Week 1

                                                   The soul of a lazy man desires, and has nothing;

But the soul of the diligent shall be made rich.

                                                         Proverbs 13:4

January 5, 2010

     I love the book of Proverbs. It gives me guidance. It speaks volumes about the " foolish man". Which is exactly what I felt like this morning at 7 am venturing out into 17 degree, snow blowing weather to take pictures. But, the above verse speaks to the lazy man, which I am not.

I wasn't exactly sure where to start this little project but start I did. I found myself downtown on State St. as it seemed as good a place as any. I gathered up my camera and tripod, stuffing a lens in each pocket, and took off walking. I realized rather quickly that I had started a bit early in that it was still too dark and standing for any period of time to take a long exposure wasn't a good idea.

I did, however, run across dedicated city employees doing snow removal around the courthouse. Even with the winter conditions, one gentleman I spoke with seemed to be in a fine mood.  ( The fellow in the back. ) That helped spur me along as I figured if he could be cheerful about the weather when he had to be there, I could certainly do the same as I was there voluntarily.

I took a few pictures in the next hour or so. Nothing spectacular mind you but I did realize something about the downtown area that I hadn't noticed before. There are an amazing number of faded advertisements that had been painted on the sides of the buildings however many years ago. I plan to go back and shoot as many of them as I can find, and possibly get a little history also.

By now you know where I was today. Here is the teaser photo for the week and I will give the location next week. That's how it will work.

So what did I learn about taking better photographs today? I learned that my equipment works better than I do at sub-freezing temperatures, and only a " foolish man " goes out on a day like this without his ear muffs!