I tried, and failed, to do a 365 last year. For those of you that are unfamiliar, a 365 project involves taking a picture every day for a year. Some photographers do incredible 365 projects (check out Charlotte Green who has a talent not only for taking beautiful photographs of her everyday, but also such discipline to stick to a project that I am in awe of).
Anyway, several times since I gave up I've gotten lost in a rabbit hole of old photos and realised there's a massive gap in my personal pictures. Trying to find photos of my girls for a birthday present led me to looking back on my (attempted) 365 and suddenly I saw the photos that I was super critical of at the time through fresh eyes. Nope, I didn't find the good light on the 23rd Feb 2017, but I did find my daughter sat on a window sill waiting for grandpa and now, now that we're a year on, that's all that matters to me.
Around Christmas I had some time to think and decided - perhaps once a week picking up my camera for personal reasons is doable? Maybe? Possibly? All I know is, I can't have big black holes of nothingness in my personal photographs. Nope. That's why I'm here - that's the reason why I picked up my camera in the first place!
This is a really long-winded way of saying, I'm doing a new project!! Everyday shooting is not for me. It zaps my energy and fries my brain. But every week? I THINK* I could do that.
*Don't lynch me if I can't...
So #adayaweek2019 is born (3 months late, yes, yes, but oh well). One day every week I'll be picking up my camera from morning until evening. It doesn't matter which day, all that matters is that it's a full day and it's once a week.
Explanations over! Here's our day: 1st March 2019. Let's jump in.
Early morning bedhead is my absolute favourite. And one year old hair is particularly prone to it... all day.
This is the Swashbuckle song. If you know, you know.
It really is amazing what happens before 9am. I don't think you quite realise what you cram into a day unless you record it somehow. An impromptu dance session in the kitchen with daddy.
A reading session - Paw Patrol, obviously. (Nope the headband didn't last 2 minutes.)
A call to her bff. And no, I'm not sure when she turned 13 either.
I told the littlest to sit on the step and I can't remember why because the only thing I remember is that she actually did. And she looked so damn cute doing it. We're edging ever-closer to tantrum age (who am I kidding, we're already there) and I'm....not ready for it?!
Naughty steps are so much better with sisters.
Soft play heaven at Dobbies.
Already bought my hat for these two.
I feel like I captured a real moment here between Thea and that fish.
Yes. Yes it was a mistake to take her into the toy section. After 5 minutes she was carrying no less than 7 soft toys in her arms and cried for a full 15 minutes when I said she was having none of them.
Babies sleeping mean mummy working. My husband snapped this one and it's here as a reminder in years to come of how it was.
Grandmas popping by are a highlight of living around the corner from home.
Ended the day with precious friends popping over. Late bedtimes all round.
So that was the first instalment. I didn't know when the day started just how many faces would appear - it wasn't intentional. I chose the day because it was the only full day this week where I'd be with both my kids. And the get together with friends in the evening was somewhat spur of the moment. But actually, it's probably not unusual. I wrote on this instagram post all about how important it is to me and my husband that we foster relationships between our children and friends/family (one and the same). So I guess this is testament - we're really doing it.
For the record, these pictures aren't perfect. There're shot in low light, in less than ideal conditions (HELLO SOFT PLAY FLUORESCENT LIGHT AND PRIMARY COLOURS) but this is not about perfectionism, this is about realism.
I cannot get to the end of this blog post without a shout out to some photographers who capture the every day with such beauty. Take Laura from Baby Picture This, whose words in her latest blog post sang to my heart. She talks about exactly this topic and shot a #weekofmoments (check out the # on instagram) with results that are, as always, brilliant - perfection, in fact, to me.
See also Karah (The Glass Narrator) whose work just blows me away and whose words on her instagram captions as well as her blog posts are just as impactful. And not to mention the lovely Sarah and Suzi (Sarah Mason Photography) whose #storiesoftheeveryday theme leads me to lose a few hours a week perusing all of the incredible photographers doing exactly that - capturing authentic stories in the everyday.
I will shut up now (I struggled with waffling at school...). I promise not all of my #adayaweek2019 posts will be this long!*
(*But, again, don't lynch me if they are)
'Til next week!
Rachel x
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