February was a month full of illness in my house, and it was mostly me that was sick. I still managed to stick with shooting at least one image every day, which gives me some confidence that I can keep this going when I think about how busy the fall season gets!
This month I wanted to write a little bit about the nuts and bolts of how I manage this project. It might sound, from the description of a 365 project, that I carry my camera around all day, take it everywhere we go and document everything we do, resulting in me not being present for and enjoying time with my family. This is so SO far from the truth. Yes, there are days when I'll feel stuck or bored with my house, so I'll tote my camera along to the library or running errands to Target so that I can shoot something different for the day. And I do bring my camera if we're heading out for a fun activity, because those are memories I definitely want to capture, and I'd bring it along whether I was doing this project or not. Even on days like this, I find that I can balance enjoying the activity with documenting it. Most people use their cell phone cameras to capture daily life, right? I'm just using a bigger camera. Otherwise, I'd say 90% of the time, I have my camera out for 15 minutes or less every day. I'll notice the kids doing something cute or fun, document it and put the camera away. Or I'll have an idea for a shot or a story that I want to tell with pictures and see if the kids are interested. Their interest in being photographed doesn't last very long, so I don't shoot for very long. Sometimes I see amazing light and ask if one of the kids will move their activity into the light, and I'll shoot whatever they're doing there. Then there are days where I literally take ONE photo, just to get my shot in for the day (hello stomach flu, regular flu and the various colds that hit this month. Winter can end any time now...).
After dinner, while my kids get TV time, I'll sit down and upload my images from the day to my computer, cull, and edit. One of the perks of this project that I've seen already is that I've gotten really fast at culling and deciding how I want to edit an image. There are days where I'll have several shots that I want to edit, and from those I'll pick one for that day to go in my 365 folder. The rest go into a different folder of images for this year. If I can't edit on a particular night for whatever reason, I'll do 2 days' worth the next night. That's it! Any questions?
And now, what you all came here for, the pictures! Here was our month of February, 2019: