TexasGirl Photography

I have some exciting news! May was National Photography Month, which was something I didn’t know existed until the end of April when Blurb posted about it on their instagram account. They hosted a challenge for the month of May, with different themes for each day and a set of clearly defined rules. You can check out their post here.

The second I read about it, I decided to participate, since I love things like that and I also have been kinda rattling around without much direction lately. I decided to make instant film photos each day; you might have noticed I’m not much of a digital photographer, and using roll film wouldn’t allow me to post something new each day.

Conceiving a photograph, even just one, each day, according to the prompt, lived up to the name of challenge, especially since I am mostly at home. Some days were so difficult I had to throw in the towel and pull from my archive, but not often. Urban, for example, wasn’t something I could produce on a day where I wasn’t in an urban environment, nor could I get myself into one. Okay I don’t live rural, but I don’t think of “suburban neighborhood” when I think “urban.” Here is the photo I ended up sharing for that particular theme:

Day after day I managed to keep going, sharing, tagging, etc. Eventually May 31st rolled around and I posted these two photos for the theme of Faces

I was proud of myself for finishing the month, for managing to not give up, not get frustrated, not QUIT because I defeated myself in my own head: all of those being things that usually happen to me when I take on a project. The whole thing felt like a total win to me, just because I did it. So the last thing I ever expected was to *actually* win what had been a competition from the get-go! But lo and behold, they shared the winner on their instagram, and it was me! Here’s a screen shot of the first photo they used in that announcement post. I still can’t believe it.

The moral of this story could be don’t give up, try anyway, don’t go into things with expectations, etc etc etc. I certainly can’t preach on that with much credibility, since my self confidence has been annihilated by years of rejections to the point that I don’t enter art shows anymore, so take it all with a grain of salt but I am really glad I managed to see this one through!

I’m still pinching myself that I won something, and I’m super excited about it because the prize was $100 off my next photo book. This means I will be able to order at least a few copies of the book my Mom and I have been wanting to make of my Dad’s photography collection. Cross your fingers for me, please!

Also, at the beginning of the project I considered writing poems to each prompt and making it a whole thing like that – I quickly REconsidered, however, fearing I would get overwhelmed (I would have). This month I have gone back and written poems using each image from the challenge as a prompt. That will turn into a little zine at some point, so watch this space. If you’re interested, I might share them on my long-neglected poetry website: www.amywritespoetry.com

Thanks for reading this update of mine, and I hope you’ll go for it next time you get the chance to participate in a challenge that suits you!