Mike Wren / 50@36

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50@36 Day 1: Happy birthday me! The scope of this Project365 is to snap a photo every day while I'm 36, using a Canon 50mm f/1.4 lens (hence the whole 50@36 thing). Through the year (which includes a February 29), I will slowly introduce my family, friends, work, and play. Post-processing will be using an increasingly streamlined workflow which includes Adobe Lightroom 3, and eventually version 4 and perhaps even the PhotoSmith iPad application.

On the way to meet with some friends to discuss possibly shooting their wedding this summer, I was contemplating this project and what would make for a suitable first photo. While walking up Madison Avenue in Albany towards Lark Street, I saw a mirror leaning up against the side of a building near Dove Street waiting for trash collection. Serendipity. Welcome to Day 1.

50@36 Day 2: Walking along South Pearl in Albany with Maddy this afternoon, enjoying the slushy snow. It's a rare winter in upstate New York when there isn't a few inches of ice and snowpack under foot in late January; this was only our third measurable snowfall all season.

For folks that aren't photographically inclined, camera zoom is measured in millimeters. 50mm (on a camera with a full-frame sensor) is considered the same perspective as human eyesight. The f-stop is a measure of the amount of light the lens allows through... some lenses let more light in than others. The more light the lens lets in, the more out of focus the background becomes. Also, a 50mm lens is actually quite small, so it's easier to carry around for a project like this.

Expect to see a lot of shallow depth-of-field stuff over the next year, like this quick snap of Maddy. I hope we get more snow.

50@36 Day 3: Still very much in the honeymoon phase of this project365, I was motivated to make some photos this morning while on the way to work. Then I walked out of the New York State Capital Building to see this, the New York State Education Department Building columns half lit by the most brilliant golden sunlight. The fantastic light was all over town, highlighting the divided sky partially showing dark gray storm-like clouds and a clear sliver of the western horizon.

This photo was difficult in that I couldn't get wide enough... there was so much more to this scene that I didn't capture because the lens I'm using for this project, a 50mm prime, isn't a zoom. Your feet are are the zoom. It is a great lens to learn on as it forces you to move around and not be lazy. In most cases.

This building is significant because according to Emporis, "The 36 Corinthian columns facing Washington Avenue form the longest colonnade in the United States." It's an impressive sight even without a natural lightshow.

50@36 Day 4: Sesame Street Live at the Palace Theater, 10:30am Saturday show. It's safe to say this is the earliest I've ever been to the Palace. After the show, I had Maddy and Maureen move up a few rows to the mostly empty balcony. Boden, who slept through the entire show, was still napping. We are diligent observers of the "never wake a sleeping baby" school of infant care.

50@36 Day 5: One of the goals of this project was to try avoid 300 images of kids and pets. So far my batting average isn't so good to that end. But when Yaeger's asked us if we wanted to go ice skating at the Empire State Plaza on Sunday afternoon, day 5 was destined to be more kiddo snaps... not that there's anything wrong with that. Wow, we weren't expecting Max and Maddy to be so fast on the ice their first time! Big thanks to uncle Andy for keeping an eye our little Oksana-in-training.

50@36 Day 6: The baby-pattern baldness finally kicked in for little Boden, he's looking more and more like Phil Collins every day.

This is the point in the project when I start to wonder what I've committed myself to. It doesn't matter how much you like photography, forcing yourself to make quality photos every day is a real chore. But it will all be worth it in the end.

50@36 Day 7: On the seventh day, I relaxed. This photo was not sponsored by Rogue Dead Guy Ale. That is all.

50@36 Day 8: Occasionally you can predict how a shot will look in the future; you can imagine the angle and how everything will line up from a different perspective. How the shadows will fall. How certain post-processing techniques will change the entire mood of moment.

While driving down Sheridan Avenue, I saw a woman with a bright red umbrella who looked like she was heading towards the state-owned parking garage a block away. The parking garage in which I sometimes park. Was there enough time to safely park, grab the camera, dial in the exposure quickly (I usually shoot manual exposure), and then hope she walked into the garage.

