For my In-Depth project this year I have decided to pursue Action-Photography. I chose this topic because I like to mess around with cameras and take photos and I like sports such as mountain biking and skiing, this topic lets me combine the two interests. I took Photography 10 in semester one, so I have a few months of experience using a camera and I know how all the settings work. However, I have never tried capturing a moving subject with a manual camera. I also have a camera that is suitable for the project although it is fairly old, and I have access to Adobe Photoshop throughout the whole project. For In-Depth last year, I made skiing and mountain biking videos which was another way to capture the sports that I love so this topic builds nicely from last year’s topic. A bonus to this topic is that progress is very easily measurable by comparing photos from the start of the project to photos taken later.

In terms of progression, I will be looking at camera setting choices, lighting, subject positioning, and the work that I did in photoshop. I will also be looking at comfortability with camera settings and location choices which I will be talking about in my bi-weekly posts as they are harder to measure. In my bi-weekly blog posts, I will also be sharing at least three photos that I have taken since the last post. I will describe my choices when taking the photos and while editing them as well as talk about my improvements and what I could improve on. This way, it will be very easy to keep track of my progress over the project.

My mentor this year, Sterling, is the best of the best in the field. I heard about him in a research project in photography class and his work immediately stood out to me, I discovered him off the Redbull website as one of their favorite mountain biking photographers to give a follow on Instagram. He lives in Vancouver and is an avid mountain biker and was the first person to come to mind for this project and I am incredibly grateful he agreed to help me with this project. He has won many “Pinkbike Photo of the Year” awards and has placed in the top three contestants in “Redbull Illume” as well as many more awards so I genuinely believe I could not have found a better mentor.

Here is a link to his website if you would like to learn more about him or see some of his stunning photos:

http://www.sterlinglorence.com/

So far, In-Depth has been off to a great start for me. I haven’t had any obstacles to overcome or any frustrations. I knew exactly what I wanted to pursue, got my top choice for a mentor, and got access to Adobe Creative Suite thanks to Mr. Findley. I look forward to starting meetings with my mentor and taking some photos in the coming weeks, to see the progress I make along the way and be able to critique the photos I take at the start of the project by the time it is over.