March 13, 2023
March 14, 2023
March 15, 2023
March 16, 2023
March 17, 2023
March 18, 2023
March 19, 2023
My wife had a surgery this week, the end of the Winter feels there, and somewhere in between I managed to make some photographs. I changed to color this week to do much of the weather justice.
March 6, 2023
March 7, 2023
March 8, 2023
March 9, 2023
March 10, 2023
March 11, 2023
March 12, 2023
February 27, 2023
February 28, 2023
March 1, 2023
March 2, 2023
March 3, 2023
March 4, 2023
March 5, 2023
It is not easy to get in a flow again, but photographing every day at least helps me to focus again on things otherwise unnoticed. I think the work I make is nothing special, though it is nice to scout while strolling my neighborhood. That being said, I enjoy the practice of it. While writing this post the speakers on my desk fill the room with music, ‘Souvenir’ by boygenius, and I appreciate the Sunday doldrum that I can mix in with editing my photographs, and writing a blog post again. Good days, I guess.
February 24, 2023
February 25, 2023
February 26, 2023
I started a new attempt at a photograph a day project. To shuck off the disturbed Covid flow and get inspired again.
I admit it, I’m all in for convenience. Since last autumn I’ve written a lot, really a lot. I used notebooks for that. Small and simple notebooks with a black cover, so I could take it with me everywhere. I wrote daily, and it helped me a lot learning and realizing what was going with me. It helped me deal with my anxiety and doubt. I still write on a daily basis, and in the meantime filled multiple notebooks.
There is one thing though for me. 12 hours a day I’m working and traveling. I stand up at 5 am and get home around 5:30 pm. With some family time, eating, and walking or cycling, the only time remaining to write is shortly before I go to sleep. That is at 9:30 pm. And while I love the writing process, it felt restrictive to only have a short moment a day to write. Despite the size of the notebook it felt uncomfortable to write about my private life in public spaces. Also the storage thing was becoming a worry.
What mattered to me was being able to put down those words. It really didn’t matter how, as long as I’d able to write whenever I had some time available. Not the tactile feeling, but the convenience is important to me. It is easier to type something on my phone. So now I use a cross platform notes app, so I can write on my phone or Mac. No costs, no stress of time availability. The whole writing process can easily blend in with my daily huzzle.
It reminded me of photography when I was young, when we’re still shooting negative film or slide film since it was the only choice we had. For me, most of the time, film was expensive. I learned to be sparse on exposures, to be cost effective. It also meant waiting a long time before I processed one roll of film or sent in a slide film (and doing the framing myself).
Now I love restraints, like using a single focal length, but when digital photography took off I was finally able to feel unrestraint from the burden of the costs. I could photograph whenever I wanted, just because of the conveniences of digital photography.
And speaking of blending in. I photograph pretty much on a daily basis again. My commutes, my strolls, my bike rides. Not that I have any intention to restart a daily photography project, but enough to return to the weekly collections.
All photographs by Wouter Brandsma
Wouter Brandsma 