I wish there was a bit more separation between her and the rail. I didn't ask for a do-over.

50@36 Day 9: I blew the aperture on this one. It's difficult to appreciate the bags covering the other parking meters. Maybe I'll circle back to this one. The New York State Capital Building is in the background.

Shot this on the original Canon 5D, the Mark II is in the studio ready to shoot science in the morning.

50@36 Day 10: The recently-engaged Al & Krissy at The Olde English Pub & Pantry after a few pints. This was my second time at the recently opened English Pub, located in the circa-1736 Quackenbush House at Quackenbush Square, formerly known as Le Canard Enchainé Brasserie, and Nicole’s Bistro before that.

50@36 Day 11: It was a nice afternoon for a walk, and the girls oblidged. I need to walk more often.

50@36 Day 12: Maddy & Max watching Superbowl XLVI at Al & Krissy's house, hosted by party planning extraordinaire Andy Hill. Many thanks to everyone for another great year of football and commercial viewing. The children will be slightly better behaved next year... four is a calmer age, right?

Tech notes: Only masocists try to photog more than one child at faster than f/2.8. The shallow depth-of-field will throw one or more of the kids out-of-focus every time. EVERY TIME.

50@36 Day 13: Another bright blue sky day in Albany. Rushing out of the Capital this afternoon I was greeted by a gorgeous pink sunset with an almost-full moon above the row houses opposite Lafayette Park on Elk Street. I barely had the 30 seconds to make this capture as I was late to pick up the cherub from daycare; this certainly doesn't do justice to the pink sky or definition that could be seen on the moon.

Tomorrow will have 2 minutes and 32 seconds more daylight, and has only a 30% chance of cloud cover at dusk. Maybe I'll take another swing at it.

50@36 Day 14: I caught this view from the sixth floor of the Sheridan Hollow Parking Garage while driving out the top. The clouds obscured the full moonrise I had hoped to see, but I had some extra time and stuck around to shoot a few frames while decompressing from a busy day.

This was frame number three. I shot manual, spot metered on the sky, and overexposed by a stop-and-a-half to give everything a processed look right out of the camera. Only the very highlights of the clouds were overexposed. Three minutes at the garage and five minutes in Lightroom (and 20 minutes writing this) and here we are.

There's a saying in digital photogeek world: "Shoot to the right." It doesn't refer to panning right, rather, looking at the histogram, the graphical representation of shadows, midtones and highlights. There is more data in highlight detail, represented by the right of the histogram, as compared to shadow detail on the left. To maximize the amount of data captured by the camera sensor, it's considered best practice to overexpose slightly (around 1/3 - 2/3 stop), then adjusting the exposure down in post-processing. But that's 300-level photog stuff that mostly doesn't matter. Get out and shoot.

50@36 Day 15: Anyone that's been over to the house knows our state of affairs: Many bare walls waiting for a decorative touch. It's not pretty. Occasionally, it's not safe.

This is our soon-to-be-study, but current dining area. With so many home improvement ideas, it's hard to gain focus... or agreement. Now we're staring down the barrel of a long overdue kitchen renovation.

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

50@36 Day 16: Never get between a three-year-old and a big staircase. While walking the halls of the New York State Capitol Building during a lunchtime visit by the family, we came to one of the large staircases. Of course Maddy wanted to explore; who can blame her? We ran up the stairs to the second floor and quickly stopped in to the War Room. She didn't nearly have the appreciation for the impressiveness of the huge the mural on the ceiling.

This photo was taken while negotiating how much exploring we had time to do. She can be very convincing. There's an interesting discussion happening lately about the different styles of child rearing, French vs. American philosophies. Bargaining and debate is apparently highly discouraged in the French-style. We encourage it; our opinion is that if she wants something, she should be prepared to provide a convincing argument. It will help her develop into a strong, independent and rational-thinking adult. Whining or being cute doesn't cut it. These are tools that can be used later in life. Obviously, some things are not up for discussion, but recognizing and respecting boundaries is very important, also.

