobs etc.

She is holding her own. They can't find out what's the matter. She'll have a severe pain that is identical to a heart attack or stroke. They run all sorts of tests and xrays and come up empty. But she always has hard pain in her chest and arms sometimes its more severe then other times. Sometimes it makes breathing hard.

gdwsr Loc: Northern California

I'm in. My only suggestion is that perhaps start off with using the pre-program modes. The reason I suggest that is that they are very instructive especially for new photographers. The camera programers have spent a lot of time tweaking a bunch of camera settings for what would "normally" be successful for a particular setting. And what they actually adjusted is extremely difficult to find out. For example, How would a professional portrait photographer set the camera for portrait photos. Probably something like: soft focus, short dof (open aperture), 80-100 mm zoom, slightly warm white balance, shutter speed around 1/100th, etc. That is what the camera setting does automatically.

That logic applies to the rest of the settings. Also there is some creative insights that comes from using the "wrong" program. What would happen if you used the Portrait setting on a sports event? I would be real interested in seeing what would happen with a challenge that on one week all the shots have to be done on the Portrait setting; next week all on the Sports setting.

Just a thought.

Now I got my self curious. Think I will go out an try it :)

MWAC Loc: Somewhere East Of Crazy

I've never used a pre-programed mode on my camera, I know it's kind of sad.