week 55 - finding my way

Well, that were some interesting 55 weeks.

It definitely was the best thing I could have done to improve my photography. If you think about starting a 52 weeks or 365 days project, do it.
You learn so much, you get to know your camera, you get to know places, people, seasons and also yourself.

There was never a time where I wanted to give up the project entirely, but there were days when I didn’t dare touch my camera because I was thinking I wouldn't get the picture I wanted anyway, so why try? But I tried and often I got SO frustrated and depressed because the photos just didn't turn out the way I wanted them to at all. And this made me even more disappointed and unmotivated. It's so hard to break this vicious circle.

If this had been a 365 project I wouldn't have made it till the end. I think if I had to take a picture everyday it would make me even more frustrated. I just can't work under pressure very well and I might have lost interest in taking photos because I can't take a picture I like every single day. I don't know if that makes sense.

My style of photography has changed quite a bit. I started getting into conceptional photography after seeing the work from other artists like Joel Robison or Julie de Waroquier or other people from the inspirational list on the right side of this page. I started taking pictures of other peoples pets and of other people and it made me realize that it would be amazing to have a job like this in the future, and to work together with people who appreciate what I do.

I still don't have a certain style. I'm not specialized on landscapes or pets or fashion photography, but I figured out want I want to show with my photographs. I want them to make other people think. And obviously they should tell a story. I wanna create photos that provoke emotions in the viewer. I wanna make daily things look pretty and touch you, I wanna create memories (I love being able to look back at the photos from each week and remember exactly what happened on those days.)

This project has helped me not only improve in photography, but in many other aspects of my life as well. Expressing my feelings in photographs helped me so much, I started feeling better and I learned about self-discovery and dreams and I'm not so afraid anymore of what the future will bring. I just hope everything is gonna turn out alright.

I got better in accepting myself. Taking self portraits definitely helps you. You just have to accept you the way you are. I realized that it's okay to do things differently from how other people do them. And it's a good thing to do the things that make you happy even if other people are skeptical and might not understand it.

It's still hard for me to not compare myself with other people but I'll get there.
I'm not where I want to be but that's okay and I'll just take my time.

I will not quit photography. I take it much more seriously than I did before this project and I'll start a new photography blog soon, and post the link here.
Thanks to all the people for pushing me, motivating me and making me feel better. Thank you so much. Especially to Kathrin and Andy, Peter, Cali and MC, and all the people that made me keep going and smile with their kind words.
"Franzi, you are seriously gifted at evoking truer representations of real life and the inner spiritual world than... well, I don't know anyone personally who can do what you do at all. Please keep going! :)" (Morgan Broquard)
Or my Digital Media teacher told me I had "innate taste (you are discovering it slowly)". I was so so happy to read this and it means so much for me to hear that I'm improving and that people do like my work and try to understand it.



About these photos. I'm actually quite happy with the result. I know they are dark and noisy but I decided not to care too much about image quality anymore(besides that, I think it fits in this case?). Anyway, the story should make the picture, not the image quality.

week 54 - waking up

waking up and stretching and looking out the window and realizing I'm living in the city cause the only thing I see are windows from other apartments and I'm wondering who lives in them. Weird thoughts I guess.

week 53 - happy people in the rain

I have no idea who they are. Kat and I went downtown and I took pictures of random people which was really weird... I felt really uncomfortable and it was a little weird to explain them that I just took a photo of them or that I want to take a picture of them, so Kathrin did the asking part and I just photographed. And I kinda like the result, if you think of this being my first street photography project ever.

At first it didn't rain but all of the sudden it rained cats and dogs... but it was lovely to see how nobody cared and everybody kept smiling and talking and laughing.












Oh, and a cat we met.


Oh, and if anybody of you guys doesn't want his/her picture to be in the internet please tell me and I'll delete it. Promise.

week 52 - golden hour

a rather spontaneous shot. But I loved the light so much and I wish we would have stayed there longer, but Lenni just took a quick look at the map and drove away. We had had an argument before because I wanted to take photos so badly and he just did not want to model for me :D Well, it was a long day for all of us, so I guess it's okay to be tired and a little grumpy and not in the mood for modeling.

week 51 - reading between flowers

No way. My birthday is in two weeks? Can somebody please stop time? There are still so many ideas in my head I haven't realized yet because I just couldn't find the time and I also don't have enough people around me who are willing to model for me. And it's kind of embarrassing to do self portraits in public. Although there are people who don't have a problem doing it (like the amazing Laura Zalenga or Joel Robison. They are mostly doing self portraits in nature, just like Rona Keller or Sophia Alexis. Go ahead and take a look at my Inspirational photographers list. (By the way, these photos are inspired by Rona)

And you know what's funny? We talked about being watched while taking self portraits and how we're acting like we're taking pictures of the landscape as soon as somebody walks by. Strangers watching you just makes you feel more uncomfortable. And we talked about how exhausting it is to take selfis with self timer. You have to set the focus on something (your bike or something else), get this thing out of the way, press the button, run to the place where the bike just stood, do your pose, run back to the camera just to see that the picture doesn't look the way you wanted it to. Same thing again. It involves a lot of running and doing the same pose over and over again. But it's still kinda fun.

Behind the scenes: me being not fast enough in my position, me out of focus (right corner) and a nice jogger who stopped and watched me taking pictures until I asked him to help me. I set the focus on him because it was so hard to get the focus on the right spot. Then he jogged away but my book still wasn't perfectly in focus. I wish I had a remote, maybe that would make it easier. One more month of working and I can buy a 60D and a 50mm 1.4 and a remote and aaaah, all the stress is gonna pay off! YES!


And there was a woman with a dog who run towards me while I was lying in the grass and then I got up and she stopped running and looked at me kind of shocked and was just like "Oh my gosh, I thought you fainted, I was just about to call the ambulance!" That was kind of funny, although she still was really upset when she walked away :D