I’ve made it. It’s Day 31. The last day of the first month of the year. I was thinking that the month had really flown by but it hasn’t really. The smallish hangover I work up with on January 1 is but a fond, distant memory.
As too are those lazy, hazy days of beachy summer (the two weeks that we did actually get … sun. Sun where have you been lately and what have you done with my beach?).
The “because we can” long lunches, afternoon naps and early wine times have made way for the crack-the-whip routine of back to work and school.
Ah, January 2012, we kinda had fun. Didn’t we?
I think, yes, we did. And the photos I took for Fatmumslim‘s January Photo A Day (#janphotoaday) challenge prove it.
I’ve floated in pools, lazed on the beach, gone shopping, revealed my handbag contents, not to mention the contents of my fridge … and recorded each moment on each day on Instagram - along with thousands of others around the world.
Amazing stuff.
Anyhoo, here’s what I’ve learned from doing the challenge:
1. I CAN stick to something. Even when one of the days’ themes was Something You Made and the last thing you actually made, as in crafty-sewy, was a drop-waist pastel lemon cotton frock the summer you finished first year uni. So I photographed the tea cup showing the tea I’d “made” instead.
2. I photograph myself. A LOT. My teenagers say this is what’s called a Selfie, which sounds like something young people put in other young people’s drinks at bars but it is not. No, a Selfie is the act of taking a photo of oneself. It’s not as easy as it looks. You may even get a sore arm from holding your camera at just the right angle. And people (especially those aforementioned young teenaged ones) will mock and gaffaw in your general direction when you do. Should this occur either go the Zoolander pout or peace sign with your spare hand. Either action will see them promptly remove themselves from your immediate vicinity. Job done.
3. Other people are REALLY creative. I mean REALLY creative. Say, hypothetically the theme is Reflection. Instead of, say, racking their brain trying to work out how they’re possibly going to get a reflection photo with it pouring with rain outside, they go for the mirror Selfie. REFLECTION. In the mirror. Ah DER! (*Does a Selfie smack around the head*) Why didn’t I think of that?
4. I play favourites with my choice of filters. Earlybird, it just never seems to be your day. You must get so excited as I flick through, past perennial favourites X-proII and Lomo-fi. It’s not you, it’s me. I’m just not that into you. I do love me a bit of Walden, Hefe, Valencia and Nashville though.
5. I AM up for the next challenge. February you may be 29 days this year but I’m ready. What are you going to give me?
Who’s in? I might just start cleaning my wardrobe and bathroom cabinet/s now.
Are you on Instagram? What do you like seeing in other people’s photos?
