Welcome to our P52! This project is designed to get you out with your camera once a week in a meaningful way. Each week I will post a prompt for you to consider. The prompts are merely suggestions, and you are free to shoot off topic if you wish. All images posted must be taken by you, be safe for work, and be taken with this project in mind. Please do not post archive photos. For a further discussion of the guidelines, please refer to this thread, and you can find the previous weeks linked there if you missed them. Feel free to join in at any time of the year, and you may go back to missed weeks if you still wish to participate.
Week 16: Details
This week we are going to spend a bit of time thinking about little details that would be forgotten if we didn’t record them with a photograph. Much of our lives are made up of mundane details, things we overlook because they are just so ordinary. But over time, these little things become such a part of the fabric of ourselves and our family that we don’t even consider them anymore. This week I want you to consider all the details that make up your daily life.
My daughter and I went out to pick up lunch yesterday, and we stopped into Trader Joe’s along the way. When my kids were very small we would shop there once or twice a month, but since moving to the town we are in now, TJ’s is not super convenient so I go maybe once or twice a year, and without my kids (because I go during the week when they are in school). My daughter was looking for something specific, and while she was browsing, I happened upon a container of letter and number cookies. I showed them to her, and said, “Hey, do you remember when I used to buy these for you when you were little?” and her eyes brightened and her thoughts exploded, and she exclaimed, “I’d forgotten about these and you’ve just unlocked a core memory for me!” The cookies themselves are good, but nothing special. But they were a detail from her childhood that she’d completely forgotten. It is this type of detail that I want you to record. Something so ordinary it could never be missed, and yet, when reminded of it years later brings back a flood of memories. Of course, you don’t have to find something quite that extreme, but small things around the house or neighborhood that might change over time are also great subjects.
Let’s also be clear that this is not a macro challenge, although of course you can certainly use macro images if you want, to highlight the details of something specific. More likely these will be either storytelling types of images, where you might be highlighting something targeted from a larger concept, or you can use a shallow depth of field to bring attention to a detail within an image.
Here are some ideas to get you going. First are just some views around the house. I smiled to myself when I found the keys photo in my catalog because while I still have that base keychain, I’ve added a few things to it in the intervening years.
Next are some details you might see when traveling or out shopping. Even something as ordinary as a pattern of light on the floor can be considered a detail image.
Of course, as stated above, you are certainly welcome to use a macro or close up angle for this.
Also, don’t overlook small details of your kids if you have them at home. The first image here was of my daughter waiting for her brother at the barber shop. I was so taken with her little legs still not touching the ground, and it was just such a small moment in time. I also planned the image of my son in the bottom right; he began playing lacrosse when he was seven, and now, at age 15, he is the only freshman starter on the varsity team. But here, at age nine, he was still between little boy and big kid, and I wanted to highlight the disparity of being in between stages.
Ordinary moments like baking or cleaning are great candidates too. The first image is of the first time my daughter made cookies with my own mother and as you can see, my daughter is still baking years later.
And of course, parties or preparing for an event (like making a Halloween costume) can also be documented as detail photos.
Looking forward to what you come up with this week!
Week 16: Details
This week we are going to spend a bit of time thinking about little details that would be forgotten if we didn’t record them with a photograph. Much of our lives are made up of mundane details, things we overlook because they are just so ordinary. But over time, these little things become such a part of the fabric of ourselves and our family that we don’t even consider them anymore. This week I want you to consider all the details that make up your daily life.
My daughter and I went out to pick up lunch yesterday, and we stopped into Trader Joe’s along the way. When my kids were very small we would shop there once or twice a month, but since moving to the town we are in now, TJ’s is not super convenient so I go maybe once or twice a year, and without my kids (because I go during the week when they are in school). My daughter was looking for something specific, and while she was browsing, I happened upon a container of letter and number cookies. I showed them to her, and said, “Hey, do you remember when I used to buy these for you when you were little?” and her eyes brightened and her thoughts exploded, and she exclaimed, “I’d forgotten about these and you’ve just unlocked a core memory for me!” The cookies themselves are good, but nothing special. But they were a detail from her childhood that she’d completely forgotten. It is this type of detail that I want you to record. Something so ordinary it could never be missed, and yet, when reminded of it years later brings back a flood of memories. Of course, you don’t have to find something quite that extreme, but small things around the house or neighborhood that might change over time are also great subjects.
Let’s also be clear that this is not a macro challenge, although of course you can certainly use macro images if you want, to highlight the details of something specific. More likely these will be either storytelling types of images, where you might be highlighting something targeted from a larger concept, or you can use a shallow depth of field to bring attention to a detail within an image.
Here are some ideas to get you going. First are just some views around the house. I smiled to myself when I found the keys photo in my catalog because while I still have that base keychain, I’ve added a few things to it in the intervening years.
Next are some details you might see when traveling or out shopping. Even something as ordinary as a pattern of light on the floor can be considered a detail image.
Of course, as stated above, you are certainly welcome to use a macro or close up angle for this.
Also, don’t overlook small details of your kids if you have them at home. The first image here was of my daughter waiting for her brother at the barber shop. I was so taken with her little legs still not touching the ground, and it was just such a small moment in time. I also planned the image of my son in the bottom right; he began playing lacrosse when he was seven, and now, at age 15, he is the only freshman starter on the varsity team. But here, at age nine, he was still between little boy and big kid, and I wanted to highlight the disparity of being in between stages.
Ordinary moments like baking or cleaning are great candidates too. The first image is of the first time my daughter made cookies with my own mother and as you can see, my daughter is still baking years later.
And of course, parties or preparing for an event (like making a Halloween costume) can also be documented as detail photos.
Looking forward to what you come up with this week!
