A Little Project – Kitsap Photographer

I wanted to take a quick moment to tell you all about a little personal project I’ve taken on.

This year has been a little rough for me, creatively speaking.  I hit my usual winter rut harder this year than previous years.  Then, right around the time I would normally be climbing out of that creative hole I got pregnant and became like the walking dead for several weeks.  Now, May is coming to a close and, while I’ve managed to stay on top of client deadlines, kept our house running like a well oiled machine, and I haven’t fallen too far behind in the various miscellaneous personal and business to do’s a had set up for myself; my 2016 Lightroom catalogue is still in a sad, sad, state in comparison to years past since I just have not been shooting.  (On the flip side, I’m actually doing kind of okay with staying on top of personal editing so far this year?)

Thankfully, my husband had a stroke of brilliance this Christmas and bought my a little Instax Mini camera, a gift that I had no idea I even wanted.  I shot my first pack of film on Christmas day and got hooked.  The utter lack of controls makes shooting a decent image challenging. It subtracts almost all the other technicalities regarding light and exposure, and forces me to focus on what’s happening in the frame.  It’s been a fun way for me to include my son who it’s not quite trust worthy to hold and handle my “real” cameras yet. So having something that he can hold on his own and shoot a frame here and there has been a fun added element for both of us.  Another treat for both my son and I is the tangible process of getting that little photo strip out of the camera and watching and image develop before our eyes.  For me, it’s reminiscent (albeit in a very small way) of my time hiding in my college darkroom.  For my son, it’s pure magic.

So in December I started the “Polaroid” Project – yes, it’s a bit of a misnomer, whatever.  Every month, over the course of a single day (with the frequent help of my son) I shoot a pack on Instax film.  (Well, I skipped April, but what can I say, I was still in zombie state.)  Below are the first few months.  You can continue to follow up on the project on my alternate website.