on reconsidering

Towards the end of 2015, I had decided to stop taking weekly portraits of Ruby in 2016. Having participated in The 52 Project for two years, I felt like my photography style had grown a little stale, and I thought it was a sensible decision to stop doing The 52 Project. But, I have been struggling to think of an alternative way of documenting life with Ruby this year, and so have reconsidered my decision to stop. I also realised that my reasons for stopping were also very good reasons to continue. My lack of inspiration for photographing Ruby creatively could either mean that I stopped pursuing the portraits of her, or instead, challenge myself to get out of my rut. Taking more photos is only ever going to help this.

Over the last couple of days, I have been doing some serious backing up and organising of all of my photos from the last two years, and as I looked through some of my earliest photos of her, I couldn't help but marvel at how much Ruby has changed since she came into our lives at the end of 2013. The weekly portraits come together to form a wonderful snapshot of all those changes, and I know that each week of this next year will bring changes with it that I will forget if I don't document them in some way. I never regret taking photos, but I will definitely regret not doing anything with them. I love that The 52 Project provides a very simple way of documenting my child(ren) each week, and right now, I need a simple framework to work with. Also, having the project constantly at the back of my mind as needing a little of my time and attention each week guarantees that I will pick up my DSLR, even if it's only once.

So, there we go. I have talked myself into it again.