Photo-a-day Challenge (June)

I am extremely pleased with the amount of time I have been able to allot to developing my photography skills this summer. During late spring, I attended a 2-day seminar at Robert Morris University taught by photographers with resumes miles long, and positions I didn’t even know I had dreamt of. It was eye opening to say the least. The most surprising moments were the direct parallels from film photography (where nearly all of my schooling came from) to current digital photography. I had assumed the “kids” today were far more advanced than me and it would take years to be considered serious about the subject again. The overjoyed, cheesy grin on my face when I realized otherwise might have been the picture perfect moment of my life.

So what does this have to do with an iPhone and a photo-a-day challenge… Creativity. I can assure you, I’m not one of those people who get a cool camera app, change the effect, and instantly think their pictures are equal to that of a professional photographer. For me, the photo-a-day challenge is about forcing you to see the world in a more creative way; it offers a daily challenge that allows me to appreciate the little parts of my day that I would have otherwise overlooked.  

My goals when starting the project were to take each picture on the given day for its task. I did not want to use old photos or even look ahead at the list and take convenient photos for future use. More importantly, I wanted to make my pictures creatively my own for the day; I hoped not to click #empty and see hundreds of other pictures that looked just like mine. Of course I always try to keep composition, lighting, etc. in mind and do the best I can with my cell phone. Some pictures turn out so well that I wish I actually had my camera with me while others are clearly just meant for on the go phone capture. Either way, I love it and have already continued into July. For the day by day shots you can follow my Instagram's at twitter.com/TheInspiredLens. Let me know what you think! I love feedback!