My 52 project

[dizzy]

52.7 Crowds. Now there were quite a few ideas that came to mind the moment I found out what this weeks theme was. This one was one of the ones at the forefront! It took a while to find somewhere that was going to work location wise and then I quickly found that it was only going to work at night without a bucket load of ND filters! Anyway, after lots of entries in to the recycle bin here's this weeks, alone in the crowd.

[dizzy]

52.8 Wealth. This was not my favourite week's theme so far! It's been a harsh week, back on 4am alarm calls and slowly recovering from being ill. The creative juices seemed to have dried up. As I wanted to break from my normal 'style' I'd borrowed flash and set up a shot using a monopoly board. Unfortunately, just as I was about to submit it I noticed that an almost identical shot had already been captured by one of my fellow 52'ers (excellent job too, Dark Star). Bugger, I thought. So, with flash no longer available I thought I'd still go out of my comfort zone on a 'set up shot' but more of my style in it! It seemed only proper that with a theme of wealth it should have links to Vegas life, so here we have 52.8 - The Big Win!

[dizzy]

52.9 - Identity. Well, two ideas sprung to mind immediately when I got this weeks theme. The one I really wanted to do was concentrating on a portrait of someone showing what makes them, them. I was thinking back to my days as an elite cyclist and all those hours out on the road, times in the garage with sweat pouring off me on a turbo trainer and how much our lives were dominated by racing. If I was still back in the UK this would have been perfect as I could have grabbed loads of old team mates. Unfortunately, I'm not racing out here and time was against me to find anyone that raced to that level. So... Plan B, I thought about the dark side of identity and the global phenomenon of identity theft. In my mind I had a dark image of someone going through a dustbin searching for personal documents. Thanks to our youngest, Jack, a torch and some of our bills, here we have 52.9 - how safe is yours?

[Old Timer]

I look forward to your updates each week. Keep it up. I'm loving your interpretations of the themes.

[dizzy]

Thank you, that means a lot.

[dizzy]

I've had a complete IT meltdown, but touch wood it's all back up and running now. Stand by for a catch up!

[dizzy]

The identity week was a re-shoot week. We could either do a re-shoot of one of the previous themes, that weeks theme (identity) or both. Well, I got identity in the bag quite early and thought I'd have another stab at reflection too. Still wasn't what I wanted for this shot. Really wanted reflection to be using either Trump, Treasure Island, Mirage, etc, from the west side of town with the reflection of the sun setting in the hotel. Unfortunately, still havent found a location where I can shoot that from! I was going to post a mono version, but my dear lady convinced me it really should be colour (I think I may need to go for a lie down now), so here's 52.1.2, Reflection Re-loaded.

[dizzy]

52.10 - Wisdom. Now then... This has been a tough week for me and I thought that Sunday would be my only chance to work on my 52. As it turned out, I managed to get an hour on saturday afternoon and that was it! Following help from fellow 52'ers and the mighty Google I had time to get 4 shots. Two were from a pedestrian crossing going across one of the local crossings - the theory being, it's a 6 lane road and people drive like lunatics on this stretch so I had someone pressing the button to cross properly was definitely showing wisdom!! But, I really couldn't make my mind up if it worked for me. So, I went to google and discovered that a short drive away is Our Lady of Widom, Byzantine Church. I hopped down there (not literally, that would just be silly) and loved the colour in the roof tiles and the building. There was also an amazing icon that I shot. I loved the shot, but most people don't seem to agree with me!! Initially, I felt like I'd cheated somewhat by using the church just because of the name but then I thought that the church has been associated with wisdom for centuries so here it is, 52.10 Our Lady of Wisdom

[dizzy]

52.11 - Relationships. I wanted to think a little out of the box this week and the idea I liked the most was showing how relationships seem to have changed in the modern techno era. Social interaction seems to have changed so much since I grew up with the arrival of msn, facebook, myspace, etc, etc. We always joke with our eldest that she's obsessed with the cyber relationships and what would she do if she ever had to physically interact with a real live person. Joking aside, it does worry me a little but at least she gets to talk to her british friends everyday whilst we are posted on the other side of the globe. I was very undecided on which shot to use and I'm not going down the 2 posts line after all (thanks Simon). I actually preferred a different shot as for me it was a nicer shot and made the imagination work a little more wondering who she was talking to, etc. However, most people seemed to prefer the one I've plumped for so who am I to argue... So here we have 52.11 Relationships - my best friend.

[dizzy]

52.12 Poverty. Well there's been quite a lot in the local news about the homeless 'problem' in town this week and it's clearly something that stirs up a lot of emotion as nobody wants to see society's failings on their doorstep. I took a walk down to the homeless corridor (only 10 min walk from the top of vegas strip) and found these guys in an area where a lot of homeless people were setting up. I sat chatting to them for over 30minutes and could have stayed much longer; one of them wanted to have a beer with me! The older guy (64) has a Masters in English Literature and had some very poignant words to say. The thing that stuck in my head was, "...society as a whole seems to have the conception that we're all con-men, thieves and ne'er-do-wells. What they need to think is, there but for the grace of God goes I...". So here we have 52.12 Poverty - Trying to survive.

[dizzy]

52.13 Up. Probably because it's such a vague theme I had so many ideas for this week it was ridiculous. Unfortunately, time was not on my side. We're going away to San Francisco with the rug rats and I was extremely busy at work making sure everything was sorted before I finished as well as running around with last minute holiday related jobs. I didn't think I was going to be able to get anything sorted for this week, which would have been ludicrous considering! Anyway, I was driving back from Nellis AFB to home as the sun was setting over the valley and I dived off the freeway and had a frantic 20minutes trying to find a decent vantage point of the stratosphere before the light was gone. I found somewhere that seemed to work and had the added bonus of the moon in the background and all three of the rides in action on the top of the stratosphere. It may not have been top of my list of ideas, it's not mono (which made me feel a little ill), but I'm pleased. So, 52.13 Up - Up to the Stratosphere!