something new

i decided to do something new here.  for 365 days, i am going to post a picture every day.  i know i said i was going to that from the beginning, but taking and editing picutes takes TIME and i don't always have that (case in point: i haven't even seen some of my friends in upwards of 3 weeks).  but lately i've been thinking a lot about what photography is for me.  is it the artsy, edited pictures that i sometimes post? is it the fun, not-great-quality pictures that i take and sometimes post? is it the shitty quality isight (or webcam) pictures that i often take of my life, but rarely post? it's all of those things, really.  photography is not about the equipment that you have.  i got my first SLR camera less than a year ago and i am by no means a skilled photographer.  before i had that camera and some decent editing software, i was just as much a 'photographer' as i am now.  so why don't i post more pictures? i'm not sure, aside from the whole time thing.

so i've decided to document my life in pictures.  sometimes they will be high resolution and taken with my SLR, sometimes they will be taken with my point & shoot, and sometimes they will be taken with my built-in webcam.  it'll depend on my mood and the type of day i'm having.  the point is that you don't need an expensive camera to take a nice and meaningful picture.  and i hope that these next 365 pictures will be an example of that.  what's more important is the way that you engage with a photo, the story behind it, your perspective, the way you play with light and colour.  and sometimes it just about conveying your feelings at a particular point in time.  for example:

this is how i feel right now.  i just gave an 80 minute lecture on oppression and power to 100 undergrads at 8am and i haven't slept since yesterday morning (and there is a GIANT zit on my face).  not a glamorous picture, not pretty, not cute, not high quality, but it's my life and the way i feel right now.

SO, here we go.  365 days of photos, all of which (i think) will be taken on the day they are posted (so i can't just use pictures from my library of tens of thousands of pictures i've already taken).  for the 3 people who actually look at this blog: enjoy!