Finished! 365 | Days 356-365

And here they are, the last 10 photos from my personal challenge to take a photo a day for 365 days!  And what a challenge it was.  As much as I love photography, this. was. hard.  I even growled at my camera every once in a while when, at 9:00 or 10:00 pm, I would notice it watching me from it’s perch somewhere in my house, reminding me that I could not in fact go to bed because I hadn’t taken the picture of the day yet.  After the first 100 days or so it became hard to find something new to photograph on the “average” days.  You know, the days that are the same as the day before, and the day that would follow.  There isn’t much to take a photo of when you’re working with several days in a row of wake up-go to work-eat-sleep-repeat.  But I persevered! 

Someone asked me to share some of my thoughts on this project (Hi, Shannon!) so here I go:

My photographic style, as well as my editing style, has been polished up a bit during the last 365 days.  I’ve learned to look for the simple, unnoticed details in life.  The pattern of sunlight across the floor on a spring morning, the intricate design of frost on a leaf, the “mmm, yum” texture of a loaf of fresh bread.  I’ve never looked at the sky so much as I have in the last year.  Every day it’s different.  Every single sunrise and sunset is a show all it’s own, whether colorful and dramatic, or subtly quiet, it’s always beautiful.  Always. 

I’ve learned that sometimes taking a step back and visually gathering in life’s big picture can make just as beautiful a photo as that close up shot.  A room full of my loved ones playing games, laughing, sharing life together… is there any picture more precious than that? (The answer is no, no there isn’t.) What about that photo of the 5 loads of clothes that are taking over the arm chair while waiting to be folded?  Beautiful?  Yes.  How many people can only dream of owning enough clothes to make up 5 wash loads?  We are rich.  Life is beautiful.

Will I attempt this 365 challenge again one day?  Maybe.  We’ll see.  I just finished making a coffee table album with all 365 photos and loved looking again at each photo.  365 moments, so many memories triggered.  How much fun is it going to be to look through that album later in life and tell my children about each photo?  What a treasure.  I’d love to add another 365 album to my collection one day.  I’ll keep all of you posted on that. 

Thank you, all of you, for following me on this journey.  Thank you for the sweet comments and encouragement.  I hope that, in some way, my little photos have inspired some of you to look at everyday life differently.  To take another look and to really see those simple, ordinary things that really aren’t that simple or ordinary at all.  Those things, those moments… are life.  Life is in the everyday and every day is photo worthy. 

 

 (P.S. The other 355 photos from this project can be found HERE)