Thursday, February 16, 2012

Scraping The Bottom Of The Creativity Barrel

So I think it's safe to say that we all know how I feel about photography. I take pictures everyday, mostly with my DSLR and my iPhone (I do have an Olympus Pen but it is currently in the shop as I type this because it's a giant piece of crap the dial for the settings came off and they are fixing it). What you may not know is that I will take said photos and put them in my Picture Of The Day album (or the POTD for those of us in the know, which is probably just me but that's okay). It's a nice way of honing your photography skills while capturing an entire year, day by day, in pictures.

It's a one stone, two birds kind of deal, really.

Anywhoo...the pictures in the POTD range from those of momentous events (birthdays, trips, getting a really great deal on a dress at Anthropologie) to the more mundane (I'm having coffee, I actually got out of bed today, I'm having more coffee). It isn't about perfection, it's more about capturing daily moments, no matter how big or small they are.

And apparently in my life, they are getting pretty small.

Friday at our house is known as cleaning day or the day where Jen has to get the whole house clean or she goes on a bender (I'm down with OCD yah you know me). And since I was running around cleaning, doing laundry and being anal, I decided to capture this on film. I mean, why not? It's a part of my crazy daily life. It deserves to be captured on film.

Fast forward to yesterday morning...with everyone off at school and work (and Cali in a coma on the couch) I decided to catch up on the POTD. While I had kept up on taking a picture a day, I was woefully behind in actually printing them out and putting them in the album (I'd like to tell you life got in the way but that's a dirty lie...I'm just lazy). I got my camera, plugged the card into my card reader and started to upload them to my computer.

Then I went to my album to see where'd I left off. I had several days to make up for, so I went back and discovered I had left off on Friday. I went into Photoshop, brought up my pictures and went looking for the best one I took on that day. Turns out, I only took one photo all day long.


It was of the bucket that holds my cleaning supplies and a few wrappers from rolls of toilet paper.

This is sad on so many levels no human can actually count that high. But what bothers me the most is this shot was the photographic high point of my day.

Yeah. Just let that sink in for a minute or so.

Honestly, I had considered not printing it out and putting it in the POTD because I was embarrassed. What I have I sunk to? Am I really scraping the bottom of the creativity barrel with my photos? According to the above photo, I'd have to say hells yes.

In the end I printed it out and put it in because 1) it's part of my daily life (however sad that may be) and 2) as a reminder to myself that I'm better than this and I need to start thinking outside the box to get more interesting shots.

Or at least outside the toilet paper wrappers. 

2 comments:

  1. I think my favorite part of this picture is that you have a cleaning bucket. How totally completely awesome is that? I want a cleaning bucket. Do you think if I had a cleaning bucket, I would be inspired to actually clean? Could be worth an experiment and a trip to Target to find out.
    My other favorite part of the picture is the toilet paper roll paper...is that from like a single roll? Like they have in hotels? If so, I am totally coming to live with you because between that and the cleaning bucket, I have no doubt I would definitely get a mint on my pillow! ;)
    Ashley
    http://www.thedoseofreality.com/2011/05/26/cleanliness-is-next-to-craziness/

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    1. You know...I really should do an entire post on my cleaning bucket. To answer your question...possibly. I know having everything I need in one place that I can just haul around makes cleaning easier and quicker.

      As for the toilet paper...I buy it in bulk so each roll comes individually wrapped. I keep extra rolls on a spindly type thing so no one is ever "stranded" if you know what I mean.

      I'm so OCD and anal it's not even funny.

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