Last weekend Jim and I took our boys to Lyons for a kid-sized hike and a photo scavenger hunt.  I recently gave James my old 3 megapixel point and shoot ca. 2001.  Colin, by default, inherited James’  .00025 megapixel (haha–not really–but that’s definitely what it looks like) plastic point and shoot camera, so the four of us each had our own camera to use.  I cranked out a quick list of things to photograph (something blue, something wet, a footprint, something moving, something green, something shiny,  something heavy, something with fur or feathers, etc. etc.).  It was fun! 

After taking dozens of pictures of his finger, Jim tried explaining to Colin that he can’t put his finger over the lens when he takes pictures (though the concept never did quite stick…better luck next time?). 

“. . . the beauty any of us can find in everyday life if we aren’t too caught up in other things to stop and really look.” -curator Eric Paddock

Everyday life:

Date afternoon with Jim in Denver. After enjoying some delicious cupcakes from Lovely Confections Bakery (I’m blaming my addiction on YOU, Anslee!), we wandered into Mod Livin’, a mid-century modern furniture shop.  I am a bit obsessed with letterforms, and couldn’t resist grabbing a few semi-abstract shots of the sans-serif type stenciled onto one of their walls.

P.S.  My sister just sent me the most wonderful present, a book called How to Be an Explorer of the World, by Keri Smith (love it. highly recommend it to anyone, especially artists or someone who wants to be an artist).  The single sentence on its back cover reminds me of my “stop & look” project:

“At any given moment, no matter where you are, there are hundreds of things around you that are interesting and worth documenting.”

“. . . the beauty any of us can find in everyday life if we aren’t too caught up in other things to stop and really look.” -curator Eric Paddock

Everyday life:

Eating lunch at the car after a morning of snowboarding.  Look down–footprints in the snow-covered parking lot. Look up–beautiful blue sky.

About a month ago, thanks to twitter, I learned of a new exhibit at The Denver Art Museum:  Robert Benjamin: Notes from a Quiet Life.  Though I haven’t yet been to the Museum to see the photographs, its description made me stop and think:

“The exhibition shares a vision of beauty and patience cultivated through a lifetime devotion to photography.  Robert Benjamin, the photographer, captures the subject he found most interesting and accessible—his own life.”

From the curator Eric Paddock: “The extraordinary colors and chromatic relationships in Benjamin’s photographs, and the sheer magical presence of the people and things in his photos, remind me of the beauty any of us can find in everyday life if we aren’t too caught up in other things to stop and really look.”

I’ll be totally honest. Every once in awhile I find myself daydreaming about a trip to somewhere exotic–Thailand, Peru, India–someplace foreign and beautiful where I could bring my camera and come home with hundreds of interesting photographs.  I sometimes forget that interesting photographs can be made anywhere–even Longmont, Colorado, even when the subject matter is not glitzy, foreign, fashionable nor amazingly original. 

I challenged myself to start paying more attention to the simple details around me and to try and create more photographs from my life.  My tool of choice? The camera on my iPhone, as I was sure it would be readily accessible at any unexpected moment. 

Everyday life:

Christmas break was a long one, and towards the end of it James seemed to be getting bored. Solution: I took James and Colin to the dollar store (!) to pick out a word search book.  These two iPhone photos were taken on our way back to the car, new word search book in hand.

Every once in awhile it’s nice to switch things up and try something new, just for fun.  That’s why I bought the Holga this summer.  It’s a $35 plastic camera that takes medium format film.  The images it produces are often vignetted and soft with light-leaks and plenty of imperfections (hello plastic lens!).     Though it took me an embarrassingly long time to bring my first roll of Holga film to the lab in Boulder (hence the  summertime images of fishing, and t-shirts) I finally did last week.  There were definitely lots of light leaks.  And a few times when I forgot to wind the film and ended up with two exposures in one image.  Some were just plain bad. :)  I’m fairly certain I will always be a digital girl, but my Holga has certainly been a lesson in slowing down and trying to make each shot count.   I’m excited to load up another roll of film and try to make roll #2 better than #1.