I have a confession: I’m surprised that I haven’t quit this project yet. Especially since I spent January getting ready to close on a condo and now most of February decluttering, cleaning and packing. I’ve still managed to find time every day to take a photo. Some days are harder than others and I’ve missed a couple of days, but for the most part, I’ve stuck with it. This project tests my patience, creativity and time management skills.
I don’t know if it’s making me a better photographer, but I am learning to let go of my perfectionist tendencies. I have days when I hate the pictures I’ve taken and I’m tempted to keep trying until I’m happy, but then I think that may never happen and I’m tired (or cold or hungry or frustrated or bored) and I just want to move on. So I do, hoping that tomorrow will be better.
Day 35/365: Packing up my beloved books.
Day 36/365: I was feeling very uninspired, so I took a picture of my cats’ food rather than my dinner.
Day 37/365: Silverware in the dishwasher. I hate putting away silverware almost as much as I hate doing laundry.
Day 38/365: Jewelry. Each piece was purchased on vacation somewhere. The necklace and earrings are from a shop on the Ponte Vecchio in Florence, Italy. The gold ring is from Costa Rica and the silver ring I bought while on a hiking trip in Minnesota. The jewelry box was a Christmas gift from my parents well over 20 years ago.
Day 39/365: Rose making her herself comfortable while I’m trying to write.
Day 40/365: My friend and her son.
Day 41/365: A quick snap of my new neighborhood on a snowy afternoon.
I officially closed on the condo last Friday. To celebrate, I had some friends over that same night to drink champagne from plastic cups and eat pizza on the floor of my empty condo. It was so much fun to share the milestone with them.
Maria, Rhiannon and their dog, Hazel. They live at the end of the block so I’m super excited that I’ll be close to friends.
Randy and Hazel. While I’m sad that I’ll be moving further away from Randy, the upside is there is always plenty of parking in my new neighborhood and when we go out to dinner, it’s usually in Andersonville anyway so it’s not like I won’t see him just as often.
Teresa – always hamming it up for the camera.
The only items in my new fridge – left over pizza and champagne.
Here’s a link to an article in the Chicago Sun-Times about Andersonville. I’m so excited to explore my new neighborhood in depth. It has a lot of character which translates to some great photo opportunities!
Last week’s polar vortex wasn’t the first one we’ve dealt with in Chicago. We survived one in 2014, though it wasn’t as cold as the one that blew through last week. I remember having to walk in the extreme cold to the train, wait for said train and then walk from the train to the office because the firm I worked for at the time didn’t think the cold was dangerous enough to warrant closing the office.
This year my firm took pity on its employees and ordered us to work from home on both Wednesday and Thursday. Though this polar vortex was colder and more dangerous, it didn’t seem as bad. Probably because I didn’t have to go outside this time. Plus I got to sleep in because my commute was all of 30 seconds (my bed to my couch) and I never got out of my pajamas. As an added bonus I actually got to snap a couple of pictures using natural light since I wasn’t stuck in a windowless office.
Anything Goes: Rose was mesmerized by the falling snow.
Food: Roasted vegetables.
Indoors: My windows face the east so I was able to get a cool shot of the light coming in through my bedroom windows.
Personal: More books. I absolutely love true crime. I’ve read countless books on crime and the criminal justice system. My phone is full of podcasts like My Favorite Murder, Stranglers, Serial, and Dirty John. You’ll see shows like Homicide Hunter, Forensic Files, and Making of a Murderer in my Netflix queue. I’m fairly certain that I’m the only person who actually wants to be called for jury duty and is frustrated that I’ve never been called.
Instead of a picture of the cats, I thought I’d switch it up this week and post a picture of my friends’ adorable dog, Hazel. She’s the absolute sweetest.
Portrait: My friends, Maria and Rhiannon, and their dog Hazel. Does this picture seem out of focus or is just me?
Urban landscape: A favorite brunch spot in my neighborhood. It’s hilarious to us that it’s a pancake house and a bar, but the pancakes are really good.
There were a couple of interesting articles about the polar vortex in Chicago. We had what they were calling frost quakes, which I hadn’t experienced before. You can read about them here. I never felt any rumbling, but I did hear the loud booms. I have to wonder if the frost quakes will have any effect on our roads come spring.
The CTA also set the train tracks on fire to keep switching mechanisms from freezing. If only this would also solve the rest of the mechanical problems that the CTA faces daily.
I woke up early on Saturday morning to an incessant tapping noise. At first I thought it was just Rose doing something she’s not supposed to be doing. When I got up to investigate, I realized my pillow was wet. The tapping noise was the sound of water dripping from my ceiling. It was raining in my bedroom and my apartment was FREEZING.
The lack of heat and water logged ceiling took over my weekend and colored my perception of the week. It wasn’t until I started putting together this post, that I saw I actually had a pretty great week. I made a Turmeric Chicken Stew on Tuesday and it was really, really, really delicious. In fact, I loved it so much that I’m thinking about making it every week. You can find the recipe here.
