Mothers-3

This week's challenge on the Daily post on wordpress.com asks us how we interpret and photograph "Everyday life." My approach is to look at how photography actually CHANGES everyday life.

If you have a regular job and a family, everyday life is often the realm of the mundane and repetitive, composed of a series of tasks and routines blending time into a gray shade of sameness. But it doesn't have to be that way! This is where photography comes in. 

Just having your camera with you, even with the lens cap on, makes you feel like an explorer. It makes you feel all tingly and excited and ready for discovery. It allows you to pause, stop time and really look around. Things that you usually don't notice, start glowing with possibilities. Meaning starts to take shape all around you. You go from being a passive participant of life, to a director, a creator. And when you finally take the lens cap off, the hunt is on!

This activity can have a transformative effect on your subjects as well. When you start focusing on them (with a smile and a kind word, of course), people feel noticed and that makes them look at themselves differently. To illustrate my entry I chose one of my favorite mother and daughter portraits. Indeed, a smile can glamorize everyday life!