Project 365 – Day 27
September 1, 2009
“The Gnarled Potato”
I can’t say I was satisfied with any of my photographs today. It happens, but it also keeps it real. There’s no cheating going on here: one photo a day, from midnight to midnight. I ended up choosing that weird potato shot. I didn’t want to use my lightbox this time. Instead, I tried a more fitting background. My plan was to show the textures of the potato and the fabric it lays upon. What I’m quite disappointed with is the composition. Not enough fudge room, too small a fabric. What I plan on doing is a macro shot, but I didn’t get the chance to set it up today. I cropped it to just show a bit of the seams. I thought those would add a little to the picture. I don’t know, something’s not right to me. What do you think? I take this opportunity to say that critiques are very much appreciated. It helps me grow as a photographer, thanks in advance.
Further reading:
“The Potato: Part One”
I am much more lenient with what I use for my timeline. Sometimes I use midnight to midnight, sometimes I use from the time I get up to the time i go to bed as my ‘day’. But I hear you about cheating. You gotta just go with what you have. Some days are just, well… days. We aren’t going to produce a fine are photo each day.
As for any critique. I understand why you wanted to include the seams, but they don’t do anything other than distract me from the gnarly potato.
Overall I do like the shot though.
Thanks Pat. I agree 100% with the seams being distracting. I was torn between including them or cropping more, but then it was too tight. Then I tried to crop in the potato, but didn’t like it either. Oh well, as you said we can’t produce quality shots every day. In the same vein, what I’d really like to do is conceptualize and build a set for a great nature morte. Not that easy…
Your timeline actually makes a lot of sense, especially when taking into account that midnight in New York is 8 PM on the West Coast. It all depends on the referential and using “your day” as the day is as valid as any other way of defining it. When I used a watch, I remember not changing it from French time. It would eventually be right once or twice a year
Personnellement je suis plutôt fan du concept une photo, un jour et pour de vrai .. Celà dit effectivement c’est pas évident .. Sortir l’appareil tout les jours peut être délicat
! Celà dit, cette pomme de terre, c’est pas forcément une mauvaise idée 
! Personnellement je pense que j’aurais prévilégier une vue plus rapproché .. Ca aurait pu donner un effet “surface lunaire” assez sympa 
Psychologiquement, me donner une heure limite est impératif. Sinon, le risque d’entrer dans l’engrenage du minuit une… qui se transforme petit à petit en deux heures du matin… peut rapidement arriver à poser problème. Pour la pomme de terre, faire une macro est exactement à quoi j’ai pensé, mais il était trop tard pour le faire à ce moment là. Il y a beaucoup d’aliments a textures intéressantes qui se prêtent à ce genre de photos.