52 Weeks Photography Project

December 2023

I had grand plans of creating new images for this month’s challenge words, or at least a few. Suffice it to say that my Lightroom catalog shows a big fat ZERO for images created this month.

So, I went back through the archives; mostly, the images were created in the last several months.

49. Under the Weather. Interpret that as you will.

In September my husband and I went on a road trip. Yep, we took the historic Route 66 road for the most part from Elgin, IL to the Grand Canyon. One of these days I’ll get around to editing those images and telling those stories.

The first day we were at the Grand Canyon it was beautiful. Toward the evening it started clouding over and as we sat down with our evening cocktails, it started raining. We sat for a bit, hoods on under an umbrella at an outdoor table. We laughed, took fun selfies and then decided it was time to go in warm up and dry off.

As we headed over to the grocery store on-site, we were presented with this gorgeous rainbow. And oh my, the light after a rain. I purposely left my camera in our room but you know what they say, the best camera is the one you have with you. Thankfully our phones today are incredible cameras as well.

50. Home Alone. Like the movie, or not.

I love my home alone time. To the point that sometimes my husband feels like he should stay at work longer. Poor guy. What can I say? I appreciate the quiet, and the ability to put whatever I want on the TV or put on nothing at all.

The nights he works late are my favorites. It’s just me, a glass of wine and a big bowl of popcorn. Sometimes it’s with a good book, other times it’s some cheesy, mindless movie. It all depends on my mood.

51. Double Exposure. Don’t think twice, it’s all right.

This was the image I wanted to create. At some point, I will. Instead, I took one of my images from our road trip, a muffler man, and processed it with Nik Collection Analog Efex Pro. It’s a fun way to create double exposures and you can do it with just one click.

Is it cheating? I think in challenges like this the rules are open to interpretation, which I love. So many ways words can be defined or interpreted.

52. Self Portrait. Shoot yourself. Avoid the foot.

I have not created self-portraits in quite some time. Back on Google+, there was a self-portrait Sunday theme. People dug deep and the images that resulted were incredible.

For me, it was a great way to learn about lighting, posing and being comfortable in front of the camera. It was also a fun way to spend a few hours away from the desk and computer.

This one was an idea I had in my head for some time. Finally, I took the time to set it up. Remote shutter release in a plastic bag to protect it from the water.

I’m so glad I decided to start doing this challenge. I may go back to pick up the rest of the 2023 words. I’ve heard rumblings about the project continuing for 2024. Stay tuned for that.

If you’re interested in seeing other people’s interpretations of December and other month’s words, check out the topic link:

It’s well worth some time to browse.

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I am a photographer, educator, mentor & photo tour guide.

If I have to classify my work it’s mostly fine art photography. Based outside of Chicago, I enjoy photographing architecture, traveling as much as possible and just wandering in nature with my camera are my favorite things to do.

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