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What creative projects have you been working on?
This topic is part of a series. It is meant to be a place for users to discuss creative projects they have been working on.
Projects can be personal, professional, physical, digital, or even just ideas.
If you have any creative projects that you have been working on or want to eventually work on, this is a place for discussing those.
I'm making a photographic advent calendar. I did this a couple of years ago, and decided to try it again this year. The rules are simple:
That's it. The photos don't have to be Christmas or advent themed, although by the nature of the time of year, a lot of them will be. It's a challenge because there's very little light this time of year, with only about four hours of decent-ish daylight, and lugging around a tripod in freezing temperatures in the darkness is not very fun. Sometimes you just don't feel like it. But it's nice to have this ritual that forces you to be curious, to get out of the house even when you'd rather hole up with Netflix and a blanket, and to actually do something productive every day for (nearly) a month, even on days when I have nothing that I need to do that particular day.
I'm doing this as a personal project, only sharing the pictures with a couple of people I know IRL. I have no intention of ever putting it on the internet. That said, I thought I'd share today's picture, because it's not of a personal nature and it has a story to go along with it.
This scene was a serendipitious find. I was on a road trip for reasons unrelated to photography when I spotted this frozen-over lake. The temperature was -11C and I had to walk through foot-deep snow in sneakers, but the spot was kind of magical. The ice was hard as concrete, and it sang. There was the usual sound of cracking, but also a kind of tinkling that reminded me of cattle bells, which I've never heard natural ice make before, although you might be able to replicate it by the careful swirling of ice cubes in a glass. It was so like the livestock bells I'm familiar with that I was almost convinced that must be it, but the only likely culprits would be reindeer and I didn't see any around, so I concluded it must be the ice itself.
From a technical standpoint, I'm waiting for a sensor cleaning kit to arrive, and until that time, there are noticeable dust spots that show up in the sky anytime the aperture closes beyond f/4.0 or so (this was shot at f/5.6). I'm getting real tired of the spot healing tool, and the general madness of staring at the same spot of indistinct sky pixels over and over trying to get the healing to work without looking unnatural. But I think it was worth it. Both the cold wet feet (thank goodness for footwell heating) and the maddening spot removal.