After the weekly photo project I did with my friend Lisa last year, I was reluctant to start a new photography project. With everything else going on in my life, I just didn’t want the commitment and I didn’t want to start something that I could not finish. At the same time, I recognize the value of continuing to take photos for pleasure between sessions and am never more happy than when I have a camera in my hand.

The idea came to me as I stretched at my computer a few days into the New Year, enjoying some unseasonably warm and sunny weather.”I know,” I thought “I’ll go for a quick walk to get some fresh air!” On a whim, I grabbed my camera.

I live in the burbs and it’s well known that I am a city girl, so walks around my neighborhood are typically uninspiring chores at best: rows of track houses and not a person in sight, plus there really isn’t anywhere to walk to. Meh. But I really wanted out of the house and the cool sunshiney day was calling me.

At first I walked around the block without taking a single picture. I see this stuff every day and so there really wasn’t anything I wanted to snap away at. Which is when I stopped. This is exactly what you’re always saying you need to do a better job of, the little voice inside my head said. Find beauty in the ordinary things of life. It’s there, you just have to pay better attention.

So I took my lens cap off and did the same circuit again. But this time I forced myself to really look. I looked for light, I identified patterns, I paid attention to shapes, I noticed colors, I took notes of details… and “Around the Block” was born.

Gradually, my ideas for the new project took shape. These are the goals:

• I am not committed to taking any certain number of photos a day, a week, or a month. Some days I have time for a walk, sometimes I don’t. Some days I take twenty pictures, sometimes one.
• I am not looking for anything in particular to take a photo of, it just has to be “on” my walk. Some days textures interest me, some days colors, other days light. One day I might be looking at flowers, another day at buildings.
• I can’t spend a lot of time processing them. I’ve got a “process” for color and one for B&W and I follow them for all the photos, making small tweaks from there. (This part of the project evolved after the first week, so some of the early photos don’t follow this rule.)
• I have to be ruthless about choosing the photos I “keep”. The photo has to really draw me for some reason, or it’s goes straight to the trash can, no second chances.

Posted In: Blog, Personal, Projects.
Tags: Around the Block, personal