A little background... I'm trying to approach this photo project as care free as possible. This is supposed to be a fun and approachable challenge to get me to just go out and shoot something every day. If all I do is just take 3 photos of my feet, then its a success. The fact that I am out shooting will hopefully make me a better photographer in the long run. However, I can't help but feel myself applying pressure to create something bigger as I am looking for my next shot. I really felt that pressure today, and started to regret the fact that I was doing this project at all. Not a good thing to feel on the second day. Ha!
So yeah, It's sometimes hard to remember to just let go and have fun. I think that's really the challenge of any creative endeavor you may try. You need the pressure and structure to perform and improve, but too much pressure isn't good. It can distract you from being open to experimenting and just having fun. Something to keep in mind tomorrow!
For today, I ended up going with photos that show light in dark places. It's kind of fun to uncover These themes each day. It all starts when I take a picture of something that catches my eye. Today, it was this light in a stairwell where I work. It was shinning down on the floor number and I really liked the grittiness of it. I took the shot went from there.
The theme wasn't clear to me right away, but i just started looking for situations where light was shining on things in interesting ways. However, this was harder than I thought, and I started to get discouraged because nothing felt interesting enough to photograph. I was looking for the perfect moment or place, and every shot I took didn't measure up. Even though I had taken a bunch of interesting shots in this stairwell, I kept searching for something that was better. But nothing was really speaking to me. It was kinda bumming me out and after a while I just decided to stop looking for for the perfect shot. It's been said before, but sometimes when you stop looking for things, they find you.
I ride my bike to work on nice days and store my bike in the basement of my house. As descended the stairs into the basement to store my bike, I looked back and saw my shot! Sunlight was shining in though the basement door onto the stairs. That was it! Day 2 was complete. Tomorrow, I'm going to work on just letting the shots come to me. We'll see how that works out. :)