July is going to be another month when it will be a challenge for me to update the assignments each week. I'll be leaving for Colorado early next week, and will be there throughout most of the month of July. Much of that time will be spent up in the mountains where I won't have access to an internet connection, and towards the end of July I'll be busy teaching our workshop in Crested Butte. Consequently, I'd like to propose an alternative to the weekly assignments, much like what we did while we were in Alaska. So here's my proposal, and "look ahead" to the coming assignments.
First, I'd like to extend the "Heat" assignment for one more week. I suspect that many of us in the U.S. will have an opportunity to capture images for this assignment over the 4th of July celebrations. I hope you don't mind the extension. I'll updated the deadline for submissions to Sunday, 10 July 2011.
Second, I'd like to try something a bit different as an extended assignment for the weeks of 4 - 31 July 2011. Tagging on to Marilyn's "photo essay" project, I'd like to make the assignment a "photo essay." Instead of just posting images in the gallery, I'd like participants to post a short "photo essay" as a forum post following the "Photo Essay" assignment description. Your entry can be something as simple as a short narrative (forum post) illustrated with embedded images, or a link to a photo essay, slideshow, article or blog post that you have posted on another site. (I'll post more detailed instructions in the "Photo Essay" assignment.) Since this will take more time than one of our normal weekly assignment submissions, I think this is the perfect time to have this "extended" assignment.
I'd also like to propose the following individual weekly assignments for the month of July:
11 - 17 July 2011: Water
18 - 24 July 2011: Wildflowers
25 - 31 July 2011: Friends
I'll post a short description of each of those assignments separately in the forum.
Finally, as a look ahead, I want to have an assignment soon that covers white balance. This is a fairly complex subject, so I want to give myself enough time to be able to present it well. We will cover things like the use of a gray (white balance) card, use of a "preset" white balance, and the difference between a "neutral" white balance and one that we find perceptually pleasing. I'd also like to cover a few of the "quirks" associated with auto white balance, and explain why you might not be getting the results you expect when using this option. Why a white balance assignment? Because I'm finding that white balance is often one of the "weak links" in my current image processing chain. The recent weddings we have photographed had us shooting in many challenging lighting conditions, and rendering the images with a "pleasing" white balance was one of the challenges we faced when processing the images. I'll share some thoughts on the subject, and hopefully provide recommendations that can help you improve your own images.
As a follow-on to the White Balance assignment, I'm considering a "Blue" assignment. (Hopefully that will make more sense after we talk about white balance.)
So, there's a look ahead through the month of July. I will try to stay engaged as much as my limited access to the internet will allow, and will look forward to seeing all your images. Please continue to encourage and help each other. I'll be thinking about you when I'm exploring the mountains in Colorado. (Well, maybe not too much.
)
Keith
