The photo blog dispatch

Paris (Nov. 18, 2009) -- I recently passed the 200-post mark on this photo blog I've been doing.
The blog is based on the not entirely original idea that I take at least one photo each day and then post it at www.bcooramblings.blogspot.com. I started on June 17th with a photo of a statue of the philosopher Voltaire in a garden.
Like many things in life, it's been a journey that started with an impulse and has since taken on a life of its own.
The idea was to improve my photography skills. I'm not sure if I'm getting better or not. But it's fun to look back at some glimmers of progress.
But what I can say for sure that this project has changed the way that I look at the world. Not in some finding-Jesus-sort-of-way. It's simply made me see the world as one big photo opportunity. It helps that I always have a camera with me.
I started out with the strange idea that I would take just one picture each day. Just one click of the shutter. But when you're carrying a camera, this is nearly impossible to do. Then, I altered this rule, to my posting only one picture a day. This was also not a very realistic rule to set. I've broken that rule as well.
So I've been wandering around Paris scanning my surroundings, constantly searching for an interesting picture.
That first "postable" picture I get on the memory stick is always a huge relief. The inverse of this is, of course, the pressure I feel when the clock nears midnight and I haven't taken anything at all -- or nothing I'd feel is worth posting. At that point, the bar is rather low and so anything that is even close to being interesting will do. I haven't had too many of these nights, thankfully.
The other tough part, I've found so far, are Sunday nights. After a long weekend, then heading into work and then, after work, feeling like doing nothing else but going home and getting ready for the Monday ahead, my desire to roam the streets looking for something interesting to take a photo is weak to say the least.
So these Sunday night photos are usually rather lame; a search light seen from my balcony or a photo of my living room table or just a street on the way home.
On final thing is how this project isn't too difficult to do in Paris. My buddy Joey correctly pointed out that a photographer in Paris could trip on a curb, fall on his face, hit the shutter button on the way down and the photo would probably be cool -- or at least pass for being artistic.
I thought that might have been a bit much until I went to North England for a week in September. Yeah, I ended up posting photos of the inside of a bar that played horse racing all day and a set of red and blue doors.
So that's what I've learned so far from this little project. I'll be heading to Kentucky this weekend and I am looking forward to seeing how my home state looks through the view finder.
Hope this finds all of you well. Have a good Thanksgiving.
Take care,
Brett