winter lists and photo assignments

November 11, 2008 candacemorris 6 Comments

1. Learn to make apple butter, freezer jam, and an entire (or one dish?) thanksgiving meal.
2. Practice, perfect, and learn to follow a pattern in crocheting.
3. Hand write one piece of correspondence per month. (I am going to make a calendar of when and to whom).
4. Take myself on biweekly dates. I like to go for afternoon wine and journaling, meandering in bookstores, walking around my neighborhood, take myself to movies, etc.
5. NOT give up on watercolor.
6. Read a Russian - check.
7. Photos. Take them.

I have been ruminating on No. 7 quite some time these past weeks. I think I have something to say to myself through the eye of a lens. I am overwrought when I see a photo that moves me, and since my hands are ridiculously untrained at recreating [via paint, lead, and ink] the abstractions I see in my head, perhaps instead I can find a voice behind a camera. Cameras do not hide me from moments or steal my experiential joy - they give me safe place from which to really engage...

I was inspired by two photo projects recently. The first was Umberdove's 30 Days of Self . I loved having a daily photo assignment and loved what came of it. Another photo project I came across was introduced to me today via Victoria at SF Girl by the Bay. She sent her readers to a Flickr member, Ky. She has a set in her profile entitled 180 days, and it's a daily shot of herself as a teacher. I ate up this entire set and left feeling inspired to do another photo project.

Since I have discovered that I come alive at night, I think I will do a month - starting in December, of night-owl shots...what I do at night, who I am at night, what I become at night...I hope it will be fun! December nights provide a fantastic backdrop to such a project, so I am excited to embark.

Would you like to join me?

It would be an assignment to take a picture of you during your evenings...sights, sounds, smells, lighting, surroundings of that time. In an effort to capture yourself every evening, I name it "A shot in the dark: December Evenings." I will probably start a flickr photo group, so please do let me know if you are interested, but since it's only mid november, you have some time to ruminate.

I am standing at your screen door with stringy summer hair.
"Can you come out and play?"

~lady whit