One Thousand Photos

I think that the reason why we had to take 1,000 photos was to become more comfortable with our camera's manual settings, and to learn more about ourselves as a photographer. By taking this many photos, one is able to examine what subject matter, compositions, colours, and other things of that nature that they are drawn to. I learned that I have a fascination with old and decaying buildings or objects. Also, taking 1,000 photos in manual mode makes figuring out and setting the exposure, aperture, and white balance a quicker process. It's only natural that after doing something 1,000 times, that one becomes much faster with it. Another reason for taking so many photos might just be so that we, as a class, could learn to "see" the world in terms of art, and not names/specific objects.

The next question is, why did we have to go through and rate them all? I believe that the act of going through my work and rating every photo, really taught me to see how hard I am on myself with my pictures. I was also able to see trends, such as what types of photos I was continually trying to make work even though I only rated them one or two stars. Another reason for rating all of the photos is a bit more technical. Simply put, the photos are much more organized when they are rated. It's really nice to be able to only look at the photos I have rated 4 or 5 stars (AKA my best photos), and not have to continuously scroll through all of the rest. It's so much more direct. While I didn't enjoy the process of rating them all, I see it as a necessary evil.

-Rachael Quick