What does this have to do with photography? Absolutely nothing. Just a little context for this photo. Maddy's rationale for exploring was it would only take five minutes, and we would still have plenty of time to grab lunch. And she was absolutely correct. There's a lot we can learn from kids, and I like to think we're better parents for it.

50@36 Day 17: Obligatory daily snap; photo motivation lacking all day today. Landed in Webster to visit the family, pictured is the most winter weather we've seen all season.

Busy weekend ahead!

50@36 Day 18: We visited our alma mater for some Burton Burgers and a men's basketball game. The Burton was predictably packed, so we skipped it and headed to campus early to explore the Reilly Center.

After the game, Maddy and her cousin stormed court after the St. Bonaventure won a convincing victory over Duquesne... OK, it was really more of a get the energy out before a two hour drive home kind of thing.

While running around, I had Maddy sit on the mostly empty retractable bleachers; the combination of her red Valentine's outfit against the blue bleachers was too good to pass up. I'm a sucker for contrasting color, straight lines, and almost symmetry.

50@36 Day 19: What more can be said about a great grandparent meeting a fourth generation for the first time?

50@36 Day 20: It's a Monday after a long weekend of travel, and as good of a day as any to start introducing the pets.

This is Dax, a 13-ish year old pound special. The best we can tell, she's at least part whippet; the old girl still loves to run and fetch tennis balls.

50@36 Day 21: While getting ready for a family walk to Chiplote for dinner, Maddy was sure to grab her camera. Our conversation went something like this:

Her: "Daddy, I need to take pictures!"
Me: "Why?"
Her: "To send to the people!"
Me: "What people?"
Her: "All the people, so they can see where we went!"
Me: "Oh, um, OK. Well, I'm sure it's nothing a little counseling won't fix."

I'm not sure if I've ever talked about posting photos "for the people" but she is definitely in the habit of photodocumenting things and wants to show them off. And I'm not sure how I feel about it. I can't remember a time when I didn't feel the same way. My parents 8mm movie camera was reserved exclusively for special events, and I aways felt that it was a shame, costs of processing aside. When I was 12 or 13 my folks said they'd match whatever I could put towards a video camera. I was able to come up with the money within a week.

A previous hobby of mine was recording, sharing online and archiving live music; part of my borderline OCD need to document and preserve things important to me. Things which might otherwise have disappeared into the ether. Sharing the live music online with a wider circle of friends was just a happy consequence (and the driving force behind my involvement with etree.org). It was around that time when I realized that posting stuff online for the enjoyment of others could never be my primary reason, if I were to stay sane. I must to record (and now shoot) for myself, first. Unless I'm getting paid, what's the point of shooting stuff I don't care about or otherwise find interesting? It might be an obvious distinction, but a conclusion that took me a while to come to.

50@36 Day 22: I've got big ideas running through my head... Yes, some long overdue projects are finally percolating to the surface. And they're not related to stills. Left-to-right, top to bottom: Gmail, finally producing some of the live music video I was contracted to shoot July 2010 in New York City (formal announcements forthcoming), St. Bonaventure vs. Temple via Slingbox, Twitters on iPad (lamenting yet another second-half deflation of the Bona Wolf), Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA, Jammy Award Bowl containing a lifetime of concert trinkets.

Occasionally, the days lacking extemporaneous photo brilliance will coincide with days when I just don't have the time/patience to spend a hour... errr... 15 minutes to manufacture some pretty. This is one of those days.

50@36 Day 23: We may found ourselves in an unintentional game of Christmas... errr.. Holiday Lights Chicken with the neighbors. We have some white icecicle and wreath lights still lit. It's February 16th. I'm not taking them down until the weather warms up, so they might as well keep be lit while they're up, right?

