January 6, 2010 - Halfway through the day!

Today, I found myself bringing my camera to the breakfast table. I may choose to add another picture before the day is over, but the overall concept of being ready at any time is starting to work it's way in to my brain. This is the cute smile I am greeted with on a very regular basis. Got to love the little Judester.

Post for January 5, 2010 - Dedicated

Ok, so I went most of the day without taking a picture. And, to be honest I am not totally impressed with this one. Big mistake using a 50mm lens wide open on this one. Should have dialed it down to f/16 or so. But I have what I have and it was 3 images to choose from and I went with this one. The fun of photo editing software is often you can "rescue" a photo that is normally destined for the trash can. Technical wrongs (the blown out horses on the left and right, the lack of clarity do to the long focal distance, just to name a couple). What I ended up liking about the pic is the surreal mood it puts you in. The sepia like finish with brightly glowing horses to the sides. This is a small horse farm about a mile or so from our house. Something we drive by every day and often don't give attention to. Again, not my best work, nor even what I would call good work, but it still was fun and I am still focused on my goal!

Already outside the box - Pictures for 1/4/2010

So how can you start a picture-a-day blog 5 days late? Easy! Just do it. I got this idea from my sister who is doing a project 365. One picture for each day. I am thinking that this project will be a different for me. I have a problem with just one picture and I have never been totally faithful to a journal. So, in the end I may end up with more pictures per day for some days, and lack of pictures for others. In the end I think this is great for me. I am my own worst critic. So many times when I am reviewing pictures I discard the ones my wife counts as "keepers". I think that there are drastic differences in the ways men and women look at pictures. I read an article about this the other day and find the article to be very true. The basic idea was that women take pictures based on "feeling" while men tend to be more technically oriented making sure that every aspect of the camera is set to perfection and every rule of photography is followed. This project is an attempt to shatter the idea of perfection in photography and attempt to capture the elusive and often overlooked pictures in life that might not meet the scrutiny of "photography", but they are the images that make up our every day life. I hope to push myself outside the box if for no other reason than to help me see the world a little less technical. So here we go . . .

I can already tell that this is going to be good because #1 I am posting pictures late and #2 I am posting more than one picture. I think that both of these ides break the rules for project 365 or 361 in my case. Hey, what do you do when you have 3 kids? You can't overlook one for the other, so start out the first post by incorporating pics of all three.

First there's Jude. This is in no way a technically perfect picture of Jude, but this is the perspective that I see him from on nearly a daily basis. Our family lives in a single wide trailer and space is a precious commodity. Jude and I share the same space. His crib is next to my computer and so this is the image that I see when he is supposed to be taking a nap. This is also a very typical expression for Jude. Sarah and I both agree that he will probably be the family clown because he loves to make people smile.

Next there is Samuel. Samuel lives life at 100 mph or more! From eating pickles to fighting crime, Sam puts his heart into everything he does. Sam is definitely the "big" brother. He takes care of his younger brothers. In fact, last night we took the boys to play on the playground at Burger King and Sam carried Luke over a puddle of spilled coffee in the parking lot.

Last, but certainly not least is Luke. This is such a typical breakfast picture of Luke. He is obviously deep in thought. Luke is definitely more of a thinker. He keeps us laughing with his little off the cuff statements.

So that completes the first "late" entry. 360 more days to go. I am interested to see for myself where this journey is going to take me!