Joel Dinda's photos with the keyword: masonic temple

Grand Ledge.

I spent a while this afternoon wandering around the Arcadia District in Kalamazoo. This is perhaps the most striking building in Kalamazoo's downtown, and is just over a century old.

And the fire station/township hall. Downtown Mulliken, Michigan.

I didn't know, when I started this project, that it would develop into a two year commitment--one to take the photographs, and a second to try to explain them. The building's the local Masonic temple, which is a rather ugly structure wrapped in tin siding. It sits on the edge of Mulliken's downtown park and presents park visitors with a large and forbidding wall, broken only by a door, a single window, and this fire escape. I'd decided months before that the escape would be the last 366 Snaps photo subject. So a year ago I headed downtown to find a couple dozen photos from a variety of angles. Please take note of the ice.... ========== A Photo a Day: advice * Set some simple rules. Just getting out there to take a photograph is hard, some days. Adding a layer of complexity is unwise. * Take photos early in the day. You may well take/post a better photograph later in the day, but at least you'll have something to work with if the day heads south. * Budget time. Between taking the photographs and processing them I usually spent 45 to 90 minutes each day on 366 Snaps . Some days were quicker, of course; some were slow. * Create sub-projects. These give you fallbacks for the dull days. * Scout out locations. Every day. These give you fallbacks for the dull days. * Experiment. Be creative. This goes without saying. But it means different things to different photographers. * Boredom is the enemy. Shoot anyway. * Busy-ness is the enemy. Shoot anyway. * If you miss a day, keep shooting anyway. This isn't a test, it's a project. * The last month is hard. Everyone I've followed during a daily shoot project reports this. I'm confirming it. * Some days you won't be happy with your daily photo. Those days you need to just go with what you've got. And learn from the mistake. ========== Would I do it again? Yeah. With even fewer rules. But not starting tomorrow. I've got some non-photographic projects I've been neglecting. ========== This photograph is an outtake from my 2012 photo-a-day project, 366 Snaps . Number of project photos taken: 24 Title of " roll :" Fire Escape Other photos taken on 12/31/2012: I spent much of the day playing with a lens adapter--attaching various Minolta lenses to my Nikon D300. The results were interesting, but in the end I concluded it wasn't a gain as my Minolta lens kit's much like my Nikon lens kit.

I'm a day behind. Sorry; yesterday was exhausting.... I'm pretty sure that if I'd restricted my 366 Snaps project to downtown-Mulliken photographs I could have managed, but there'd have been significant redundancies. Some of the evidence, for both claims, is last April 20th's set. All 34 project pix were shot near the town's park. Many were framing experiments--of cherry blossoms, of the swing set and jungle gym and park pavilion, of the downtown buildings. And of the Masonic Temple's fire escape. Most of these were excellent pix--after you allow for the camera's damaged sensor. Many were framed without regard to the damage, which suggests I was mostly just experimenting. The set's similar to my March 8 effort , but with a different camera. One thing that's clear is that by this time I'd clearly come to terms with the F200's exposure issues . ========== This photograph is an outtake from my 2012 photo-a-day project, 366 Snaps . Number of project photos taken: 34 Title of " roll :" Around Mulliken's Park Other photos taken on 4/20/2012: I experimented a bit with the Nikon 1, photographing birds. I kept changing the settings, and wasn't happy with the results.