may 15

After dinner tonight, I called off cleaning the kitchen. I have an amazing husband willing to wash dishes for me, but I made him hold the baby while I spent 15 minutes taking pictures of my girls. I'm still plugging away at my 365 project, with a new word prompt each day. Today's word was whimsical. So, I put butterfly and ladybug wings on my kids and made them go outside to play. 

Doesn't everyone do this? They should. 

They decided to play hide and seek, a game not well suited to two year olds. Mia's counting is commendable, but goes something like "11, 12, 14, 17, here  I come!" And her "hiding" is more like standing with her back turned to the "finder."  But it was fun for them, and entertaining for me, at least for the five minutes they were able to focus on a single game. 

And then, the sun peeked out from the clouds for just a few minutes. 

It was sort of the icing on the cake for me. 

my 2014 photo project

I am attempting another 365 project this year.  What's a 365 project?  You take a photo a day, every day, for a whole year.  I finished one in 2012.  A photo a day of the girls.  I did have to cheat some here and there, but I ended up with a collection of photos that I love and that are, sadly, waiting on my hard drive to be printed.  I tried another one last year, fizzled out sometime in April, and then gave myself a free pass to quit.  I don't regret it.  It was getting stressful.  But, I did know that I wanted to try again this year. 

Why do a project at all when I'm already being pulled in so many different directions?  A few reasons.  One, I needed to do something that challenged me in a creative way, aside from figuring out how to keep three kids clean, healthy, and happy while simultaneously keeping our home halfway tidy and being a wife.  Two, I'm really wanting to improve my photography skills, but have limited time, so shooting just a few minutes everyday seems to be something I can handle. And three, because I'm stubborn and refuse to ever admit that I can't do all the things.

All.  The.  Things.  I say it a lot lately.  And while I know I can't actually do all.  the.  things.  I certainly do try.  And then some.

I decided they would all be phone camera shots.  I always have my phone with me.  I can edit my shot, on my phone, while cooking dinner, and singing Frozen songs.  Multi-tasking at its best.  The handy dandy phone camera is probably the only reason I might succeed at this project.  Plus, a part of me wants to prove that it's not the equipment that makes the photographer.   

If you're on Instagram, I apologize, these shots are all repeats.  But, I wanted to post a few favorites here.  I certainly won't be posting all 365 of them.  When you're doing a project like this, I think one of the hardest things you must accept is that not every shot is going to be amazing.  You have off days.  Days when you forget to shoot until after the sun goes down.  Days without inspiration.  But you shake it off, pick your shot for the day, and move on.  Because the next day, you might end up with something you really like. 

And if you're wondering, I'm following the daily word prompts from Clickin' Moms (@clickinmoms on IG).  There are probably a hundred different 365 project prompts available on the internet, this just so happens to be the one I'm following.

"the sky today"

"backlight"

"table top"

"dry"

"clouds"

"emerging"

"perfect"

"glittery"

"out and about"
I was super excited when this one was feature on the Clickin' Moms blog!!

"juxtaposition"

"reflection"

"three"

I try to include the kids as much as possible, but they are generally less than cooperative.  And, honestly, it's nice to have an excuse to shoot something different.  The best part?  For the first time in a long time, I feel good about what I'm creating.  

another 365

Gloomy day out the playroom window

january 9, 2013

I started another 365 photo project on January 1st. Last year's photos are organized neatly in a virtual folder on my desktop until I make time to create an album of them. I would love to get it done in a month or so, but we'll see. At the moment I'm spending my time doing other things like blogging and crocheting.

Last year, my intent was to take a picture of each girl every single day. I didn't want to end up with a book dominated by one child over the other, so I tried to my best to get a picture of each one each day. There were many days I failed and I made do with a picture of their shoes, or a "flashback" photo to Laci's babyhood, or I cheated and took an extra picture the next day. And on one sad occasion where I missed several days in a row, I grabbed a picture of my dogs. But I have a collection of 700-something pictures that I am anxious to see compiled into something I can hold and flip through whenever I want.

January 1, 2012 ~ 1/366

December 30, 2012 ~ 365/366
(I picked these instead of December 31st because I like them better).

Can you believe how much they've grown???

I'm probably setting too high of expectations (as usual), but I'm at it again with a few guidelines to help me through:

1. Find the light, then the moment. I will not force myself to try to create something pretty if the light just plain isn't there.

2. It doesn't HAVE to be a picture of my kids. Though I will say the thought of missing a day of my girls sort of makes me sad. They will likely dominate my collection at the end of the year anyway.

3. Just one picture. Obviously, I'll take many, but I'll force myself to choose just one at the end of the day. I'll thank myself at the end of the year for this one when I'm trying to design my book.

And that's it. 365 days, 365 photos. I'm not planning to blog my project because that's just one thing I don't want added to my plate at the moment, but I can assure you that most of them end up here anyway.