A resolution of mine this year is that in addition to showing my regular business/work portraits, I’m also going to attempt to do a 365 of my “real life” images as well… I want to challenge myself to create good portraits with no special props, locations or photoshopping.

When I started this on Jan. 1, some friends and followers asked if they too could join in and I thought it would be fun. The one basic rule is it’s a photograph a day, describing your life, taken with a camera phone.

I’m not going to feel like a failure if I don’t get all 365 and you shouldn’t either. I think it would be a huge win just to document ALMOST everyday for a year. That would be about a 300 day improvement over last year so I figure it’s still a huge step in the right direction!

 

Jan. 29, 2015

It was all fun and games until his big brother said he wasn’t tough. 🙁 29/365

Jan. 30, 2015

Sisters. One always wants to cuddle, one is always looking for more food. 30/365

Jan. 31, 2015

Dressing up in catcher’s gear. He asked me to take photos of him in full gear and tweet it to AJ Ellis. 31/365

Feb. 3, 2015

Snuggling with the Chiweenie. 34/365

Feb. 4, 2015

In the waiting room… Back again for a long day at the dentist. 35/365

#JD 365 Image Pool Spotlights

In addition to my own 365 project, I want to include some lovely moments from others “playing along” and adding their work to the community under the hashtag #JD365Project. Please be sure to give them some love and consider adding YOUR best “everyday” images captured with your camera phone (only) to our image pool. It’s NEVER too late to join.

© Image from Karen Nelson, to be followed at: instagram.com/karendnelson2

© Image from September, to be followed at: instagram.com/september.dawn

© Image from Cynthia Pixley, to be followed at: instagram.com/pixels_by_pixley

© Image from Christine Blaylock, to be followed at: instagram.com/christineblaylock

© Image from Dawn Giannone, to be followed at: instagram.com/alwayssnapping

A resolution of mine this year is that in addition to showing my regular business/work portraits, I’m also going to attempt to do a 365 of my “real life” images as well… I want to challenge myself to create good portraits with no special props, locations or photoshopping.

When I started this on Jan. 1, some friends and followers asked if they too could join in and I thought it would be fun. The one basic rule is it’s a photograph a day, describing your life, taken with a camera phone.

I’m not going to feel like a failure if I don’t get all 365 and you shouldn’t either. I think it would be a huge win just to document ALMOST everyday for a year. That would be about a 300 day improvement over last year so I figure it’s still a huge step in the right direction!

 

Jan. 22, 2015

I’m sorry Buddy, you have many gifts, but good teeth were not one of them. I wish we were almost done, but there is still a long road ahead :(. 22/365

Jan. 23, 2015

Not the best shot because I had to be super-sneaky to get this, so my options were limited, but I had to document my kid and his friend walking to school together. They walk two blocks together every day up and down the hill to middle school. They share no classes but ever since my son met her last year at science camp (her family had just moved here from Peru) he has wanted to be around her, going as far as to wake up early in the morning to try to learn Spanish. He won’t tell me what they talk about in their walks to and from school, but he looks forward to them. 23/365

Jan. 24, 2015

Just a stylized #iphone portrait of my youngest. I am a big fan of Chuck Close, something about this straight forward approach reminds me of him (but not as good!!) #24/365

Jan. 25, 2015

Took the kids out for a licensing shoot tonight. Gorgeous night! This is just an #iphone snap at the end. 25/365

Jan. 26, 2015

I was at Lowes the other day buying incredibly overpriced light bulbs for a ceiling fan fixture (!!!) when my husband spotted this desk lamp that works on batteries and projects natural light… It folds up on an arm, so I thought maybe this could be a sort of a poor man’s ice light…So I’m trying it out. My oldest is less than impressed, but I thought it might be something worth pursuing in the future since I hate the cameras flash. 26/365

Jan. 27, 2015

Okay, I know, totally random pic in the #jd365project BUT I had to document the Chiweenie channeling her inner Bruce Lee in her morning wrestle sessions with her sister. She makes these noises straight out of a classic Kung Fu film. She is awesome. 27/365

#JD 365 Image Pool Spotlights

In addition to my own 365 project, I want to include some lovely moments from others “playing along” and adding their work to the community under the hashtag #JD365Project. Please be sure to give them some love and consider adding YOUR best “everyday” images captured with your camera phone (only) to our image pool. It’s NEVER too late to join.

