The Quilt(er's) Photography Workshop 2014

{the beginnings of my next "someday soon" quilt}

I've always liked to take photos - mostly of my daughters - but since I started blogging, my interest in photography has grown tremendously.  I am constantly trying to find ways to improve my photography - both in composition and in all of the technical ways - some of which I understand and some of which I don't.  To do so, I do read photography books and photography blogs and blog posts but what works best for me is simply learning by doing.  Every time I take a photo, I am learning more about what I like, what works, and what doesn't.  I leave my camera in manual mode 100% of the time - even if that means that I sometimes have a camera card filled with photos destined for the trash.  But the more I experiment, the less that happens - yes, I always have several throwaways while I'm trying to find the right settings - but at least I feel like it is less trial and error now than it was a year ago.  

{my first but definitely not my last time using double gauze - love it!}

So, this brings me to my new idea/plan for The Quilt Photography Workshop which I'm thinking I should rename The Quilter's Photography Workshop because I think it should be about more than just taking photos of quilts.  Instead of specific assignments each month focusing on just one aspect of photography, I want to encourage you to just take photos - mindfully.  Maybe not every photo you take but at least once a month, take some photos of whatever quilt/sewing blog related projects you want and just really focus on the photos.  Experiment with different apertures and different white balance settings, try taking the photos in a variety of light conditions, concentrate on your composition, use props (or not), take photos that are related to each other (or not) - I am just basically trying to encourage you to learn by doing.  

I will still plan to have a link up once a month but you choose what type of post you want to link - a finish, a WIP, a day in the life of a quilter, or something else related to needle crafts. Just be sure that it is a post where you truly concentrated on the photos.  As part of the post, you can also write about the photography - what you learned, what you are trying to learn, what you can't figure out - totally up to you whether you want to do this or not but I wanted to leave this option open as part of the learning/workshop process. 

So, what do you think???