Sycamore Township Photo-a-Day / by AE Stagge

For some time I have been looking for a photo project. Many photographers have done a 365 project, where they post a photo each day for one year (see 365project.org or aphotoaday.org). The idea is to exercise your vision and creativity by shooting very regularly. Good photographers of course have learned to “see” well.

Recently I heard an interview with a blogger in Paris. His project is one photo a day of Paris and I really like his site - www.parisdailyphoto.com. He has been at it for nearly 10 years. That’s commitment! I thought about doing CincinnatiDailyPhoto, but wasn’t sure I could realistically cover all of Cincinnati. Also, someone else is (kind of) doing that here: cincinnatidailyphoto.blogspot.com.  So, I am combining the 365 idea with a more local theme, scaling it down to the community in which I live.  By limiting the geography and time I am hopeful I can keep this commitment.

I have lived in Sycamore Township most of my life. I grew up here, and after a few years in other places I returned here with my wife to start our family. Sycamore Township is a mix of residential, industrial/commercial and retail businesses, maybe best known for the Kenwood Towne Centre.

This project is a selfish endeavor. It’s about me improving as a photographer. If others find it interesting, great. I am not using it to promote the township per se, but there are some great things about our community. If all goes well, you will see the good, the bad, the ugly and the great. My self-imposed rules....no make that guidelines, are to post once a day, a photo that has been taken within the last 30 days. I hope to mix in a few panoramas and time-lapse videos. The tools are not important; I might use my camera phone, GoPro or DSLR and whatever processing techniques I wish to make the image I want. 

So, here we go…

UPDATE   10/1/2014

The first quarter is in the books!  This project has been a challenge, and I have enjoyed it. Ninety days/photos doesn’t seem like a lot, but it took at least 900 shutter clicks to get those 90 shots. I suppose ten percent isn’t so bad.

I’ve waffled a bit at times on what subjects I should include. The project has become part art, part humor, photo journalism and part township tour. That’s ok with me as they all keep me shooting, which is the main purpose.

I will have to do much more exploring to get to 365. I also need to experiment more with post-processing tools. I may come up with some odd results, so let’s get back at it.

Best,

AE

UPDATE   1/1/2015

I'm half way home. This quarter I have used more photos from my phone which eases the burden but may have lessened the quality a bit. Lately my big issue has been winter skies. I have to take what I can get, which is often not good. I'm looking forward to spring. 

I've continued to struggle with content. I take a lot of shots that don't make the cut, and I'm still not getting the variety I'd like. That said here are some of my favorites from this quarter:

95, 106, 112, 115, 118125, 139, 175, 180, 181

Best,

AE

UPDATE   4/1/2015

Rounding third and heading for home…to quote a famous local celebrity. RIP Nuxy.

This quarter was more winter and cold and snow. I did some fun exploring days 241-243. Tried some different things, like 257. I used a modern in-camera HDR feature instead of in post. I feel like I am making progress developing my eye. Time will tell.

Here are a few of my favs from Q3: 

186, 214, 217, 223, 243, 261, 271

Best,

AE

FINAL UPDATE 7/1/2015

I really enjoyed this exercise and I learned a lot. Many times I felt my post photo was not of the quality I wanted, but that is part of working with a deadline. I realize it is difficult to follow the project from the beginning, so soon I was post a page of photos in reverse order. In the meantime you can go to Day 1 and click the link at the bottom of the page to advance one day at a time.

Thanks for stopping by!

AE