LENS BABY MONTH!
I dubbed April the lens baby month and practiced using my lens baby lens all month long. Enjoy!
April 1. Bagheerah’s back at it again. I came home and this had been ripped off of a larger plant I have hanging in the living room. It’s now a baby being nurtured back to health in my bedroom window. I would like to imagine her soaring through the air like a trapeze artist to obtain these leaves, but then I realize… no, she is not an acrobatic, batman-esque cat. I realize she has been climbing up my curtains, getting tangled in my blinds and destroying my house one plant at a time. It’s a good thing she is so adorable!
April 2. On day two I went outside on my porch and into my front yard to find interesting subject matter. Imagine me laying on the ground with a lens on my camera that looks like it came from outer-space. Good results though!
April 3. This photo was taken at 11:00 at night while I was packing for a surprise trip to Florida to visit my grandmother. The most important items I packed in my bag are emphasized.
April 4. This is in my Aunt Nancy’s house. She is an unbelievable interior designer and home decorator. There were so many beautiful things to photograph, but I chose these butterflies.
April 5. My grandmother turned 80 this year and we had a card shower for her. There were cards from all over the country in this pile. Super-cool!
April 6. I’ve always been a tree person, what can I say?!
April 7. Today is my grandmother’s 80th birthday. My whole life, the elephant has been a symbol of her. She has hundreds of them, everywhere. She always had. If I remember correctly how the story goes… When the collection first started she didn’t even really like elephants or try to start a collection of them. She was given an elephant by someone and then someone else bought her one and then someone noticed she had a few and she was given more and then all of a sudden quite a few years later she realized that she had hundreds of these things and quite a collection. I think she was kind of forced into collecting and therefore liking them. (Can any family members reading this verify this story?!)
April 8. No photograph today.
April 9. This crane was made for me by a student on the day one of my friends passed away. I’ve kept it ever since, but never photographed it, so today I decided to. The unique lighting is made by shining a flashlight through cheese grater. 🙂
April 10. My ode to the klondike bar..
April 11. Coolest plants ever hanging out in my backyard. In fact, my backyard just IS these plants – no grass. I wonder if my my landlord will ever come and mow them?
April 12. Chickens!
April 13. No photograph today.
April 14. Today I photographed a baptism reception party and this is quite possibly my favorite candid take away from the day. To see the full story, click here. (This was not taken with a lens baby)
April 15. Here are some photographs from the gorgeous trees across the street from my house.
April 16-19. No photographs on any of these days. This week was ART EXTRAVAGANZA WEEK! I worked some of the longest hours of my life this week setting up for my districts art show. As I told one of my students, “Art Extravaganza threw up on my life this week”. Pretty much meaning that I did nothing but AE setup and preparation a llllllll week. Was it worth it though?? You tell me. Check out the blog post by clicking here.
April 20. This was the chickens first time in their finished coop! They LOVE it out there!
April 21. If you’ve been following my 365 project since January you may recall a few photographs of my father working on building a canoe for me with his brother, my uncle. (They’re so cool!!!) Well, today, I went up to the garage and they were fiberglassing the inside of it (that’s what that fabric is) and this is what they had written on the inside. I could have cried. How cool is this?! (This was not taken with a lens baby)
April 22. Over the weekend I bought this camera for a few bucks at an antique sale. I love it!!!
April 23 & 24. No photographs on these days.
April 25. Today I was out using the Kaleidoscope and capturing some shots for my project. When I was finished I put the lens baby on my camera and took this photo. Every kids favorite flower.
April 26. I was out working on the project again. This photo was not taken with a lens baby. I worked for an hour or so taking many different planned and thought out shots. This was the last one of the day, a random one, one that was taken on a whim with no thought… and it turned out better than all of the others. Isn’t life interesting like that?!
If you haven’t seen my kaleidoscope project yet, click here.
April 27-30. No photographs on these days.
Dear fans, friends and family,
April is lacking in many photographs. Obviously. I’ve come to terms with the fact that the 365 project is not designed for someone like me at this stage in my life. “This Stage”, meaning working 62 hours a week on a week that I don’t have client work to do (Sometimes I work close to 80 hours per week). I have done this project for four months now and have not completed one whole month yet without missing at least one day. I started this project because I wanted to learn and grow as a photographer, develop a passion for photographing more often, take more lifestyle photographs and through setting up monthly projects learn a new craft (i.e. January was Lightroom month, February was cellphonography month and this past month I used my lensbaby every day). In some instances I was successful, In others I was not. In short, I don’t have enough time to complete this project. Recently a student told me the same thing, “Ms. P, I just don’t have time to do this homework” and my response was that they should stay up an hour later, wake up an hour earlier or do it during their lunch period. I realized the project wasn’t for me when I noticed that I had the same excuse, but wouldn’t follow the same advice. My heart just isn’t in it and I often find myself taking photos of bland objects with no effort whatsoever just so that I can say I took a photo on that particular day. Now, that’s not cool – not even a little.
In the future I plan to pick this project back up. In a year unlike 2013, when I have more free time and a bigger passion for the project itself. The 365 project is a WONDERFUL project and I have so much respect for those who can complete it. If you liked the idea of my project, check out 365project.org or the flickr groups made for people’s 365 projects. There are a lot of great photographs being taken in this manner and the photos as well as the photographers deserve to be admired.
Thank you for following along with my 4 month, mini-version of the 365 and thank you for the warm comments and support that you have given me throughout these last few months while I worked on it.
Much love & Many thanks,
Heather
