Wednesday, January 18, 2012

back to the beginning

Raise your hand if you're surprised that I'm doing another Project 365. No one? Yeah, thought so. I was actually kind of on the fence about it before New Year's, but then I figured I should at least start while it was still the first day of the year. I could always quit later if I thought better of it. When I did think more about it later, I realized something: at the end of the year, I'm more likely to regret not doing a 365 than I am to regret doing one. Might as well just go for it. Again.

The first day of the year was pretty easy anyway. Steve and I joined Dan, Carmen, and Elsa for brunch at Beretta, like we did last year. (But this time, we had Elsa and not Rob & Traci.) Last year's first photo was the coffee at Beretta; this time I went with the food. In fact, I went with my favorite of the food. We tried the mushroom risotto with truffle cream on top, and it was amazing. It's important to start the year right, you know.

1/366 ...maybe


Speaking of starting, I was a little surprised that it felt like a new beginning at all, since I never actually stopped taking daily pictures. I was getting pretty uninspired by the end of 2011, but the inspiration somehow came back with the beginning of 2012. It may have also helped that I saw a list of daily themes for January floating around on Instagram. I was too late to start with the 1st, but I decided I might as well use the list for days when I don't have other ideas.

Day 2's theme was Breakfast, but I had already decided to use my new calendar for my picture that day. Good thing it's a calendar of breakfasts! I took a few pictures of it that morning in rather flat light, and then I decided to try again before lunch. Usually, I won't use the dining room table in a spot where there's uneven sunlight, but this time the sunlight was a bit different—more diffused, not as strong. In fact, it was perfect winter light.

2/366 breakfast


Tuesday's theme was Something You Adore. I might have used Elsa as my subject, but I didn't see her that day. Instead, I took a walk up to Bernal Heights Park, bringing along the owl ornament that we bought at Anthropologie. It had been a while since I had gone up there, and I knew that I could take a picture of SF from the hill if the owl didn't work out. (Because I'm partial to this city too.) Well, I took my city pictures first, and then I took some shots of the owl ornament on the way back down. I spotted a little stump in the wooded area next to the stairs, which was the perfect perch. This is probably how I would have shot the picture of the owl in December if I hadn't come up with the animal print idea.

3/366 little owl redux


Next was "Letterbox" for Wednesday. My first thought was to add black on the top and bottom of the shot for the day. Other people on Instagram apparently thought that was what that meant too. However, I'm not doing this project on Instagram, and I don't like to manipulate my pictures of the day into different formats. So I decided that it could mean mailbox instead. Not long after, I saw that the creator of the list, an Australian, meant mailbox after all. (So much for being witty...) Anyway, I set out on another walk, to find the fancy mailbox in Noe Valley that I remembered seeing a few times before. I came back with a couple pictures of mailboxes, but the fancy one became my picture of the day.

4/366 letterbox


On to Thursday: Something You Wore. My plan was to take a picture of the moon earrings I got for Christmas, but I also got a haircut that day. When I realized it would be easier to make a wider shot work than a close-up of the earrings, I just went for a good ol' self portrait in the dining room. It had been almost two years since I had taken one, so I guess it was time. (This was the closest I got last year.)

5/366 something i wore


My Elsa photo op finally came on Friday, just in time for the "Makes You Smile" prompt. I was babysitting her while Carmen went to get a haircut. When I got Elsa up from her nap, I discovered that she was wearing one of the outfits we got for her in Florence. Added bonus! (It did indeed make me smile.) We did a quick photo shoot on the loveseat while she was still extra cheerful from getting up. And then she spit up down the front of her clothes. Luckily, I had just moved the bunny and had gotten enough pictures to work with.

6/366 makes me smile


For Saturday's picture, the theme was Favourite, and I happened to have one of my favorite photo subjects on hand: macarons! Carmen had brought some home for me from La Boulange the day before, which worked out perfectly. They may be a food photography cliche, but they're one of my favorite food photography cliches.

This time, I used the same set-up from the first owl ornament picture: linen napkin on the dining table, white foam board as backdrop, and a smaller white board on the right side to bounce the window light coming in from the left. For composition, the cover shot from this book came to mind, although I hadn't looked at that in quite a while. The macarons could have been more uniform in size, but I really like the shot anyway.

7/366 favourite


That wraps up week 1 of 2012, as well as my 100th post to this blog! I love a good milestone.

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