Well, either our neighbors feel the same way, or it's a test of wills. In the foreground is our wreath, the background is the view of two out five of our wonderful neighbors.

How long is too long for holiday lights?? Who will blink first? Are there any other neighborhoods that are still lit with lights?

50@36 Day 24: The offspring and I had some time to kill during the late afternoon so we walked the trails in our wooded neighborhood. It's the middle of February and no snow pack to speak of; this could be the start of a long dry summer. I'm glad we didn't buy crosscountry skies on clearance last spring... maybe the discounts will be even more tempting now.

50@36 Day 25: It doesn't take twice as long to get two kids ready for an afternoon on the road as compared to one child, somehow time requirements multiply exponentially. So when we were already a half-hour late to birthday boy Ben's party in Slingerlands, I had to take mental note of what would work for landscape photos; we would have plenty of time to pull over on the way home.

A cloudy and overcast late winter day with no snow pack made the landscape appear like how I remember Iceland looking, except for the trees. Normally this kind of perspective shot is reserved for wide angle lenses. But pre-focusing and literally putting camera on the pavement gave me what I wanted, one-and-done. Again, it took longer to write this narrative than shooting and processing. Writing practice via photography.

50@36 Day 26: 50@36 Day 26: Like any good geek, I can be a little evangelical about technology. Especially technology that works well for me. I was an Apple nay-sayer for a long time... almost two decades. In 2009, after trying out a friends unibody aluminum MacBook Pro, I was hooked. The build quality was so far superior to the plastic crap getting churned out by Asus, Acer, and Dell, I knew some hardware designed in Cupertino would be landing in my lap before the end of the year.

Above all else, at the end of the day, I'm a pragmatist. It just sometimes takes until 11:59 p.m. The technology is just a tool to help us get a job done.

Broken hardware due to misadventure is never a good thing, so I've found some tech protection, which today saved by bacon: The Tucano Second Skin neoprene case and the Moshi ClearGuard keyboard cover. The case protects against physical dings, light spills, and adds some grip so the smooth unibody MacBook doesn't slip out of your hands. Get it dirty with coffee like I just did? No problem, toss it in the washer/drier. The keyboard cover not only acts as spill guard, but also keeps the keys from getting the sheen that happens after about six months of serious use.

50@36 Day 27: Happy Monday night after an extra long weekend. Can this mean a restful night of sleep for the entire house?

Doubtful.

50@36 Day 28: Dominating the downtown Albany skyline is the Empire State Plaza complex, but complex detail and enormity of the State Department of Education building is, in my opinion, without equal.

Designed in the Beaux-Arts style of architecture and build between 1908 and 1911, the building also housed the New York State Museum from 1912 until 1976.

50@36 Day 29: A down day for shooting stills. The front steps of the New York State Capitol Building are finally unobstructed after a decade of building materials have been removed. The Capitol has been under renovation for as long as I've worked downtown; I don't remember a time when there weren't boxes of copper flashing, slabs of stone and chain link fence surrounding the western face of the building, all but obstructing the front steps. Progress.

50@36 Day 30: Got away to check out some live music tonight - I've heard really good things about Albany's own Timbre Coup, and they surely didn't disappoint. It was the final Thursday night of their February residency at Jillian's, and a CD release show for their new disc, Knuckles and Valleys. I'm only about two years behind the curve on these guys. A delicious mix of jam and prog, I'll offer the same complement and criticism as with Umphrey's McGee: They make the playing, no shredding, look too damn effortless. Like, annoyingly effortless. If they're able to keep it together for another 5-10 years, look out.

50@36 Day 31: Last night at the show, a valued old friend, taper and photographer asked if I've descended into shooting crap around the house yet. I can now say yes, yes I have.

I had about ten minutes left in the day, and a crying infant. This is the result. Happy Friday, and happy weekend!

50@36 Day 32: Happy Saturday morning. Maddy loves coloring and shows every indication of being a lefty. I see special scissors in our future.

