Week 6: February 8

This week's photo has absolutely nothing to do with any of the three themes in my groups.  In fact, I'm starting to think that themes are for people who aren't inspired by the beauty of life around them.  I'm constantly aware of God's beautiful creation and love to capture the beauty that can be found in the details.  Like for instance, an absolutely beautiful frosty winter morning.  On the way to driving Grace to kindergarten this morning we ooohed and aaahed over how sparkly everything was.  I was so inspired by the sparkly frost and glorious sunshine that I grabbed my camera and headed outside to take pictures as soon as I got home.  I'm sure the neighbors thought I had a screw loose crawling around in the frosty grass in my pajamas and slippers!

Week 5: February 1

I did two photo shoots with my kids this week and I'm afraid that I didn't really stick with any of the group themes for the week. This particular photo shoot was taken in the field up and around the corner from me during some beautiful late afternoon sunshine. Grace was pretty enthused about it after our fun rock star photo shoot the day before and really had fun picking out a Valentines outfit. Ethan was a little less into it because he wasn't too sure about the tie for some reason. He loved it at Christmas so go figure. After a quick trip to the bedroom closet to look at Daddy's ties (he has a polkadot bowtie!) Ethan decided maybe his tie was cool after all.

My children were bribed with jellybeans to cooperate but the lure of candy only produces cheesy fake smiles. To get the real deal I had to resort to potty humor. It's amazing how quick the smiles appear when you start talking about poop.

Week 4: January 27

Back to some color! The theme of "gentle repetition" has been on my mind this week. I do quite a bit with repetition but this week the repetition of dewy grass in the late afternoon sun is what inspired me. Ever since starting my Project 365 over a year ago I have become acutely aware of what lighting creates my favorite images and now when I notice the light outside is "just right" I grab my camera and shoot! On this particular day I really wanted to test out my new (to me) 85mm so I whipped it out. Probably not the best lens for this shot but the bokeh is definitely pretty.

Week 3: January 20

What's this? Two black and white photos in a row? Since I'm participating in three different Project 52 groups (can't pick just one!) I have three themes to pick from. This week's themes were geometry, abandoned, and shades of gray. I kind of like the idea of abandoned, but I was inspired by the metal coffee dispenser at Indoor Play Park of all things. You just never know where inspiration will hit you! This photo is actually really awesome in color, it's reflecting the rainbow of colors from the toys etc. but sticking with the shades of gray theme I converted it to black and white.

If this doesn't float your boat I did post a collage of super cute photos of my kids on my personal blog yesterday which you can see HERE. Not that I'm biased by the cuteness or anything.

Week 2: January 13

This week I was working with the themes of Cold and Together. When I saw that there was snow in the forecast this week I was pretty excited! As soon as I saw the flakes coming down Tuesday afternoon I grabbed a black shirt from my closet and ran outside with my camera to play with my "ghetto macro" technique and get some macro shots of some snowflakes. Unfortunately our snow was more of icy rain and I couldn't seem to catch any intact snowflakes, but the resulting images are pretty interesting anyways. They remind me of diamonds!

And just because I feel like sharing some more...

Week 1: January 8

I know I'm a bit behind in starting my project 52, but I kind of wanted to finish my Project 365 from 2010 first! I'm participating in a couple 52 week groups so I may borrow one of their themes every now and again for inspiration. This week's theme is "new beginnings" and I thought that this weekend's maternity session with my good friend (and fellow photographer!) was super fitting.

2010 Project 365: A Reflection

I have to say I'm pretty proud of myself for completing this project. It wasn't always easy and I oftentimes would be headed to bed when I'd remember I hadn't taken a photo yet. Turns out that creativity can be hard to come by when all I really want to do is go to bed! The best part about this project was how it improved my photography. Practicing every day really has its benefits! Not only did I improve on the technical aspects I also had the chance to explore composition and all the basic design principles I've had pounded into my head in my zillions of art classes I've taken in my lifetime. I think I've gotten better at post processing my photos and I'm pretty happy with where I'm at right now.

Through this exercise it became pretty apparent to me that I really enjoy photographing details and LOVE capturing sunshine. If only I lived somewhere the sun shines more then three months a year!

I thought it'd be fun to take a look back at some of my favorite photos over the year. I'll try and post my favorite for each month. Which ones are your favorites? I'd love to know!

The shoes. This is still my wallpaper on my big beautiful monitor. I love the perspective and how you can tell our personalities just from this view. My pink girly girl in the middle, my rough and tumble boy with patches on his jeans, and my no nonsense and goes with everything brown converse.

I love how the focus is on the piece of sidewalk chalk and not on Ethan. It tells the story.

Ah the pears. They just make me happy. I think it's the green, or the jaunty way the middle pear is leaning. All I know is that I love it!

Isn't it interesting how it can rain AND by sunny at the same time? Quite the phenomena. I'm glad I got suitably soaked for this shot!

Oh the drama! The moody black and white, the songstress, and piano. So different from my usual repertoire but it was oh so fun!

I can't explain what it is about this photo of Grace that I love so much. It could be the cookie crumbs, or the typical Gracie expression. I suspect a combination of the two and the abundance of sunlight makes me keep wanting to stare at it!

This photo totally reminds me of summer when my kids bring me vast amount of wild daisies while I lounge in the shade and yell at them to stay away from the poison oak. I think I miss summer!

I adore this photo of Grace. I have a zillion photos of Ethan that I love because he's easy to photograph and smiles easily for the camera. Getting Grace to smile for the camera takes a lot of effort so getting a candid like this one in our backyard totally makes me ecstatic! This is the last photo I took of her before her eye surgery so it stirs up a lot of emotion. In fact just writing this is making me tear up!

Man September was a tough call. I chose this one as my favorite because I adore the colors. The ones of my husband and his cousins after Opa's funeral is a very close second.

October isn't any easier to pick from! I guess fall is my sweet spot. I love the bright colors in this one as well and the detail I was able to get on the spider web. Do you know how hard it is to focus on one of these things? Pretty dang difficult! Also loved Ethan as a hamburger and my favorite from his 3 year old portrait session.

This one may be my favorite from the entire year. In fact it's been printed on a 16x24 canvas and is hanging in my living room because I love it so much! I'm pretty sure most moms would understand my love for a photo of my children wearing clean matching clothes, looking at the camera at the same time, showing physical affection, and to top it all off are smiling. Yes I'm in love with this photo because I love my kids! The colors and beautiful sunlight are pretty nice too :) And while pretty purple flowers don't compare to my love of my children, this photo speaks to me too.

The photo from Christmas Eve is my favorite from December. Everything about it is beautiful to me. The fantastic colors, the tree light bokeh, the sparkly glasses. It's all good.

As for the question of what I'm going to do now you'll be happy to know that I'm not giving up the idea of a year long project entirely. I'm too burnt out to do another Project 365, so instead I'm going to give a Project 52 a try this year. I figure one photo a week should be no big deal after a photo a day all year last year! I'll probably continue to use this blog for sake of continuity. Look for the first week's photo soon!