Beyond the 4" x 6"

190:365 Before the show




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192:365 After the show

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Those tulips I bought last week gave themselves up to the light this week.







193:365 Not fade away

...

We went to Winterfest on the weekend. This was the best photo from the day:



...but this was the best moment:



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195:365 I was due for a self-portrait.




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Over the past few weeks I have taken several pictures of other people's kids--pictures that were happenstance but compelling, children who are a part of mine and my daughter's lives. I've posted only one of those photos here--that ethereal shot of the girls playing dress-up from last week's grouping--not because I think the parents will mind my doing so, but, rather, because I feel too shy and embarrassed to ask them for permission in the first place.

"Hi. Thanks for letting your daughter come to our house. M adores her. By the way, I'm doing this project online wherein I take pictures everyday and post them to the Internet. I think I got some great shots of the kids together. Would you mind?..."

Nope. I can't bring myself to say it out loud. It always sounds so geeky and amateur. And yet, and yet, I look back over the pictures I've posted in the last six months and it appears as if I live in a capital N, capital F Nuclear Family that is surrounded by nature and consumer objects. What a false reality I am creating. My little family is part of a vibrant community of people, but I'm too damn shy to promote the photography project with them in order to ask for permission.

"I have this blog, see..."

Watch the colour rise to my cheeks. I've always known that the photographer is the main subject in any photograph; I guess I just didn't realize that this awkwardness of mine is in part what the truism means.

So far, I'm ok with actually photographing kids that I know (even if I don't post the shots), but, when it comes to adult friends, I don't seem able to hit the shutter button in the first place. Our mutual self-consciousness is crippling.

It's not as if I took on this project as an exercise in documentary photography--hell, I could spend all year just trying to figure out what documentary photography is. It's just that now that I'm half-way through Project 365, I realize how much my own limitations as a person, not just as a photographer, are shaping the year I present here.

What about you? Is your year in photos a reflection of how you live your life? What narrative are you creating in spite of yourself?

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BTW, I stuck to last week's prompt all week long. Every photo was taken entirely with manual settings--even the picture of the hands thus making it doubly manual. So, this week's prompt. What to do, what to do... how about black and white and red all over.

Let there be light

183:365 Measuring up on her birthday




184:365 Found object




185:365 The director backstage




186:365 That place where 5 and 6 year-olds live


It was brutally cold at the beginning of last week, so cold that my daughter's bed felt decidedly frosty in the mornings, nestled as it was near her window. "This must change," I declared and we moved the bed to the far side of the room as far away from the window as possible--allowing for the first time her blackout drapes to be opened and closed with ease. Let there be light. And there was. My first over-exposed, backlit picture was the last one from last week's grouping.



Here, I was still working in aperture priority on my Canon, but seeing what the light could do in the dead of winter was like a speed-thaw to my brain. On the weekend I started to play with the possibilities. I've taken and posted a couple of fully manual shots during the course of 365, but largely I rely on the semi-manual settings (aperture and shutter speed priority), tweaking exposure and film speed here and there. Sure there's be deliberation to what I've done so far but I've relied upon the camera to fill in the blanks for me. "Pshaw," I now say. Here are 3 shots from my weekend manual shoot.







187:365 I may change which one is my pick of the day once I can see the shots on my full-size monitor at work. As an aside, can I just say that it's a bitch doing this project when all I've got to look at at home is a netbook screen? I never see my shots at a decent size until after they've been selected and uploaded.

Once I started playing with back-light, I became hooked.



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This week's prompt: manual dexterity. I hope it will prompt me to take deliberate, fully manual shots all week long.

Quirk

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178:365 Weather bomb




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180:365 "I had a brthday prde. We wint bowling."

I chose the above shot even though this one better embodies the spirit of this week's prompt:






181:365 I broke one of my Mom's wine glasses and felt devastated.




182:365 The last day she was 5.

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With tomorrow's shot, we're half way there. This week's prompt: stuck in the middle

What do Blondie and my pictures have in common?

I set "pest" as last week's prompt, but, instead, everywhere I looked this week I saw parallel lines.



169:365 The white-knuckle drive home from the grocery store.




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171:365 Globe and male




172:365 Varsity hockey from the cheap seats, although Len much prefers this shot of the t-shirt canon:






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174:365 This tree is in the park across the street and I can shoot it while standing on my front door step. Last week, it framed a striped pink sunset in order to make it as picture of the day. Other days, it's come very close to winning. When I saw this, however, there was no doubt in my mind that it would trump every other shot that day.




175: 365 OK, so it's cheap to take a picture of your TV, but, c'mon, how could I resist? It's no wonder my daughter is an imaginative child. BTW, 10 points if you can guess which pests are the stars of this retro show?

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This week's prompt: quirk, and it's going to be good because Misty is a-comin' to town and we're going to shoot a bit of quirk together.

Wherein the zoom lens and the birdfeeder start paying rent

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163:365 Epiphany




164:365 Etude for furnace vent, balloon and two cameras




165:365 In the shadow of Lord Beaverbrook




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167:365 OK, can anyone tell me who this fellow is? We have a # of them outside the back door. Huzzah for the new birdfeeder.




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Let's see, where are we at? I find that by the time I've uploaded 7 photos, I don't have much to say. So how be I just give us all a new prompt? Oh I don't know. There's a mouse scuttling about my kitchen as I type right now, so let's try pest.

Resolutions or waffling?

155:365 This fellow's only resolution was to make it to the New Year. I think he failed.




156:365 Remember that shaped bokeh trick I told you about last week? Here is my better effort with it.




157:365 This is my New Year's Eve shot, although I was tempted by this funnier one:



or this one of the girl actually making it 'til midnight:






158:365 At the Lieutenant-Governor's New Year's Levy, Ganong Chicken Bones are hard to resist.




159:365 I wish I'd had time to adjust the light but I still like the way the lines on the sandbox roof spiral out from this guy's head.




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161:365 Len at his noon-hour pick-up game.

And while I'm here, I think I'm going to change #153, the doll skating shot in the last post for this one:



There's also an October shot that I'm going to change at some point. Clearly my resolution prompt has lead to nothing but waffling.

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So, another week done and a brand new year to work with. For those of you who like to look at pretty pictures, my friend Dani has just started her second round of Project 365. Can you believe someone would do this twice? It was Dani's original go-round that inspired me to do this, so I'm happy I can now look at her great shots on a daily basis--or every couple of weeks when I can clear time to get to them.

As for a prompt, how about routine?