The Daily Shoot is finally over and I have to be honest, I’m glad. I liked it very much, but I put a lot of thought and effort into each shot everyday for the last two weeks, and it was demanding. Nevertheless it was fun while it lasted and I’m pleased with the 14 shots I produced over the course of the assignment. In case you missed it here are my first seven shots, and here are my contributions from the past week and the stories behind them.

Day 8 (#449)

Use a window or a door as a frame for your subject today in a photograph.

I was busy all of last week but especially on this day. I had to cover the Freedom Rides anniversary exhibit for my Documenting Social Movements class in the morning and I went to Eric Etheridge’s lecture during the evening. I didn’t have a lot of time to dedicate to this shot so I decided to keep it simple and take the picture through my front door. My goal was to emphasize the moment the shot was capturing. I had just gotten home after a very, very long day and my dogs were very happy to see me. I didn’t plan on capturing the “welcome” sign on the front door, but I think it helps to express what was happening in that moment.

Day 9 (#450)

We all prepare for things every day. Illustrate preparedness in a photograph today.

My original plan for this day was to photograph myself warming up my car, because I had forgotten to do it the day before and my windshield was frosted over when I went outside to leave for UMW. I wanted to be prepared this time. When I went outside this day though, I found that it wasn’t actually that cold, and my car didn’t need to be warmed up. I tried to think of another idea while I was at UMW, but didn’t have any luck. I got home and sat in my bed to brainstorm, and my dog Maggie came running in the room and sat next to the bed waiting for me to pick her up and put her in favorite spot. It struck me that Maggie’s preparedness to go to bed was the perfect subject for the photo and I took a photo of her sitting on the floor prepared for me to lift her up.

Day 10 (#451)

Make a photograph that features a leading line through it today. Draw the viewers eye through the image.

For this prompt I took a bunch of pictures of walkways at Mary Washington, but when I got home I decided wanted to go in a different direction. I realized what an interesting line this lamp formed and took a picture of it leading into the shade.

Day 11 (#452)

Change your point of view. Make a photograph from an unusual point of view today.

This one was so open-ended I had no idea what to do with it, so after taking a couple of shots at UMW, I took some more around my house. I got a little carried away and ended up taking 116 photos. I narrowed that down to five that I really liked and it was tough to pick one, but I finally submitted this closeup shot of some ornaments in my living room.

Day 12 (#453)

Sometimes what’s out of focus can make the shot. Create a photograph today where some/all of your subject isn’t in focus.

Again I wasn’t really sure what to do with the assignment so I took a bunch of picture of various subjects I found and went with the one that turned out best, in this case a sort of blurry photo of my keys taken in my kitchen. I wasn’t sure how to play with the focus on my iPhone so this one was especially tricky.

Day 13 (#454)

Tell the story of a subject today in a photograph by photographing one specific detail of it.

I took a few different photos at work for this assignment, but I thought this one was the most appropriate response to it. It’s the recycling symbol on the side of a trash cart. When I took it I had to wonder why that symbol was there, because as far as I know these carts aren’t actually used for recycling. Perhaps because it looks better than “GARBAGE” written across the cart? In that sense it was meant to tell kind of an ironic story.

Day 14 (#455)

Look up today and make a photograph of the sky. Cloudy, clear, or somewhere in between? Tell the story of your sky today.

I wasn’t too impressed with this assignment at first. “Didn’t we have this one already?” I thought. Then I decided it would be a good opportunity to avoid the mistake of waiting until it was too dark to take a similar photo the week before. I still wanted to do something unique, so I decided I would take it at dusk while it was still bright enough to make out the scenery and when the sky looked most interesting. The first thing that caught my eye when I went outside at sunset was that the moon was already very visible in the sky and I planned on using a picture of it, but I was even more intrigued by the dark, smoke-like clouds I saw in another part of the sky, so I used a shot of them instead.

Like I said I enjoyed this assignment a lot, but now I’m definitely ready to move on. That doesn’t mean I won’t revisit The Daily Shoot in the future. I have a new appreciation for photography and creativity in general thanks to The Daily Shoot and I would love to try it again once I have more time to devote to the process.