Singles in January - Phoenix

[Phoenix]

I was a part of a group of participants who undertook the ‘Singles in January PAD (photo a day)’ challenge on Amin’s other website Serious Compacts, the challenge recently ended and I am uploading are all the images I have submitted for the challenge in an album (I will upload some of the photos I didn’t use on my website and some on flickr).

Some of you are familiar with the Singles in January challenge, for the uninitiated the challenge comprises of shooting with a camera and lens combo of your choice (this combo cannot be changed for the duration the challenge, any photos submitted for the challenge must be shot with your chosen combo) and taking a photo a day (it has to be on the day, so taking 31 photos in one go and submitting 1 per day won’t work).

The challenge was gruelling but fun and some of the images submitted were among the best images I have ever seen (you should really check it out here if you haven’t seen it yet), other than that I felt I have formed a bond with my fellow participants and really made me think outside the square and use every function my camera has to offer. This challenge gave me a renewed appreciation to my “classic” NEX-5 and I feel that it has made me evolve as a photographer.

The uploaded images can be found here in one of my albums.

 

[snkenai]

Did you come out of the SIJ completely satisfied with the NEX-5, or thinking, hummmm? My k20 did great, but, I'm rubber-necking for somthing smaller with as good IQ. Thoughts?
Thanks

 

[lowincash]

Phoenix, your pictures are great and I see you love b&w a bit

 

[lapdog99]

Nicely done and your dedication is admirable.

 

[Phoenix]

Did you come out of the SIJ completely satisfied with the NEX-5, or thinking, hummmm? My k20 did great, but, I'm rubber-necking for somthing smaller with as good IQ. Thoughts?
Thanks

I would be lying if I said it was perfect, considering the type of shots I took I really wished it had a viewfinder rather than just the LCD. The focus peaking feature really did help when focusing, but wasnt so useful on really high ISO settings and shooting in almost complete darkness. As for IQ I was quite satisfied with it and would be quite happy to have the same IQ for my next camera.

When I mentioned that I had to "think outside the square" and "use all of it's functions", some examples was when I was shooting low light (which was the majority of my submissions) I used the camera's Anti Motion Blur function (which kept the settings I have previously entered in manual mode) in combination with getting the metering right let me shoot at 1/5 second sometimes even longer without the need of a tripod (all my images were shot handheld). Another useful function was the Sweep panorama, since we were locked in with the chosen lenses I couldn't shoot wide if I wanted to since I was using a 35mm (50mm due to the 1.5 crop), so I changed the sweep panorama shoot direction from left to right to down to up, planned my framing and composition beforehand, shot the panorama with a 50mm in the portrait orientation and voila! wide angled shot without a wide angle lens

In the end I was satisfied with the NEX-5, it's far from perfect (then again no camera is) but other than wishing for an EVF I was happy with the results.

P.S. Your submissions this month was really good and I have enjoyed it a lot, I hope I can see more of your work. Also my apologies that I couldnt comment on all of the images, I was really burnt out for a few days.

 

[Phoenix]

Phoenix, your pictures are great and I see you love b&w a bit

Yup, I'm one of those folks who prefer B/W, I shoot colour too, but not nearly as much as B/W

 

[Phoenix]

I have finished uploading all of the images (including the ones I did not submit for this challenge) in my website, I shall upload it shortly in flickr and add it to the Talknex flickr stream

 

[snkenai]

I fried on commenting also. Thanks for the evaluation. I am not happy either, with only the rear viewing screen.

 

[Amin]

Hi Phoenix, excellent photos! I wish I could have joined in the fun, but I knew that there was no way I could photgraph every day, much less comment daily. I did greatly enjoy looking at photos from you and the others.

 

[Phoenix]

Thanks! I really liked the photos submitted, I'm still waiting for a decision on how Mark is planning to have a book made up.

 

[soundfanz]

Great pictures Phoenix, and I too wish I would have had the time to have entered the SIJ challenge, but shift work made it more of a challenge than taking a picture a day.
I'm thinking of buying a viewfinder for the NEX 5N too, and I'm developing a love for B & W photos, and as I have only recently jumped into being more serious about photography, am on a serious learning curve.
But it's all good.

 

[Phoenix]

That sounds great mate, like you I'm also usually strapped for time working during the day and going to school in the evenings (hence the reason for the amount of low light shots) the good news is the NEX performs really well in the evenings and the anti motion blur makes hard to do low light shots achievable.

 

[freddytto]

OMG awesome , but seriously thousand congratulations on your photos are great , the B & W fascinate me, personally I love it,
I'm eagerly waiting for this summer....

 

[Phoenix]

Thanks dude! You should check the other participants' submissions as well, they're really awesome.