I’m also reading the book, Neither Here Nor There, by Bill Bryson. It’s one of the funniest books I’ve read in a long time. He’s from Des Moines and the book is all about his European travels. Nothing ever goes the way it’s planned when you travel and his anecdotes and musings are laugh out loud funny and so very relatable.
Reviewing my photographic diary made me realize that only Saturday morning really sucked . The rest of the week was pretty great. Sometimes I just need a little reminder.
Anything goes (aka Pictures I Take of Random Things at 10:00 pm Because I Procrastinated): Fire hydrant. I like the red and yellow colors against the white snow.
Food: Turmeric Chicken Stew. It’s not the most attractive dish to photograph – the turmeric turns the chicken yellow and the eggplant turns a brown color, but it’s super delicious. I like the orange of the sweet potatoes.
Indoors: This is my typical view of the television. I’m just grateful it’s not the other end in my face.
Personal: Two things I love – books and travel. A book about travel? Yes, please!
Cats: An out of focus picture of Elliot. Usually when one of my pictures is out of focus, I’ll convert it to black and white to help mask the focus problem, but I love Ellie’s orange fur so I kept the color.
Portrait: Last minute self-portrait.
Urban landscape: The Sheridan “L” stop. I have a liquor store, a coffee shop, a bodega, my bank, and a Walgreens available as soon as I get off the train. I’ll miss this station when I move.
Chicago is bracing for three days of sub-zero temps this week so I’m guessing I won’t be outdoors taking any pictures. Probably lots of pictures of the cats (sorry).
Week 3 was all jumbled up. I forgot about taking a picture on Monday after going out to dinner with friends and having a few glasses of wine. A weekend snow storm forced us to cancel dinner plans on Saturday night when I had planned to take a portrait of a friend. I feel like I none of the pictures were actually taken on the day they were scheduled to be taken, but it all worked out in the end.
I took this picture of Rose peeking around the corner later in the week while I was getting ready for work. I’m late to work a lot because I’m busy taking pictures of Rose.
Carton of eggs. I was loving the different shades and speckles. It’s not something that I would have paid attention before this project.
Once again, the indoor picture is my least favorite picture of the week. I think I need to reinterpret what “indoors” means. Taking a picture of the outdoors from indoors? Taking pictures of something indoors from the outdoors? Although, that last idea might be a bit creepy.
My personal photo of the week is of one of my favorite evening rituals. Making a cup of my favorite tea (The Nutcracker from The Langham Hotel) and sitting down to write or edit pictures.
Someone asked me once why Elliot doesn’t get as much air time on Instagram as Rose does. Elliot is very private. When he sees the camera in my hand, he’ll turn around and walk away. I try to respect his wishes. This photo was sheer luck.
Portrait of Elysia. Newborn babies are kinda hard to photograph. They’re so floppy. Elle is such a sweet baby. I had her all to myself while my friend and her husband had an afternoon date.
View from my friend’s condo. Taken while babysitting Elle.
Check out my Instagram story on @elliotandrose to see how Rose helped me with the blog post this week. Any and all errors are attributed to her.
This post is almost a week late. I promise I’ve been taking pictures every day, but what I haven’t been doing is editing every day. Big mistake! For anyone thinking about doing a 365 challenge/project, I highly recommend setting aside enough time every day to edit and post the picture. In fact, I recommend that you do a little more planning than I did (which was none).
I went into this project thinking “Hey, I’ll just take one picture a day. This will a fun and easy project!” The reality is that it’s overwhelming without a few guidelines. By week two I was really struggling for inspiration so I turned to the internet for some help. I Googled things like “365 project”, “365 challenge”, and “photo a day”. As it turns out, I am NOT the first person to do this, but I’m probably the most underprepared (it’s kinda my thing – ever run a marathon without proper training? Cuz I have.).
People actually put together calendars for an entire year of what they were going to shoot! That felt a little restrictive to me so I settled on a different idea – I would pick a theme for each day of the week so that I have some guidance as to what to shoot. Below are the themes I’ve chosen.
Disclaimer – I skipped Friday. I had tickets to the opera and didn’t get home until almost midnight. I took a few extra pictures Sunday to make up for it.
Divvy bikes lined up in my neighborhood. Not my favorite picture of this week, but I was getting desperate to find something to take a picture of. I feel like repetition is an easy picture. This was also the night that I started Googling this project and realized how unprepared I was.
I’ve never understood why people take pictures of their food. It’s never interested me, but here I am taking pictures of my curried mussels. I realized that I need a cleaner kitchen and/or table if I’m going to photograph food. Also, I highly recommend these from Wilde. Delicious!
My bedside table. I wandered around my apartment for an hour looking for something interesting. All I can say about this category is that it’s going to be hard. It’s probably going to test my creativity the most.
