This theme was about facades of buildings and the outward appearance they project. I love photographing architecture, so to make this more of a challenge, I decided to limit myself to just the front. Not geometric details, or shots looking up, but just the view from the sidewalk. Boston actually has a lot of different architectural styles from neighborhood to neighborhood, so it wasn't too hard to find a good variety.
These photos are from the Back Bay, South End, Fenway district and Kenmore. As usual, half the places were ones I had in mind, and the others were ones I stumbled upon along the way. There obviously was no shortage of subject matter, so these nine are a very select edit of what I shot.
The hunt for red (and yellow and orange) October
This theme was all about the new season. The beginning of October meant summer is officially and fully over, so I decided to embrace it photo-wise. Fall is also my favorite season: dressing in layers, cool sunny days, football Saturdays, a bounty of farm produce, and those colors! Sometimes it's hard work finding signs of fall foliage in the city, especially when the coast is a bit behind the peak season inland. But I lucked out (and maybe also timed this theme) that another instameet was scheduled during the same week with @IGBoston.
I had a great time at the last meet-up and had been looking forward to another one for a while. This is the first one that worked out schedule-wise, and it was planned for the Arnold Arboretum. A literal tree reserve on the outskirts of the city, what better place to find foliage?! It's also a very different subject matter than I normally focus on and gave me a chance to take more portraits and pictorials. I included my favorite shot below, and you can see all the photos from the meet on my Instagram feed.
All the other photos below are from my neighborhood or a quick jaunt to an apple orchard about 20 miles from the city. I wanted to keep it as local as possible, even though there are more beautiful colors out west of the city. I feel like there are so many more fall photos to take, but alas, my time frame is over, and it's on to another theme!
Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
This theme was a suggestion from a photographer friend of mine: to just focus on one street. So I picked Tremont Street, about a block from my apartment, and the main thoroughfare through the South End. It has endless options for subject matter, from its restaurants and shops, to plazas and small parks, but I tried to stick to a fairly small portion, about half a mile total. They're not the most consistent group of images when shown together, but I tried to have a variety of subjects and compositions, and it definitely represents the street and neighborhood well.
The only time I strayed from this defined area was for a challenge by the Instagram group IGBoston. In order to become a member with them, you need to submit your gallery and then complete a challenge shot they pick out for you. They asked me to post a photo of one of Boston's grand public fountains, and luckily there's a good one (and only one) along Tremont Street in the Boston Common. I came away with a shot I really liked, that still fit in well with the other Tremont photos, and brought me into IGBoston.
Feelin' the Blues
I always go back to color themes when I'm feeling a bit uninspired. After a busy summer, I had gotten behind on my schedule and wasn't easily finding photos I was happy with. I decided to pick a color again since those had been reliable in the past. But blue was tricky, because I only wanted to do one sky or water photo. It seemed there weren't a lot of other possibilities.
I was starting to feel discouraged again about a lack of blue subject matter, but I finally had the time one afternoon to just go wander, always the best cure. By only walking a few blocks, I found a ton of great options and ended the theme on a stronger note. This is a fun set, with a good variety between full-frame color and individual objects. Enjoy!
Walk the line
I love lines. They're strong parts of architecture, urban landscapes, industrial facades, shadows, pretty much everything I like to photograph. That's why I thought this would be an easy theme. But it's the same reason it turned out to be somewhat difficult. I've already photographed a LOT of lines for this theme project. I would come across some great subject matter, but then realize I had a similar picture already up on Instagram. Part of this year-long challenge is to produce new work, so I tried not to repeat myself too much.
Still, I enjoyed working on this theme a lot. I originally thought of it for two reasons. The first is Instagram itself. They host a weekly themed challenge, called the Weekend Hashtag Project. I don't ever really participate in them because I keep myself focused on my own chosen themes and save my Instagram feed for just those photos. A recent Hashtag Project was all about lines, specifically ones that lead to a corner of the photo frame. I saw some really great work and was inspired to post my own photos, even if a few weeks later.
My second reason is that I love the work of Charles Sheeler. He's been one of my favorite photographers ever since I became aware of him through photo class in high school. He took great industrial and urban photographs in the 1920s and 30s, before such subject matter was really accepted as art, and strong lines are the foundation of his compositions. One of the photos I took early on for this theme is something of a modern echo of his great photo titled "Criss-Crossed Conveyors," pictured left. I didn't notice the resemblance until I decided to make my image grayscale. I guess his influence is stronger than I thought.
