river view {life}
Tuesday, March 26, 2013 at 12:01PM 
As many of you know, I'm working on a 365 project this year. You can see my photos (and many other inspiring projects) here. Knowing that I struggle with follow through (ahem), I gave myself a ton of leeway with this one from the get go. I can use my phone if I need to, I'm not going to sweat it if I miss a day, and I'm just going to shoot the things that take my fancy, relying on prompts and themes only if I feel the urge. Many people work best under the constranints of a structure (how do 365 self-portraits sound to you?!), but I'm trying to go a little easy on myself here.
One thing that I started, almost by accident, was taking pictures of the river near our home. We are just a few blocks from the Elizabeth River, an easy walk, and my Friday commute (I generally run Callum to school on Friday before my hikes with my friend Tracy) has me coming up on the river at unexpected times of the day. So one Friday I took a picture. And then another. And then I started to think, maybe this will be a little mini project within my 365. Fridays on the river. When Callum had his ski accident, that plan went out the window, but hey, I'm giving myself some leeway, so my Fridays on the River became Weekends on the River, and now we're nine weeks in (I started a little late!). Some days the wind was whipping, casting white caps on the water, and one day the tide was out, allowing me to hop down on the sand. One Sunday morning I woke up to the distant, mournful tones of the fog horn on the water. Before anyone was up, I grabbed my camera and hopped in the car (jammies still on!). That's picture number four above.
I've done a little research on projects that take a photo a day at the same place, and if I start to feel myself getting stuck, I'll do more. Right now, this one is my favorite. What I'm doing is nothing like that! What I know is that water calls me, and even when I think I can never get another interesting shot from this same spot at the end of the street, I have but to walk down there, and there's something new to see.
For each shot I pick for my 365, there are dozens that don't make the cut. Sometimes there are obvious reasons, and sometimes it's hard to make the choice. Sometimes the outtakes are just as lovely as the photo I choose; they simply aren't the story I want to tell on that particular day. For the River Shots, that's particularly true, and I thought I'd share a few of my outtakes here today.
These final three are all from last Friday night. I wanted shots from the shipping yards as the lights came on, but we lucked out with a gorgeous sunset too. How do you choose? And what do you do once you've gathered them all together?
Reader Comments (5)
these are all so gorgeous! one of the "rules" of photography that i have the most trouble with is erasing all but the best shot. the reason i love photography is because i can remember the shots, each moment so even the pictures that aren't the best still hold meaning to me. like you said there are the obvious one that don't cut it but deciding what the "best" one is, like you said, the one that tells the story of the moment you were in. i love all of these! i love the stormy feeling of the third one and those lowlaying clouds against the sunset with the industrialization going on in the foreground, love it! yay for you for following through! if i answered one of theresa's questions about what bugs me about myself, it would definitely be my lack of following through ; ) but i totally agree sometimes allowing yourself a little wiggle room is exactly what helps you to accomplish things in the end. we can't be perfect all the time ;)
Sometimes the photo i choose is not the most photographically 'perfect' shot... but is the one that makes my heart filled with joy. I think rules are made to be bent; sometimes magic happens there. Beautiful captures L, and I love the hues in the third shot xx
Gosh, I understand your conundrum - how do you pick a favorite or which ones make the cut? They're all so gorgeous! The ones with the orange sunsets are pulling me, tugging at me. I really love the juxtaposition (< woah, got all fancy on you ;) between industry and nature in these photos. I think you were wise to give yourself some leeway. I would have done the same. Enjoying the process is the most important thing, which it sounds like you're doing. (Imagining you going down to the river in your jammies to capture a shot is making me smile.) x
i'm going to stop back here when i have time to look slowly and enjoy! do you get used to that beauty or do you notice it every time? joy to you, n
I also always have problems choosing a favorite photo and it also takes me forever to narrow the photos down to 4 or 5 I want to use in a post. Really enjoy the images with the cranes, it reminds me of where I grew up. We also lived near a river and you could see the harbor, the cranes being used to unload the goods from ships from all over the world. It made me dream of foreign countries even when I was a little child...I am looking forward to many more river views!