As I was thinking about what I wanted to share here today, I thought about a favorite exercise that I sometimes share with my students…to take one photo each hour, for a 12-hour period. The idea behind the exercise (in the context of that particular class) is to pay attention to the rhythms of one’s day. To slow down a bit. To pay attention. To celebrate the rhythms of a day visually.

I decided to play with this exercise. It was naturally about the rhythms of a particular day, but I shifted the focus slightly.

First, I planned for the shots to be black and white – a good challenge, since I don’t shoot much black and white. My Fuji XT1 (which I love) has a setting for simulated black and white film, so I shot in that setting. No post processing…hooray.

I also decided that I would get everything correct in-camera. No cropping later, no adjustments. SOOC.

Lastly, I simply challenged myself to shoot something each hour that caught my eye; my intent was not to capture necessarily what I was doing each hour. I allowed myself – on the hour – to wander a bit and find the picture. Or let the picture find me.

As the day progressed, the pictures and I did indeed find each other. I enjoyed making the images so much that I decided to shoot beyond the 12-hour mark. I ended with a collection of images from my first hour till my last hour of that day.

I like some better than others. But mostly, I’m thrilled with the collection. They speak to an ordinary day peppered with light and shadow, shape and form, texture and pattern.  They speak to an ordinary day peppered with magic.

I can’t really put into words how good it was to make these particular shots. Hopefully the images speak for themselves.

xMichelle