Often times I talk to people about photography as the art of capturing the story.  One of the challenges I think many people face is they only grab the camera on special occasions and miss all the little details that make your everyday life.  These everyday moments, which may seem insignificant, are like little pieces to your life puzzle, or the substance to your story.

In looking at your photos do you have all the traditional shots?   (First day of school, birthdays, Halloween, Christmas , and a few special moments in between-such as vacations or a trip to the beach).  While I certainly find all of those moments special, I challenge you to find a way to capture something that you appreciate each day, or your child playing with their favorite toy.

Several years ago I became much more aware of my daily life thanks to some scrapbooking inspiration and several bloggers who do the photo a day challenge (That’s 365 photos per year).  While inspiring it was WAY too much for me to take on.  Instead I tried to find one “uneventful” but meaningful thing per month to capture.  Here are some examples from our 2011 story.

Daddy’s Hands

I’m sure some of you have the song “daddy’s hands” running through your mind as you see this picture.  This picture was captured one morning when my husband was holding our son- still in his pj’s.  To me this picture has become a huge part of our life story.  First and foremost, I admire hands.  I think it’s amazing the works that can be done, and I am fortunate to witness my husbands hands work great things every single day.  During our wedding we had a blessing of the hands, and the words still ring true in my mind today.  “These are the hands that will comfort you…these are the hands that will hold your children….These are the hands that, even when old and wrinkled, will still reach for yours…” (You can find the complete blessing here).  My husbands hands transform from hands that do work by creating masterpieces with tools and lumber by day, to hands by night that melt the toughness away as he puts our son to bed each night.  His hands take my visions and make it reality.  I truly feel blessed to have his hands to hold in good times and bad.  This picture captures that entire story- while you may not have realized all that, it’s an essential  piece to our family puzzle.

Never-ending

Most people have them, a to-do list.  Turns out having surgery is a good motivator for crossing a few things off the list.  I was so proud of the number of big projects that we accomplished around the house in the weeks leading up to my surgery last May.  I also find this a bit humerus too because looking over this list, a few of the things that were not crossed off, still are not crossed off (This picture was taken May of 2011, it’s almost February 2012).  Are you catching onto how this adds another piece to our life story?  The to-do list that never ends…

Confined

For almost a month, this was my view of the outside world.  I had a very intense shoulder surgery in May of 2011.  I slept in the recliner every night for almost 2 months, and this was my view.  It was so difficult to find a comfortable position, that the recliner was my default location.  And being that I had surgery on my right shoulder, I quickly learned how right-hand dominant our society is- even the lever to recline was on the right hand side of the chair, which required me to ask for help to get out when in the recline position.  For the first time in my life I felt STUCK.  I have never had to rely on so many people to simply get through the day!

Envy

Our dog was our “first-born” or at least treated like it. The relationship between our dog and son relies heavily on whether or not my son has food.  Some of this is derived from a dog’s natural instinct to desire treats, and some of it is derived by my son’s kind soul who is usually willing to share his treats with his “big brother.”  It’s almost a pact of sorts.  This picture adds a new element to our life story about the relationship between dog and child.  Not that a picture has to be perfect to tell the story, but in this picture the angle that capture the dog overlooking my son and his treats really helps tell the story of a very envious dog!

As part of Project 2012 and My year of Intentional Living, I hope to inspire you to look for new ways to capture your own story.  Each month I hope to share a piece of daily life with all of you   With that said, it’s nearly the end of January…What is something that you could capture this month that could add a little to your life story?  Do share, I love hearing all of your ideas!