My lion salt and pepper shakers. I love these because, well…. cats (duh!) and also my sorority’s mascot was a lion. I also realized these are not the only animal salt and pepper shakers I own. I guess I have a thing for salt and pepper shakers shaped like my favorite animals. When did I become this person??
Portrait of one of my favorite people on this earth. I took this at a bar while we were out celebrating a friend’s birthday. The only reason this picture turned out was because of the light from his cell phone. I learned that even my fast lens isn’t enough in low lighting. I’ll need to start experimenting with flash.
I liked the way the light coming through the blinds hit the table and chair. It reminded me of a noir film.
Rose is probably the subject of the majority of my photos. For every photo I share, there are another dozen sitting on my memory card.
Even if this project doesn’t make me a better photographer, I’m learning a lot about myself and documenting bits and pieces of my life along the way. Have you tried a 365 challenge? What did you learn?
Project 365 is a project that I started on January 1st in the hopes that it will make me a better photographer. All I have to do it take one picture per day for a year. If I’ve done it right, by the end of 2019 my photos will be better than the photos I’m taking right now. And after looking at what I produced this week, I have nowhere to go but up.
I don’t think its enough to just take one picture per day. If I want to learn anything from this project, I’ll need to critique the pictures to determine what worked, what didn’t, and what can be improved. The instructors at Chicago Photography Academy taught us to ask 4 questions when reviewing work: (1) What is the first thing I notice, (2) What is one thing I like, (3) What is one thing I don’t like, and (4) What is one thing I would do differently?
(1) First thing I notice is Rose.
(2) One thing I like is that she’s looking at the camera and I can see both of her eyes. Her coloring sometimes makes it look like she only has one eye in pictures.
(3) One thing I don’t like is that it’s a relatively boring picture of my (super cute) cat.
(4) One thing I would do differently is maybe change the angle from which I shot the picture. Would it be more interesting if there was more of the bathroom vanity instead of the wall?
(1) First thing I notice is the moose.
(2) One thing I like is I like the color of the trees.
(3) One thing I don’t like is is the depth of field. It’s too shallow.
(4) One thing I would do differently is change the aperture so that the depth of field is greater.
(1) First thing I notice is the light reflection in the bulb.
(2) One thing I like is the framing.
(3) One thing I don’t like its little blurry.
(4) One thing I would do differently is get the shot during the day time to minimize the glaring light reflection.
(1) First thing I notice is the light hitting the light colored brick.
(2) I like the idea of the picture. The repetition of a Christmas tree in every window.
(3) One thing I don’t like is that it’s a totally boring picture.
(4) One thing I would do differently would wait for a snowfall to take it.
(1) First thing I notice is the pool of light on the ground.
(2) One thing I like is the red bike.
(3) One thing I don’t like is that the cyclist is in the shadow.
(4) One thing I’d do differently is wait for the cyclist to go through the pool of light before pressing the shutter button.
(1) First thing I notice is the tub of cat litter in the background.
(2) One thing I like is capturing the movement of Rose.
(3) One thing I don’t like is the yellow litter box in the background.
(4) One thing I would do differently is move the tub of cat litter.
I welcome any other comments/thoughts/critiques on the above pictures.
I take A LOT of pictures of my cats because, well, they’re really freakin’ cute and they’re available. Sort of. They don’t sit still for very long. You’d think that for as many pictures as I take of them, I’d be better at it. For every decent picture I take, there are about 30 terrible ones. But every once in awhile one of the terrible pictures ends up being kinda funny and I use it in my texts the way normal people use emojis.
I sent the following outtake from one of Rose’s photoshoots to my friend this afternoon. I was complaining to her about a secretary who tried to pawn off her work to me because “she didn’t want to think.” If the below picture doesn’t scream eye roll and “ARE YOU KIDDING ME?” then I don’t know what does.
No Susan, I WON’T do your work.
Impatient or excited about something?
ARE WE THERE YET???
Going to an epic party or party too much the night before?
Let’s partaaaaaaaaay!
To be fair, that last one wasn’t really an outtake. I took it to show everyone how naughty mischievous Rose can be. But I think it works.
If you want to see cute (i.e., non-yawning) pictures of Rose and Elliot, check out their Instagram page @elliotandrose.
This website is my 2019 resolution. I told myself that I would get it up and running on January 1st. I even wrote whole post about how I got into photography, but it needs some major edits and to be perfectly honest, I’m not in the mood to edit today. I’m slightly hungover from yesterday’s celebration and I have to do adult things today, like grocery shop and laundry *insert thumbs down emoji here*.
I’ll be damned if I fail on my resolution less than 12 hours in the new year so you’re getting half a post so my resolution can live to see another 12 hours. Please bear with me as I try to create this site. I’m out of my depth here. I struggling with setting up pages, plugins, widgets, whats its, and whatnots. The last two might be made up. Maybe? I’m not really sure.
Anyway, Happy New Year! May your resolutions last until the end of January.
