Photographs are windows to our memory. Reflections of our life. Reminders of our blessings. Each Wednesday we are featuring 5 personal favorite photos from a Creative Team member or a friend. These 5 photos will remind of us why photography is so beautiful and why documenting the everyday is so important. The goal is to leave us all a little more inspired to cultivate a good life and record it.

Our inspiration this weeks comes from Creative Team member Jennifer Woodbury.

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Like many moms, I became really interested in photography after the birth of my first child. I spent countless hours taking pictures (lots and lots of pictures), learning the ins and outs of my camera, and figuring out the fundamentals of photography. My skills improved and eventually I had countless lovely portrait-style photos of my oldest daughter. But then I realized something…those photos sort of bored me. Of course, there is definitely a time and place for beautiful portraits and the usual pictures of everyone smiling for the camera, but they start to become repetitive after awhile if those are the only photos you’re taking.

Once I made that realization, my focus shifter from just taking pretty pictures to taking photos that told more of a story about my daughter’s – and my family’s – personality, interest, and everyday life. It’s one of the main reasons I decided to take on a photo a day project back in 2008 (and then repeated it in 2009 & 2011). And through that process I realized that the photos I love the most don’t have to be “technically” perfect to be meaningful.

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Plan ahead and don’t forget to include yourself. Even if you are trying to capture a candid moment, sometimes it takes a little forethought. I often have a running mental list of photos I want to take; meaningful rituals (however big or small) that are part of our family life right now that I don’t want to forget. I knew I somehow wanted to document our tradition of having a family hug each night, so I made a point of bringing my camera upstairs for bedtime one evening. I just placed it on the dresser and took some photos using my remote. I highly recommend getting a remote control for your camera if you can. They are usually relatively cheap (I bought mine for just around $20) and it makes is so much easier to get yourself in a shot. Of course, don’t limit yourself by whatever piece of equipment you don’t  have. The camera timer is not quite as convenient but is always an option too!

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Document relationships. With kids especially, this can take a lot of patience. When I see my kids interacting together, I will often grab my camera and try to take a photo without them even noticing I’m there. A lot of the time, it doesn’t work. It that’s the case, I usually just sit near them and wait for them to relax and forget about me and my camera. More often than not, my patience pays off.

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Don’t just take photos of the important people in your life, take pictures of the things that are important to them as well. And if you can get both the person and the thing together, even better! I love that this photo not only tells the story of my middle daughter’s loved and well worn blanket, but it also documents the fact that she can fall asleep absolutely anywhere.

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Think about the bigger picture. When taking a picture of an everyday activity, I try to take pictures from several different perspectives until I figure out which one tells my story best. I zoom out, zoom in, or try shooting from a different angle. When I first tried to capture my then first grade daughter doing her homework after school, I zoomed in tightly on her. But when I zoomed out I realized that I was capturing a much more complete story filled with all the distractions that two little sisters have to offer (a craft project on one side and a car being driven – with sound affects – on the other side).

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If you want a smile, try to make it a natural one. At the end of the day, sometimes I just want a cute picture of one of my girls. But I still want them to look like themselves. Whenever I ask them to smile for the camera I always end up getting the most bizarre expressions instead, so I’ve found that taking a photo while they are doing something they truly enjoy helps a lot in getting a genuine smile on camera. And if all else fails, underwear jokes always seem to do the trick. I’m not above much when it comes to getting a great photo!

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You can learn more about Jennifer here, and check more of her everyday photos and Project Life pages on her blog.

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{ featured sponsors } 

Origami Owl is donating 25% of their sales to Jonathan’s family – thank you!

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