Sometime last October, I gave myself the task of photographing the sunset every night for a week.
I was in a funk. The transition from working nonstop on MilkMade for the past ten years to becoming a stay at home mom during the pandemic was difficult for me. I found myself feeling unproductive and itching to work – work on my ice cream book, start a new project, or at least do something useful, or creative, or that continues my lifelong goal of self improvement.
So I turned to photography, something I had long enjoyed but simply dabbled in, mostly in the context of ice cream for the past 10 years. I started taking my camera out with me every day. I found photography was still something I could do for myself while chasing my 2 year old son around. I’ve shot the sunset every night since.
For 2021, I decided that instead of just sunsets all the time, I’d give myself a new photo project each month. Something to shoot every day. It’s a small creative outlet that’s easy to do while on adventures with my son. It will also provide some structure to our days, something I’ve been lacking during the pandemic. And further, it will push me to improve in various genres of photography.
I wrote out a list of twelve projects:
- The Surfliner train. We live right along a train track and see the Surfliner train every day. It’s Crosby’s favorite thing. “What do you want to do today, Crosby?” “Choo Choo.” I can try different styles of capturing a fast moving object.
- The pier. Photos of, on, under the pier.
- Me surfing every day. I feel regret every day that I don’t surf. I’d like to see how I feel if I surf every day for a month. Now I have a waterproof film camera and a GoPro to capture being out on the water.
- Flowers of San Clemente. When we moved here last May what I noticed most were the tropical flowers we saw on every walk. I want to photograph them this year, practicing my macro photography and also learning the names of them all.
- Ole Hanson houses. There are around 200 remaining historic Spanish style houses in San Clemente that are nearly 100 years old (including the one we live in that my parents own). Nowhere are they all chronicled in a digestible manner so maybe I’ll do that.
- The moon every night. Crosby loves the moon so I want to learn more about its phases so I can teach him.
- Surfers every day. I want to invest in a longer lens and capture all my neighbors, my brother, and even myself in the water.
- The street art around San Clemente. There are so many very cool beach-themed murals all over town. I want to see them all.
- Different beaches in SoCal. Time to explore the rest of the coast.
- Sunrises
- People of San Clemente. I am always afraid to photograph strangers so this will push me to get out of my comfort zone.
- The tide / waves. I plan my day around the tides, but want to learn more about them.