Saturday, January 7, 2012

366: Week 1



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January 1: A new year and a new beginning.

In 2009, I took a picture (almost) every day, for the entire year. It was quite a year -- my wife was diagnosed with cancer, we went to Disneyland, and I lost my job.  It was as tedious as it was rewarding. By December 31, of that year I was ready for a break -- and then some friends talked me into doing it again. So...in 2010, I took a picture (almost) every day, for the entire year. Again. By the end of 2010, I was done. I put the camera down for almost six months. I lost myself in the beauty of life, without feeling compelled to document it.

It was liberating.

But, by the end of 2011, I found that I was ready to start looking for moments again. The first moment I wanted to see through my lens was sunrise on New Year's Day.


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January 2: We went to the Clark Planetarium, and everyone got mood rings (go figure). Blue/green indicates that my teenage daughter is relaxed.

Evidently she was asleep.


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January 3: The First Dance.


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January 4: Spending my last day of Christmas Vacation shooting a wedding, necessitated my calling in sick my first day back to work.

I spell relief N-Y-Q-U-I-L


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January 5: And so it begins. This will not be the last picture I take while hanging my camera out the window, on the drive home.

Maybe I should do a series...


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January 6: Self Portrait.

I'm thinking about participating in my friend Corey's year long experiment in weekly self portraits, but since I can't stomach the idea of looking at fifty-two images of my own face, I thought I would take a self portrait of the inner me  :)


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January 7: SMILE!

 I paid a visit to the new Natural History Museum of Utah today.

(Along with 95% of the rest of the state)

There were skinny jeans wearing, scraggly beard growing granola types and uber-moms trying desperately to educate their over stimulated children, there were teenagers plugged in and tuned out to the centuries of wonder they were passing through, and dads rushing the family along so he could get home to "the game" -- whatever game it was.

Then there was this guy, just begging me to take his picture.

9 comments:

Kelly Deneen Raymond said...

I love your week of photos, but bummer about being sick. Nice photo of the meds though.

Your first photo of the week is so inspiring. I don't know that I have ever purposefully gotten up at sunrise to take a photo. It is gorgeous! Of course I do drive to work during every sunrise these days, so I could pretend. :)

BTW, I made pancakes on 1/1, and when I did, I remembered your pancakes you made your first day of the 2009 365. That is totally random. ha!

Anyway, glad to be doing this journey again with you and others I know. I need some motivation. 2011 was not a good year of photography for me. My poor second child...

Kelly Deneen Raymond said...

I mean the pancakes from 2010. I am mixing up years.

And I LOVE the dino photo! I wanted to add that one. The perspective is incredible.

Wendy said...

Great photos, and commentary, of course. I like your observations at the natural history museum.

Tera said...

I enjoy reading about your thoughts almost as much as I enjoy looking at your photos. Thanks for taking on this challenge... again.

Anonymous said...

I love your shots....Kermit is my favorite!

{krista} said...

Are you a muppet of a man or a very manly muppet?

ps... I think my husband would appreciate it if I would get a mood ring. They don't read minds, too, do they?

Corey~living and loving said...

oh my word....your inner self is darling. :) Great week of shots. :)

Michelle said...

Hey Chris, so glad to see that the New Year has found you wanting to do the 365 project again. Funny thing has it that after dropping out in 2010 I too am back at it.

Looking forward to seeing what you have for us in 2012.

That sunrise set is truly breath taking.

Gayle said...

I love the week of photos...wish I had a little more free time for this...it would be fun. Maybe next year....

I am positive I won't be able to stomach 52 photos of myself either, but this is a good challenge for those of us who like to hide behind the camera.