Project 365: Week 4 - January Wrap Up!
January is almost over so the first month of this project is almost complete. Week 4 IS complete! We got through the first month guys! I was not sure last year if I was going to do this project again and decided pretty much on December 31st that I was going to stick with it. I knew regardless I would still be photographing my life everyday so why not just continue to share it with others.
This month has been a great month, I feel it started off strong. If I compare month one to last January, the content and editing has come a long way and that's one of the things I took away from last years project, growth overall.
This year I don't want to put a lot of pressure on myself to perform. One photo may be great visually one day and the next may not be as great. I will always put effort into my photos, but they aren't all going to be "feature" worthy and I have come to understand that, as long as I'm photographing for myself first. I was sick the last few days of this week so two of the photos weren't up to my standards in my opinion, but they were real moments and I was okay with that. I say this to those who may be reading this and are doing their first project, have fun and try not to worry about what others may think of your work. At the end it'll be fun to see where you started and how you ended.
I am happy with what I have created this month and the memories that I documented already and it's just the beginning!
Day 22/365 Rockin' my fro! 4 year #naturalversary! I had to make sure I documented my natural hair growth because this month 4 years ago I decided to cut most of my hair off and go back to my natural, chemical free hair.
I decided to celebrate my 4 year anniversary of starting over and growing my hair naturally. It was around the same time I decided to pursue photography seriously. Maybe I was going through something then, I had just had a baby, I cut my hair. and I recognized the career path I wanted to take. It was the month and year of discovery.
I document my hair growth every year around this time so this year was not different. I went into my makeshift studio, which is my garage and set up everything. I used my usual setup one speedlight and 24x24in softbox placed camera left. I was inspired to create dramatic lighting by my last session and it also made me look cooler than I am. I took quite a few images because I was photographing myself. I used an app on my phone that can connect to my camera to focus and set the focus wirelessly, it worked great.
This was also great for my self portrait project. I actually photographed myself twice this month instead of the once I had planned, so yay for me!
Day 23/365 I always love when the sun decides to peek through on a cloudy day
This was kind of a happy accident. I was thinking about a theme from one of the photography pages I follow and the weekly theme was faceless. She didn't stand here long so I pulled the camera from my eye and shot from the hip and was so happy I got this shot and the flare was a bit of a surprise.
Day 24/365 Today we painted
I still had the faceless theme in my mind for this shot as well. I wanted to focus on her hand and the brush, but also have a hint of her face in the frame. I used my lighting equipment for this image. I had it about 5 or 6 ft away from her, above her and pointed down. The lighting gave me beautiful depth to this everyday photo, nIce shadows and highlights.
Day 25/365 Today we shopped
Leading lines are a great way to add dimension to a photo. If you know Walmart, it's usually full of people so to get an aisle to yourself is rare. I took advantage to get an interesting shot. She was centered in the aisle and I squat down to get at an even level with her and the lines lead your eye to the subject perfectly.
Day 26/365 Why did the pup cross the road?
This photo was very much unintentional. I wanted to get a shot of my son before school, but the pup decided to enter and exit the frame while I was shooting. I found it quite hilarious. This was my first photo of the day and it was a keeper. I love the way my son is looking at her as if he's thinking, she's messing up my shot, but I know he could care less.
Photographing in snow can be tough and I don't think I have it down yet I just know how to correct it when editing. I usually try to overexpose just a bit because your camera wants to underexpose by default when photographing a bright scene.
Day 27/365 I didn't even have to ask! I walked outside and he was scraping away. Such a little man. ❤️
He surprised me with this act. I had to run back in to grab my camera to capture this of course. I shot at this perspective so that you could see how small he was compared to my car and his efforts trying reach the window.
Day 28/365 ❤️Siblings at Play❤️
The last shot of the week is possibly my fave shot of the week. They made me move the kitchen table back so they had enough room to run back and forth between the kitchen and living room. My lighting setup was already in place from earlier in the day. i photographed many photos as I do get snap happy. This one was perfect because it captured their action perfectly. Their expressions were captured perfectly as well. As I said in a few photos above the lighting just added depth to this photo and highlighted the subjects perfectly.
How many times can I say perfectly?!
As always if there are any questions or comments please leave them below! Thanks for following along on my first month of this project. I hope you continue throughout the year!