A Week In The Life ~ In Review

I spent the last week photographing my life.  The details.  The experiences.  The people that make up my daily existence.  It was an interesting project, and, at times, I wasn't sure if it fell into that dreaded artisan category of "Just because you can, doesn't mean you should".  In fact, someone asked me why I was doing this?  Why was I putting this kind of personal information about myself out there for other people to see?  What's the point?  I guess I would say that it was an exercise in the craft more than anything.  The more pictures you take, the more you connect with your lens, the better you become at creating your image.  I was also interested to see if a group of pictures of regular old, everyday activities of middle class America could become a collection of artistic images?  Could it be done?  Did I have the skills to do it?  Would it make a difference to me?  I think it could be.  I think I do.  And it definitely did.....It surprised me, though, because I learned a lot more than photography along the way:



1.)  It took between 100 and 130 images each day to put a decent collection together
And photographing everything you do makes it take about 5 times as long.....




2.)  Self-Portraits Are Not About Looking Like A Supermodel:
Pictures of yourself are about capturing who you are and what you do, so that 50 years from now, when  we're gone, our children can look at these images and see the parents they remember loving when they were  little.  And they love you now, no matter how you look... (although slight airbrushing is allowed when necessary.)

3.) Beauty Is Everywhere
Keep your eyes and your mind open.  Sometimes the most incredible surprises are hiding in the most unexpected places.

4.)  Capture The Moment:
Don't be so concerned with composition and focus and camera settings that you forget why you're taking the picture in the first place.  Connect with what's in front of you.  When you pull these pictures out to remember the moments that made up your life, you won't care that it's slightly out of focus or that the light wasn't quite right.

And P.S.  Let the camera do the work for you.  Flip it to auto and go.  Save the fiddling around for when your subject isn't moving all over the place.

5.)  And yes, even the mundane can be artistic.
Opportunities to take great images are everywhere.  Look around you.  Just from where you stand there are 10 great pictures waiting to be captured.  You just have to do it.

Do it without being afraid that someone will tell you not to.

Do it without being afraid that you won't get it right.

Do it.  Trust me....it's a lot of fun.