50@36 Day 33: We have a new birdhouse, thanks to the Griffin family. It's been a weekend of full bright sun, which we unfortunately haven't really had time to take advantage of.

50@36 Day 34: I'm a little OCD when it comes to protecting data. All photos, videos and audio files in my collection are backed up onsite weekly, for quick recovery should a primary drive take a dirt nap. Offsite backups happen to two geographically separate locations automatically via Crashplan.com, who I highly recommend. Plus, I leave the files on my compact flash cards until I absolutely need to format; I have six 32GB cards, so I don't need to format often unless a big project comes along.

For drive connectivity, I've invested in VoyagerQ drive docks for home and work, rather than external drive enclosures. When you have a lot of drives, quality enclosures can get real expensive really quick. The VoyagerQ docks are connected to my desktop and laptop machines via FireWire 800, which is about as speedy as Apple allows us to connect until Thunderbolt drives and docks become available for a reasonable price. It's certainly fast enough for me, even for video.

50@36 Day 35: With apologies to Bill Engvall, here's our sign. I'm privileged to see this sign every day when I leave work. I asked our facilities management folks what is it supposed to mean. They said that in the event of a building evacuation, you're not supposed to use those this stairwell. Why didn't they just say that on the sign? "Not a fire exit" would have sufficed.

This sign, to me, is everything that is wrong with state government. Everything is convoluted and opaque. Unnecessarily so. I'll leave it at that.

50@36 Day 36: It's Leap Day 2012! To celebrate, I decided to combine a few themes: Flickr.com is sponsoring #FlickrLeap2012 on their website and music friend Angela Ford Pasternack suggested a photo from her old neighborhood, the Ten Broeck Triangle in Albany's historic Arbor Hill neighborhood.

This is day number 36 in my photo-a-day project, and the first photo in quite a few days that I consciously stopped to make. This Leap Day storm is really the first significant snowfall of the season for Albany, and Maddy was more than happy to oblige on our way home. Although explaining why I wanted her to jump was a little bit over her head. Explaining a leap day to a three-year-old is pretty much impossible.

Time to make more time for pictures.

50@36 Day 37: Catching a show downstairs at Valentine's in Albany is always an interesting experience. Come to think of it, upstairs is pretty damn entertaining too. I just wish the lighting was a little bit better. But if Howard was going to upgrade something, stage lighting is probably pretty far down on the list.

Dash Rip Rock plays downstairs at Valentine's in Albany, New York on Thursday night, March 1st.

50@36 Day 38: Max & Maddy's snowman, sans corncob pipe. Snow is annoying to photograph.

50@36 Day 39: My parents have a bird feeder about six inches from their kitchen sink window. And they (the birds, not my folks) are fearless when hungry.

50@36 Day 40: One more day before my six week sabbatical from work. Besides getting to know this little guy a little better, I have a few video projects lined up that I absolutely cannot wait to start.

This shot was all natural daylight coming through an 8 foot wide window in my parents livingroom. I used a child's playmat mirror as a reflector to kick a little light back up from Boden's lower right. Any time you want to deconstruct how something was lit, look at the eyes. In this case, I purposely placed the mirror so that his eyes wouldn't pick it up. Light source reflection in eyes is called a catchlight, and having more than one visible catchlight to me makes things appear unnatural and distracting.

50@36 Day 41: My first day home with the little guy for a few weeks. Of course nothing got done except three diapers and four shirts with spit-up and drool. As I was watching the bright sun setting through our backyard while feeding Boden, the bottle was put on hold while I snapped this quick one.

They're saying 60ºF by Thursday, we might need to schedule a field trip!

50@36 Day 43: This is not the new self-assigned photo inspiration I was talking about yesterday. This is putting things away I won't need for a while.

50@36 Day 42: My leave of work to watch Boden has an obvious, yet unanticipated outcome on the subjects I photograph. I haven't left the house in four days, and of course, I'm going to take a lot of photos of the newbie and stuff around the house. Time for self-made projects.