© Image from Kalliefrances, to be followed at: instagram.com/kalliefrances

© Image from jodytheangel, to be followed at: instagram.com/jodytheangel

© Image from Jessica, to be followed at: instagram.com/raneydayphotography

© Image from Tonya Freed, to be followed at: instagram.com/tobfreed

© Image from Joyce, to be followed at: instagram.com/sjois71

A resolution of mine this year is that in addition to showing my regular business/work portraits, I’m also going to attempt to do a 365 of my “real life” images as well… I want to challenge myself to create good portraits with no special props, locations or photoshopping.

When I started this on Jan. 1, some friends and followers asked if they too could join in and I thought it would be fun. The one basic rule is it’s a photograph a day, describing your life, taken with a camera phone.

I’m not going to feel like a failure if I don’t get all 365 and you shouldn’t either. I think it would be a huge win just to document ALMOST everyday for a year. That would be about a 300 day improvement over last year so I figure it’s still a huge step in the right direction!

 

Jan. 15, 2015

We’re at the dentist. For the third of many visits scheduled. Today is a little intense, we’re dealing with a nerve that was infected. I’m grateful that his dentist is gentle and gifted with being able to distract kids. He’s anxious, I’m nervous, and all good thoughts are much appreciated as we deal with the aftermath of the fall and his hyper calcification issues. 15/365

Jan. 16, 2015

Can you spot the Chiweenie in this picture?
I was talking on the phone, thinking I was alone, when out of the corner of my eye I spotted my favorite little piddler, ensconced in Logan’s bed, hidden among his stuffed animals. She is NOT trusted to be in Logan’s room alone so she was trying to keep a very low profile and almost succeeded! 16/365

Jan. 19, 2015

And here is why we don’t go out for Jamba Juice more often as a family…. We’d just gotten our juice, and my kid said, “can you hold this?” Then proceeded to do a pitching wind up and knocking the juice right out of my hand… Thank goodness the guys working there played ball and have some empathy, lol. 19/365

Jan. 21, 2015

Playing with toy cars before school. 21/365

#JD 365 Image Pool Spotlights

In addition to my own 365 project, I want to include some lovely moments from others “playing along” and adding their work to the community under the hashtag #JD365Project. Please be sure to give them some love and consider adding YOUR best “everyday” images captured with your camera phone (only) to our image pool. It’s NEVER too late to join.

© Image from Staci Noel, to be followed at: instagram.com/stacinoelphotography

© Image from Claudia, to be followed at: instagram.com/cosibella

© Image from Carolina, to be followed at: instagram.com/carolinathruviewfinder

© Image from karinaacker, to be followed at: instagram.com/karinaacker

© Image from Erik Howard, to be followed at: instagram.com/erikhoward

© Image from Larisa Durbin, to be followed at: instagram.com/larisadurbin

© Image from Kathy Ledbetter, to be followed at: instagram.com/kg.ledbetter.photo

© Image from Beth Rhodes Williams, to be followed at: instagram.com/bethrhodeswilliams

© Image from paulbarson, to be followed at: instagram.com/paulbarson

© Image from Nat Windsor, to be followed at: instagram.com/natwindsorphoto

A resolution of mine this year is that in addition to showing my regular business/work portraits, I’m also going to attempt to do a 365 of my “real life” images as well… I want to challenge myself to create good portraits with no special props, locations or photoshopping.

When I started this on Jan. 1, some friends and followers asked if they too could join in and I thought it would be fun. The one basic rule is it’s a photograph a day, describing your life, taken with a camera phone.

