I never thought it would be this way. I truly started my 365 project because my memory had let me down so many times before. I wanted to be able to hold 2012 in my hands long after it has passed. I wanted to be able to remember all the little things that make our life so sweet. That part I signed up for all knowingly. The journey it would provide artisitcally has hit me like brick.
At first my goal was to capture a picture almost as a place holder, just so I would have a visual clue to further enhance my memory. Just a quick click, it didn’t matter too much how it was composed, created, just more that it was taken. I wasn’t working after all, this was just some little project. But a few months in and I crave more of the story, I crave what I see in other images that tell a story almost without the words. I am no longer happy with a place holder, it is just not good enough.
Some may think a photographer is a photographer, that means they can take great pictures of anything. I have always been drawn to release and show the emotion I see in others. Capturing emotion has become my strength and I have been very happy living in my comfort zone.
Really, I didn’t even realize how comfy until this 365 project. When I realized I needed more. So now I am on a quest to learn to tell the story. I want to feel the action, feel the story come to life in the image. I want anyone to feel as if they are right there in the moment. I want the image to be able to stand alone without words and still have power. Wanting these things is all good enough, creating these things may be harder than one may think.
This morning was my first real attempt….here is how the story goes.
It was a foggy morning, we were all upstairs doing our morning chores. Last night I had thrown all of Jackson’s pajamas out into the hallway as they were ready to be handed down to a friend. This morning I grabbed the laundry basket and threw them inside. Jackson caught me and decided to play too. He became so excited that I plopped right down and began to play. Not a second later Jonathen joined us too. Then Daddy walked around the corner smiled, and sat and watched us play for a little while before joining in too. Jackson giggled as we threw the pajamas on top of his head. We all laughed as we piled them into the laundry basket and dumped them onto each other. We played and played for almost a half an hour. Jackson would run over and stand on my lap and we would giggle as the other boys threw the pajamas our way. It was great family fun. I thought several times, who knew how much fun some old pajamas, a laundery a basket and a bunch of boys could be. We were sitting in the foyer right at the edge of the stairs…it was spontaneous and fun.
About 25 minutes in I thought, I really want to remember this. So innocent and so sweet.
I had Jonathen grab my camera and I set it on top of the basket and set the timer so we could just play like we were. The picture of the day is the shot I got. I love the feeling it really captured the fun and chaos of the moment. I will never forget now what it felt like to have those feet pressing into my legs and the closeness of the giggles. I like that the pajamas are caught in action as they truly were up in the air almost the whole time we were playing. So that feels real. I love Matt’s face so happy hiden behind the throw and love that Jonathen is front and center. But I miss the basket. It was such a big part of the story. I wish it were in there somewhere. So that is what I will work on next time. Making sure all the details of the story are represented. Or at least the important ones.
But before I picked this picture I had a few other that I really tried to study so I could learn what to work on.
I loved this one because it showed a real smirk of Joanthen up to something with the sweetness of Jack and Matt in thebackground and my little toes too. BUT it didnt share the story I was after and I wanted to hold myself to that story.
I liked the artistic feel of the pajamas on my head in this one as they were there so much…but again it wasn’t THE story.
I loved Jackson’s excitement in this one…it shows how happy he was to play…and Jonathen’s too. But now I have the basket but I am not there. And I miss not being there because I was so much a part of the real story.
I am so drawn to Jonathen’s expression in this one and the action of Jack and the relaxed side of Matt…so genuine, but I wish I would have put my feet in the shot or something to represent me in the image. Again the details…
The push to become the storyteller has begun. To still preserve the emotion I see but to push myself further artistically, even when it makes me feel vulnerable.
