With September underway, I thought it would be interesting to have a final thread for anyone to post thoughts about the book club month or feedback about the book club idea in general. Would love to hear how you felt like it impacted your photography or your photographic journey (or not). Also curious if people would be interested in giving the concept a go sometime down the line with a different book. Changes? Suggestions? Etc.
For myself, I really enjoyed the ideas in the book club and loved seeing all the pictures that everyone came up with! Things really got away from me the last week in particular with back-to-school starting, and I am still planning to keep going through all the amazing photos.
There has been some discussion about doing another book club in the future (maybe February) and focusing on black and white photography. I think I'd have lots to learn there too.
what have i learned from the freeman patterson book? a lot and they were invaluable information. i certainly have changed the way i gage anything that i would like to photograph. i am much more aware of shapes and shadows as well as colours and tones and now i also am more picky with what i shoot. i have learned to appreciate shadows more and experimenting on how they should be photographed. would certainly do it again. and thank you so much, katie, for your efforts in facilitating this challenge. i loved every minute of it.
I enjoyed this book club immensely. One thing I did learn is that it's okay to step out of your comfort zone, take a blurry picture or an overexposed picture. One or two things I found were things that I was doing anyway but with no thought behind why I was doing it! I must still finish reading the book properly as I just whizzed through picking up key words! I would love to do something focusing on black and white photography.
Katie, thank you so much for putting this together and giving us a push. Giving up your valuable time to keep the book club going.
Katie- thank you so much for putting this together! I want to give you more feedback when I get home from my travels, but the quick version is: I feel as if I've only dipped my toes in the water, but the compositional and visual points I've learned from this book has given me more confidence in the way I see a shot and I'll be working on these principles for months to come!
I really liked just seeing things differently. I lost touch with it the last two weeks with vacation and then the aftermath of vacation when work got crazy. So, are we doing another book this month?
Katie, thank you for putting organizing this book club experience. At times, I found the experience almost too challenging. There was a lot of information for my mind to soak in at one time. However, I felt empowered by doing the photographic exercises. I find that I am observing and thinking a lot more before I shoot my pictures now. I think I am getting better quality photos now (at least, my best photos show this). I would like to do another book club some time in the future.
@archaeofrog I didn't get to participate, but did get the book out the library half way through the month. I love the idea and thought everyone was learning a lot. I would be very interested in a another book club month.
I LOVED being part of the book club, and definitely want to do it again. As usual for me, I was traveling quite a bit and not able to focus on each aspect as much as I'd like to have but I carried the book with me to different parts of the world and read the book on many a plane trip. Each week, the readings were on my mind throughout the week, and impacted how I perceived the possibilities of capturing various images.
@archaeofrog -- Your weekly synopsis and your overall leadership in organizing this was thorough, timely, and helpful -- and definitely very appreciated!
I found some of the concepts hard going, but overall I really enjoyed the experience. Thanks, Katie. I'd definitely be interested in something similar, but, may I suggest doing it over a longer time span? I would've liked two weeks for each "subject/concept" for this one.
I did exercises I never thought of, looked through my camera in different ways than before and will continue to read the book and practice the exercises. I still have pictures to post from the book club challenge. Thanks for leading the charge this month! Thanks Katie! @archaeofrog
@jgpittenger Hi Jane, we spent August reading Freeman Patterson's "Photography and the Art of Seeing.". You can read all about it through the links at the beginning of this post.
I never got around to participating but I did enjoy looking at everyones photos. I bought the book and am enjoying reading it. Thank you @archaeofrog for the efort you put in organising this.
I also didn't participate because of vacation and the usual post vacation work frenzy but I would have loved to and am reading the book at the moment, together with the posts that were made about it. It's a fascinating book - I've found it really stimulating. Though I haven't made time for any of the exercises I plan to and hope to learn a lot from the practice as well as the theory. Thanks for organizing this Katie - you've put a lot of work into it. I'd definitely be interested in doing another book club (outside vacation time!)
I was the tail end slacker... I loved the book and thought that I want to spend more time on the concepts...but I didn't respond photographically...so sorry...but would love to go again.
I really enjoyed this bookclub month. I feel I have only skimmed the surface though of the principles and exercises contained in the book and will definitely be re-visiting it. The material in the book was presented in an easy to read and (most of the time) understandable manner and more importantly, kept me interested. I am thinking more about my photos - why am I taking them, subject theme, visual design etc - all principles covered in the book. I really enjoyed 'breaking the rules' and discovering some interesting effects to photo taking. In summary, it was a great experience and one that has me looking at things in a completely new light. Thanks Katie @archaeofrog for taking the time to facilitate this.
I enjoyed it - even though I only got the book halfway through. I intend to go through it again and once a week I will try to do one thing from the book. Thank You. I would be interested in another book club.
I've renewed the book once from the library, and will do it once more. I feel I got more from the beginning of the book than the end. I'm more of a concrete thought person, rather than abstract. I liked the ideas for pushing myself more than the composing tones and colors.
Thanks once more for doing this Katie.
Sadly, I wanted to do this SO badly (the book club). But schools started for me (teacher work days) on July 31! I did read the first two or so chapters. But I decided that I did not want to rush, and make it a frustrating experience. I had decided at some point to do the Month of Minions because I knew that would be easy and fun and less time consuming. Just take some snapshots of minions doing their thing. (IF you are not aware, they are the silly yellow guys from the movie Despicable Me) Thank you for thinking up this book club idea and hosting. I will be reading that book at my leisure and trying the exercises. I'll tag them so they will go into the group.
I only managed to skim through the book and the exercises, and produced a few photos. It certainly made me think "outside the box" though , which was actually quite difficult for me as I've spent the past year learning how to do things the "correct" way !. Thanks for all the time and effort you put into this Katie, I look forward to the next one.
I really enjoyed participating in the book club. I would never have thought of deliberately breaking the rules to see what happened; nor would I have spent 40 mins just photographing my tomato plants, but learning such a lot through that exercise. I have also begun to think how my photography can express how I'm feeling, and how I might compose a shot with a specific concept in mind, rather than deciding after I'd seen the shot on the computer what it's all about. Thank you so much @archaeofrog for all your thought and time spent organising it.
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There has been some discussion about doing another book club in the future (maybe February) and focusing on black and white photography. I think I'd have lots to learn there too.
Katie, thank you so much for putting this together and giving us a push. Giving up your valuable time to keep the book club going.
@archaeofrog -- Your weekly synopsis and your overall leadership in organizing this was thorough, timely, and helpful -- and definitely very appreciated!
Thanks once more for doing this Katie.