My tool of choice for managing personal and professional photography collections and imaging processing, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, released a major version update, v4 overnight. Of course, I upgraded immediately. Adobe completely changed the way their image adjustment tools (exposure, color temp and tint, highlights, shadows, contrast) are structured; it will take some time to upgrade my brain. The changes they've made actually make complete sense and is far more logical, but years of accumulated muscle memory will take a while to rewire.

50@36 Day 44: Combine Chipotle with a photowalk, and you have a happy girl; Maddy waiting to cross Western Avenue at East Parkwood Street, in Guilderland.

50@36 Day 45: The baby boy wasn't feeling very photogenic this afternoon, despite the good light. But this one shot was all the time I could eek out for photos.

This weekend we're traveling to Brooklyn to catch up with the Davoli's and see their new addition. Then, on to Atlantic City if (that's a big if) the St. Bonaventure men's basketball team makes it to the Atlantic 10 conference finals on Sunday. Fingers crossed.

50@36 Day 46: We visited with Michael, Anne, Sirus and baby Rosie today in Park Slope. What a cutie! The weather mostly cooperated for a quick walk up to the playground at Prospect Park so Maddy could get her wiggles out. The St. Bonaventure's mens basketball team beat University of Massachusetts and is headed to the Atlantic 10 conference championship game... and so are we! See you in Atlantic City!

50@36 Day 47: My life occasionally affords some spontaneity. Knowing we would be visiting friends in Brooklyn on Saturday, the plan was to on continue south to Atlantic City if St. Bonaventure's mens basketball team got into the finals of the Atlantic 10 conference champtionships scheduled at 1pm Sunday.

So here we are, walking the streets of Atlantic City before noon on a blustery but sunny day in the middle of March. The Ascot Motel provided a nice retro vibe for day 47. Let's go Bonas!

50@36 Day 48: Four yards of rock is a lot of freaking rock. It made a lot of sense to choose rock as a ground cover around our in-ground pool rather than mulch or even planting grass. A huge benefit is that it is heavy. That's also the downside. And that is why a pile of rock still sits in our driveway, five months after being dropped. I'm waiting for the weather to get better, yeah, that's it. I think it's a good excuse to get a mini bobcat for a weekend.

50@36 Day 49: This must be the week for abstract thinking. Or I could be running out of photo ideas.

50@36 Day 50: Had I given todays photo more thought, I would have somehow incorporated a circular object. But I didn't.

50@36 Day 51: When we leaped forward for daylight saving time, we apparently gained a season. Weather in the northeast has skipped a season, and buds are popping about a month-and-a-half early.

50@36 Day 52: Will a hard freeze kill these guys? Everything is growing so early this year!

50@36 Day 53: This years edition of the St. Patrick's Day Parade in Albany, now with even more drinking.

50@36 Day 54: The baby boy today realized a world outside of looking vertically up. He also figured out how to roll from his back to his front, completely un-prompted, but not entirely on purpose. It really took him by surprise, and now it's all he wants to do. I was hoping for a just a few more weeks of immobility.

50@36 Day 55: While enjoying the continued freakishly warm weather, Maureen and Maddy found a small stuffed monkey from the previous family while weeding a flower bed. Our new garden mascot, something to keep the gnomes company.

50@36 Day 56: OK, this weather is getting downright scary. It's not even April and some trees and plans are in full flower. What will the extended growing season mean for other vegetation and insects? With the weather in the mid-70ºF's, it's difficult to fight the urge to open the pool. Must remember day 48 and move the damn rock first.

50@36 Day 57: After igniting this little photo-a-day Project365, I promised myself I wouldn't post anything from "the day job." Too rigid, too boring... plus the obvious conflicts of interest.

I didn't anticipate how six week away on paternity leave would adjust my attitude. The rigidity was downright refreshing. Sometimes, it's comforting to go into a shoot knowing exactly what's expected and how it's going to go down... just a reading from a script.

Hey, this photo is © Mike Wren