Project 52 l Week 4

Week 4 - Joy

As easy as a theme as that comes across, it was much harder than anticipated. For two reasons, I think. One, because I could have taken a picture of just about anything. And two, because I'm started to get frustrated with this project. The group I'm in is wonderful and supportive, don't get me wrong. I couldn't be in a better group, and that's part of the problem for me. There are some INCREDIBLE pictures being taken every week and I feel like my pictures don't quite compete with them. I know my images are very good and this project is supposed to be about my year, my life, and each week that I live, not someone else. 

I'm competitive, though, and I want my pictures to look like the ones I see and am in awe of. It's just very frustrating for me, which is affecting my…drive, I suppose, to finish each week and get an image in. I guess my goal for February will be to start on my tasks sooner and attempt to have stunning images  through giving myself more time.

None of this is meant to be a reflection on these pictures whatsoever, because these are both the epitome of joy to me. I photographed a homecoming early this week (on top of working later into the night and trying to accomplish things like, say, taking Morris to the groomer) and I am in love with how the pictures are turning out. This has been the most emotional one I've done yet and the pictures are just superb. I knew that these would match my theme of the week. 

As I captioned in the group, "Joy is having a father, a husband, a best friend return home after 269 days apart. It's found in the safety of a return and in the reuniting of a family. And joy, of course, is being able to capture that moment!"

And of course, I know that feeling all to well. I welcomed James back more times than I care to count, and each one was more joyous than the next. To me, there could not be a more appropriate photo to accompany the theme of joy.

Project 52 l Week 3

Week 3's theme was "inside." I, actually, had a bit of difficulty figuring out war I was going to photograph for this week's agenda. Granted, you don't have to stick to the given theme and the real purpose is to get you to take a picture each week to document the year. However, I want to stick to what's given as much as possible and only waver if I truly cannot get the creative juices flowing.

As said, I struggled with it and had no idea what I was going to do for "inside." I thought perhaps a picture entailing what it's like inside mine or James's head, what we do when we're stuck inside because of weather, and even inside clothes or skin. But, I couldn't come up with anything that I loved and that wasn't going to be done by many other people. Luckily, the homecoming I had scheduled came through and I knew that my image would come from that.

Of course, it didn't fail and I captured this moment. As a photographer, people let me inside some of their most personal and intimate moments, such as this. This little boy was very young when his dad left and his mom was worried that he might be a little standoffish when he saw him again. It was the exact opposite and he was attached to his father's hip the moment he picked him up. I was getting a stone face from him all day until he saw his daddy; his expressions completely changed and, both he and his brother, were the epitome of joyous and elated. 

Snow Storm

The wonderful upstate rang in the new year with an old fashioned blizzard! And I truly do mean old fashioned because they said that this was the worst blizzard in 15 to 20 years. All of these were taken during the storm, but some earlier than others. I believe the pictures up until Morris staring out the window are the cut off between the first day and the middle of the second day. The second day starts when our bench is completely engulfed in snow.

And, believe it or not, we got even more snow. The second day's pictures were taken in the middle of the day and we got about a foot more after those were taken.

During those three days, we managed to get about 3 feet of snow, but I'm certain it would've been more had it not been so windy the first couple of days. The majority of snow fell on the second day, and I'm fairly certain we got about an inch an hour on the last day. It was so bad that James got two days off of work, had a late start on the third day, and there were total white out conditions for the first couple of days. We were confined to the house and acquired total cabin fever. Ask Morris, he'll tell you all about how terrible it was.

What's even crazier is that ALL of this snow melted off not even three days later. The weather completely shifted and it was 50 degrees out and raining. I had forgotten what grass looked like!

Project 52 l Week 2

The theme for this week was "imperfection" and originally, I had a lot of ideas. My first plan was to use a photo I had taken from our Christmas clean up, and then when the weather shifted to blizzard mode, my idea shifted to imperfect weather. But… 

Morris. He's had this habit of hiding, or attempting to hide, under the shower curtains for weeks. In fact. when I woke up this morning, I found him laying in this same spot with only his head under the curtain.  Earlier this week, though, I had gone up to shower after my workout when he wandered into the bathroom and just positioned himself "perfectly." In my mind, this was obviously fate and what I was meant to use for the theme of the week, so I ran and grabbed my camera before the moment was ruined. 

Morris is just perfect in my eyes, he really is. His stealth skills can really use some work, though.

Goodbye, Christmas

Our original plan was to clean up all of our Christmas decorations and get rid of the tree on New Year's Day, but being sick kind of derailed that. I caught what James had on New Year's Eve (of all days), and wasn't feeling much better until Sunday, the 5th. So, we were only like 4 days off and that's really not that bad, especially considering we both practically hacked up a lung. 

With that said, the holidays officially ended over the weekend, much to my dismay. I was very sad to see the tree leave, and even waved to it out the door while James dragged it away to the trash can. All of our ornaments and decorations received, "See you next year!"'s and Morris said his "goodbye and good riddance" by (forcefully) laying down on top of the box. Truth be told, he's much too much like James sometimes. As stated before, James only cared about the tree and was ready for it to leave the day after Christmas. I'm pretty sure that Morris was glad to see it gone, too, because he's been spending much more time downstairs now that we no longer have it. Men, I tell you.

Once gone, the vacuum came out and the needles were sucked up, removing any sign that Christmas had been here. I'm obviously still a little sad about it and have been trying to recreate the smell of the tree by burning balsam candles. Only 350ish days until next year, right?