Two years ago, in December of 2009, I was relatively new to the whole photography thing. I had done several sessions, I had a blog, I followed other photographers online. I joined a photography forum of other like-minded photographers and we shared trials and tribulations as newcomers to the field. When the calendar page turned to January, suddenly from every corner of the internet I was being beckoned to try a photo-a-day or 365 project. Eager to fit in with my new community, I readily signed up. I opened a flickr account, and I started taking a picture every day. I didn’t really have a theme or a goal in mind, I was just taking a picture each day. Some days were easy, but other days I found myself taking random pictures of a can from my pantry, or running back downstairs after I’d gotten in bed to take a picture of my kitchen in the dark or something. As the weeks went by, many of my flickr friends slowly gave up. But I was determined to finish something I started. But as the weather turned warm and I began to spend more time outside with my kids, and less time sitting in front of my computer I took and uploaded fewer and fewer pictures. I soldiered on out of guilt, but was filled with resentment about the project. I finally fizzled out around mid May.
In the years since, every January first, I think to myself for an hour or two that I should try again because everyone else is doing it. I watched one friend successfully document her life last year, and am envious that she completed her task. She now has 365 photos of her children, her friends and her life, and 365 great memories and stories to share. This year, I thought about trying again. With an iPhone it should be even easier, but then there’s some days that I just don’t do anything exciting or worth taking a photo of. Despite having a photography business, there are some days I just want to veg out and enjoy the moments when I’m in them and not feel like I HAVE to take a picture. I can’t think of many other professions where workers set themselves up to do extra work just for fun every day and then post the results online and share with friends. Can you imagine an accountant going home each night and saying “Now I’m going to do some tax forms just because I want to do one every day for a year and I didn’t do one yet today!”?
So anyway. I did decide that I wanted to be more conscious of taking photographs for fun, for me, and to more carefully document things that we do as a family. So I’m going to try to be good about posting a Weekly Favorites post here each week. Some weeks I might have a dozen photos to share, others only one. They might be from my iPhone, or they might be from a session, or from my camera. I hope you’ll enjoy them, I hope that I’ll enjoy doing it without the self-imposed pressure, and I’d love any support or encouragement you can offer!
1.) sunrise through the bathroom window 2.) January sky 3.) halftime at basketball 4.) sunshine before the snow 5.) first road trip in dad’s new car 6.) snow on the wheat grass 7.) our new homework station in the dining room (saving grace) 8.) snow on crape myrtle
by Kelly
show hide 2 comments