Day 1 & 3

Last year, I really struggled with my photography. I felt like I lost my creative drive and spark. Honestly, with being a wife and a mom, working full-time, my business, church, running/fitness and trying to keep a semi-clean house, I forgot what drew me to photography in the first place and lost focus of the main reason for taking it up as a hobby: capturing great moments of my family, for my family.

I'm a New Year's resolution kinda gal, so one of my goals for 2013 was to put my photography into practice more or less every day. I've read about these 365 challenges and questioned if I'd have the time to complete one. As you can see, it's Day 3 and I've already missed a day, but I refuse to be legalistic about it and beat myself up for not following the rules. This is a journey, my friends, and like anything I've ever done, it won't be perfect. I do hope in this task I capture those sweet, sincere moments with my family that are all too forgotten by Dec. 31, and learn some new techniques about composition, lighting and focus. We all tend to remember to take birthday photos, first day of school pictures and document the madness that is Christmas morning. But I hope to capture the blissful chaos in between. And those sweet faces that will only age as the year goes by, frozen in time by the sound of my shutter.

Without further ado, I give you Day 1 and Day 3.

Day 1: I wasn't "into" photography when we purchased this home or I may have made a different selection. There are very few places with dreamy light pouring in. For this shot, I pulled the shades up in our master bedroom on a cloudy day and asked Ellie to come closer to the window. Luckily, she was in the mood to comply. Lighting makes all the difference in an image. I'm hoping with this Project 365, I'll learn how to use the lighting in my home to my advantage.

Day 3: Technically speaking, this isn't a great photo, but it captures our family and the tremendous daddy our daughter has. This NYE party hat has become a toy in our home, thanks to Grammy and Papaw. Ellie asked me earlier tonight, "Can I have that sparkly hat so I can make a rabbit, please?" You see, the matching noise maker is a magician's wand and when paired with the hat and the word "Abracadabra", rabbits appear. Our house is magical.

I have to be honest, I'm nervous and excited about this challenge. It's such a commitment, but I know putting in the extra time will be worth the cost in the end. I'm anxious to try new angles, different editing techniques and force myself to push my limits and try something that's new. 

Anyone else have a photography-related goal in 2013? I have others that I'll probably share, hopefully as they are checked off the list! Boo-yah!