Photo Crawl MeetUp
Photo Crawling Back, 2021 & 2022, and then some 2023
The vaccines are flowing, the mask mandates are lifting, the country is getting back to normal, and the San Francisco Photography Workshop and Portfolio Builders MeetUp (#SFPhotoCrawl) is back.
Time to see if I remember what all these dials do on my camera.
These are the Saturday events I attended to help expand my composition skills and experiment.
Around the Park [March 26, 2022]
The assignment for the March, 2022 Photo Crawl, #sfphotocrawl, near Buena Vista Park in San Francisco was to make a picture that tells where you are.
The challenge was to make a picture that the viewer can instantly say, "Oh ya, I know where that is."
I admit, when it was announced that we were meeting near the Haight / Ashbury area, I was less that excited; I've photographed in this area many times.
So when the group finished the meet and greet at Buena Vista Park, and everyone went in one direction I felt obligated to go the other and explore the neighborhood around the park.
Looking Out [August 28, 2021]
The assignment for the August Photo Crawl, #sfphotocrawl, at the San Francisco Palace of Fine Arts is 'Frame within a Frame.' The challenge is to compose a picture within a frame from the environment.
This was an interesting challange to see the way the environment interacts to a subject, as opposed to the other way around.
In some ways, it's easier to think, 'here's a thing, how do I compose the thing to make the thing compelling?' This assignment made me ask, 'What is the environment presenting in a compelling way?'
I'm not sure how this can be used in any assignment, but it is a fun exercise to force me out of normality.
The Whites [July 24, 2021]
The assignment for this Golden Gate Park Photo Crawl is 'Color as a Subject;' the challenge is to produce photos where a single color is dominating the composition. The overcast sky gave me soft, nearly shadow-free subjects. The slightly subdued light, and an ND 3.0 filter, made the long exposures possible.
This was an opportunity to see what I could do with my tiny, wrap-around Joby GorillaPod.
Living Streets [June 05, 2021]
The first face-to-face Photo Crawl of the San Francisco MeetUp since the virus shut the whole damn country down. We met at Chase Center on the coast of Mission Bay in San Francisco to explore organic elements in an artificial environment.
It was also an opportunity to experiment with some film simulation recipes and shooting direct Jpeg.