7:15 – The Summary

 

As many of you know I have been posting a picture every night of whatever I am doing at 7:15PM.  I completely ripped the idea off from a group I heard on NPR one evening in late December (check out the sametime715 link to see how professionals do it).  The reason that the trigger-time was 7:15 is because that is the period after work and before your night schedule sinks in, meaning it’s the best time to get a variety of activities.  If the trigger time was 9:00PM I would have had 31 pictures of me looking at my laptop.  I thought it would be fun to replicate the project for a month for a couple of reasons

·         Learn to use my camera and Photoshop better

·         To actually see what I do every night at 7:15

·         I’m thinking about quitting my job and becoming a full-time artist

Ok, so the last one is a joke (as many of you can tell from the pictures I posted).  I did enjoy the project, but I am glad that it is over.  Here are a random assortment of observations and thoughts spawned from the project.

·         Most of the pictures were taken with my Canon Rebel XSi.  While on travel I used my small Canon Powershot A700.

·         The best way to get to know something is by doing.

·         There is no natural light at 7:15PM in January.  I quickly learned that most of the light in my house is orange.  Orange light mixed with a while colored camera flash ended up with weird lighting.  I learned how to turn the flash off on my camera during pictures (oh, the simple things).

·         I took about 10-20 pictures each night.  About 10% of pictures turned out to be pretty good.  I don’t know if this is average.  Can someone trained in the art answer this?

·         Pictures of inanimate objects are easier to take than pictures of people.

·         I learned a little about Photoshop – how to correct red-eye, how to adjust the white levels, how to make a collage.

·         About half way through the project I wanted to quit.  It started to feel really voyeuristic.  I am someone that loathes reality TV, and here I was producing a picture show about myself.  All that I could think of was “Why would anyone care what my life is like at 7:15?”  Broadcasting my personal life like this was a little awkward.  So, why did you follow this series?

·         I finished because I thought going through the process of deciding what I think is a good picture was worthwhile.

·         My three favorite picture Claire’s God’s eye craft, Dodgeball, and my mouth.  What was your favorite picture?

·         The most awkward photo was the shoes in the stairwell.  A family came entered the stairwell while I was sprawled out on the stairs taking a picture of my shoes.  I exchanged looks with the parents.  Their looks said, “Kids, this is why we should never take the stairwell.” My look said, “Kids, this is why you should never take the stairwell.”

·         At 7:15 I am spending time with my kids, spending time with the Youth at church, spending time with friends, or working.

·         It an interesting way to capture what you were doing for an extended period.  I can tell you about every evening based on the visual cues from the pictures.  The right-brained, holistic method of event capturing was a lot more interesting than a left-brained, linear paragraph about each night at 7:15.

·         It’s hard to take a picture of a bathing cat.

Hopefully I didn’t bore you with my life at 7:15.  I will be getting back to a typical 2-3 posts per week schedule.  I have a few projects at work that I am going to pour myself into over the next month – that involve my camera and Photoshop.