One Photo Challenge

Each month I will be embarking on a new habit-changing challenge. I’m hoping that by being very strict with these challenges for 30 days, once the challenge is over I will be able to incorporate these healthier habits into my life in a more realistic way. They say it takes 21 days to create a habit, so I’m testing that theory with these challenges. At the end of each month, I will write a blog post letting you know how it went! 

Rules: At each instance in which I might take photos (whether it’s an event or a moment or a full weekend of activities), I am only allowed to take ONE picture. If it turns out blurry, I am allowed a retake, but if a better photo opportunity comes up later, I am not allowed to take another photo and delete the first one. Just ONE.

Reason: I have a habit of whipping out my camera any time any little thing happens. I’ve noticed that the reason I do this is to look good on social media. With all the new apps out, we have become so used to letting our followers know what we are doing at all hours of the day. While that can have its pros, especially now that I live far away from many of my friends, there are cons as well. I am not so much living in the moment as I am living for my online presence. I tell myself I’m just preserving the memories, but when I look back on photos, I could have done without most of them. Not every single photo I take will evoke a nice memory. So, in doing this challenge, I am hoping to spend less time thinking about preserving the memories and posting on social media and spend more time making the memory itself. Then the one photo I do get will actually remind me of that time. I chose to do this challenge in August because I have something going on every single weekend. Normally, I would take about 40 or more photos per event, but now, I will only get 4-5 pictures for the whole month. Wish me luck!

Result:

I think this challenge went really well! The first weekend of August, my in-laws came to town for 3 solid days. We ate at fun restaurants, went shopping, toured the Capitol building, went to a museum, went rock climbing, played games, and played out on the lake. I got 1 photo. It was a candid shot of my husband and siblings-in-law walking up to the Capitol building. It was spontaneous and special and only took me half a second to take. Otherwise, the rest of the weekend was spent enjoying their company and actually taking in the experience rather than worrying about recording it. Other people took photos which I can still enjoy on social media, but that memory of walking through downtown Austin with my siblings, at their first time seeing the Capitol, will forever be remembered by that one photo, instead of me pausing and taking time to take several photos. I kept this up throughout the month at a trivia night with my sister, and my dad’s birthday.

There was one event that was particularly hard to take only one photo and that was LeakyCon with my best friend. I presented at a panel, we presented a panel together, and we got to see Tom Felton in concert. Which part was I supposed to capture? I decided to photograph Tom Felton since I’d be busy during the other two parts. But there was no way for me to also be in the picture due to the crowded room, and you know how concert photos never really turn out. So I was left with one blurry, poorly lit picture of Tom to remember the whole weekend. Luckily, my friend took photos of our presentations, so I ended up keeping 4 pictures from that day, which is still an improvement from the 50 I took at last year’s LeakyCon. But what I learned is that it’s okay. Even though I didn’t get a totally awesome picture of Tom Felton, I got to hear him in concert and experience that with my best friend and it was amazing. Looking throughout the crowd, I saw hundreds of cell phones in the air, and for once, I was glad to not be one of them.

I am going to try to keep this habit up for the foreseeable future. I will try to limit my events to one photo, but I will allow myself some wiggle room for multiple-part events. For instance, Colton and I have a concert coming up soon with 3 of our favorite bands, so I may end up with 3 photos from that event. But my photos are more artistic and the experiences are more meaningful, so I’m glad I did this challenge.