develop on fridays :: week 1 | central illinois photographer

As many of you know, in 2009 I challenged myself to take a self-portrait every day.  This 365 project ended up being really interesting — it definitely make me feel more comfortable in front of the camera instead of hiding behind it, it became clear that food is one of the only things that changes every single day of my life (hence, lots of food-related images – making meals, baking cookies, canning tomatoes, eating ice cream…) and it was surprising how many people were actually interested in looking at pictures of my daily life (thanks Facebook friends!).  Although I was glad (relieved?) when the clock struck 12 on New Year’s Eve and my 365 project came to an end, I’ve realized that I miss this part of my daily routine!

So, I’ve decided to take up a new project for 2010 to keep my creative juices flowing — no, not another 365 — instead, I’m participating in a weekly creative photography ‘study group’ called “develop on Fridays” and led by the wonderfully creative Jefra Starr Linn. Each week will have an assignment intended to help us “dig into ways we can develop our voices and acclimate ourselves with our cameras.” And so, every Friday I’ll post my response and images from the previous week’s assignment for you to enjoy!  The study group technically got started a few weeks ago, so this week I’m playing catch-up… but soon this will be a regular Friday feature here on the Sweet Pea Photography blog – and I hope you enjoy it! So… without further ado…

develop on fridays :: week 1 :: your creative voice

The assignment was to take at least 75 images of one subject, and decide which one image is the closest to what you see, and how you see.  Also, post the 5 runners up and a little explanation of how the image was chosen.

I chose to photograph my coffee mug I was using this particular morning – one of my favorites because it was a Christmas gift in 2008 and has Eden’s footprint and Averhy’s handprint on it. I’m not sure why this image stuck out to me as my favorite, but it just felt right. I like images where the subject is off-center, and this one also has just a little distortion on the edges, which I also like.  I was surprised a bit because I usually love vibrant, saturated images – and this one looked best with more muted tones. (I almost chose the bright one below, with the little rainbow sunflare, because of its bright colors… but finally settled on this one instead.)  While looking through all 76 images I shot, it was easy to pick out my favorite 12 images, but narrowing down to 6 and then just 1 was much more challenging — it makes me glad that I show more than one image per client session!  So… the runners-up…

I wasn’t surprised that there was some variety in my top 6 images, because I really like shooting in several ways… I like shadows and lots of contrast in my b&w images, I love bright colors, I love details, and the last image (intentionally shot out of focus) is just soft and calming – which is how I like my newborn images to feel.  So. There you have it.  We’ll see what I learn in week 2!