Projects

Some notable days:

1/1 I took this photo of a fake flower in my room and had turned on my big light, thinking that'd be enough light. The resulting photo taught me that this challenge was going to be a lot harder than I expected.

1/20 and 10/10 were so underexposed that even with increasing the exposure in Lightroom, I can't tell what I was trying to take a photo of. These photos taught me to always look at my settings (especially my aperture) before hitting the shutter.

6/23 was so overexposed that it ended up being a pure white photo with the tiniest hint of gold near the center. I thought this photo hadn't loaded onto this website yet before I realized that's just what the photo looks like! This photo once again reminded me to always check my settings before taking the Photo of the Day.

2/15 even though this photo is clearly very overexposed, it's the photo that holds the most emotion for me. The past two days were, in order, the one-year anniversary of the worst day of my life and Valentine's Day. I felt a lot of emotions, as everyone on campus likely did, and this stuffed dog laying in the cold snow surrounded by flowers impacted me far more than I expected. This photo reminded me of the importance of a story in a photo is worth a lot more than the settings you use.

7/3 I had been envisioning this photo since I laid eyes on this sign, so I knew I had to nail the Photo of the Day. I took a few seconds to look at the scene, both the highlights and shadows, to make my final call on what settings I'd use. This photo taught me the importance of patience and awareness when trying to get that photo.

9/14 many of these photos were taken in the evening as I realized "I still need to take my photo for today!" and this photo is no exception. It's a simple scene, just my towel sitting on the windowsill at sunset, the blinds just high enough to let a bit of light through. Yet, this ended up being one of my personal favorite photos from this challenge. The texture of the towel, contrasting colors, and warm sunlight keep drawing me into this photo over and over again. This photo taught me the beauty in even the most mundane aspects of life.

10/27 this photo was also taken in the evening, as seen by the lack of light except from my string lights and my toaster oven. Admittedly, I wasn't very careful with my settings, and this was a day of taking photo just to get it over with and check the box for that day. However, I liked the final result a lot more than I thought I would, and even though most of the shadows are underexposed, I enjoyed the proper exposure of the screen and "start" button far more. This photo taught me to focus on what exactly I want to focus on in a photo and what aspects I can sacrifice.

12/29 this photo was taken while I was on a photo walk with my little cousin as she had just gotten her first ever digital camera! Unfortunately, I forgot to change the white balance settings from the previous night, which is why the photo turned out so blue. This photo taught me to always change my settings back to their default right after using them so that I know what settings to expect the next day.

12/30 and 12/31 while most of my photos of the day were of objects or natural phenomena, a sizeable portion were of my two cats, Nubbs and Ziggy. They were excellent models, and because of Ziggy's dark fur and eyes, I got many opportunities to practice on a dark subject with a bright background. I knew I wanted to end this challenge with a photo of each of them since they've played such a big role in my life for the past decade and an even bigger part in my photography style today. These cats taught me the importance of taking photos of things, creatures, and people you love, and that photos don't always need to be art-gallery-worthy, but make you smile instead.