I’m not going to feel like a failure if I don’t get all 365 and you shouldn’t either. I think it would be a huge win just to document ALMOST everyday for a year. That would be about a 300 day improvement over last year so I figure it’s still a huge step in the right direction!

 

Jan. 8, 2015

My #Chiweenie contemplates the great questions of our age… Seriously though, what did we ever do without this girl? 8/365

Jan. 9, 2015

Whew! Almost forgot to post to the 365 but my shot today of the incredibly sweet and pretty Claire in her usual happy place (under the couch) as I edit, saved me! 9/365

Jan. 10, 2015

Sick Day. I wonder if he finally got what’s been going around? At least we have dogs to cuddle on a cold and rainy day. 10/365

Jan. 11, 2015

Morning handstand in my bedroom. 11/365

Jan. 12, 2015

The boys randomly decided that today is Lucy’s birthday. In truth, we have no idea as she is a rescue dog. She celebrated this milestone by getting extra treats, enjoying an off leash run at the dog park, and taking a large dump on the kitchen floor. 12/365

Jan. 13, 2015

Today @lauralong08 and I played with amazing jewelry from TheVintageAngel. This was just a quick #iphone snap, looking forward to editing the images from the “real camera” soon! 13/365

Jan. 14, 2015

Oh hello 14/365 and this shiz is getting real… I got nothing. No great #iphone photo moment to document. Zip. Super busy day and now I’m just walking around my kids baseball practice looking like a psycho as I endlessly loop the diamond, freakishly obsessed with the information streaming in from my new #fitbit gadget that I hope will help me stay inspired to keep exercising! 14/365

#JD 365 Image Pool Spotlights

In addition to my own 365 project, I want to include some lovely moments from others “playing along” and adding their work to the community under the hashtag #JD365Project. Please be sure to give them some love and consider adding YOUR best “everyday” images captured with your camera phone (only) to our image pool. It’s NEVER too late to join.

© Image from lisa, to be followed at: instagram.com/lericksonportraits

© Image from Marina Toscano, to be followed at: instagram.com/marina.toscano

© Image from bdorci, to be followed at: instagram.com/bdorci

© Image from Candice Caballero, to be followed at: instagram.com/candicecaballero

© Image from Nahono Tsuruga, to be followed at: instagram.com/iamnahono

© Image from Lindsay Helms, to be followed at: instagram.com/lindsayhelms_photography

© Image from Melanie Murray, to be followed at: instagram.com/morning_sun

A resolution of mine this year is that in addition to showing my regular business/work portraits, I’m also going to attempt to do a 365 of my “real life” images as well… I want to challenge myself to create good portraits with no special props, locations or photoshopping.

When I started this on Jan. 1, some friends and followers asked if they too could join in and I thought it would be fun. The one basic rule is it’s a photograph a day, describing your life, taken with a camera phone.

I’m not going to feel like a failure if I don’t get all 365 and you shouldn’t either. I think it would be a huge win just to document ALMOST everyday for a year. That would be about a 300 day improvement over last year so I figure it’s still a huge step in the right direction!

 

Jan. 1, 2015

Re-Entry.

This photo was taken as we touched down back in Los Angeles after our nice vacation in South Florida (see our vacation photos here).  1/365

Jan. 2, 2015

Resolve.

A New Years Resolution of mine is the classic cliché: exercise more, get in shape… When possible, I’m making my boys participate with me because exercise and being outdoors seems to help them focus and behave better the rest of the day. So this morning, the boys and I went for a mile run just after the sun came up. Felt good! 2/365

Jan. 3, 2015

The Challenger.

What can I say? I love my kids equally, but while they may look similar and share the same due date, albeit five years apart, these boys are as different as night and day. The younger one has made it his mission in life to challenge his older brother in every way: sometimes it’s cute, sometimes it’s a positive, but sometimes it’s a real and destructive challenge to manage. 3/365

Jan. 4, 2015

Failure.

I was never going to be a sports mom. I played plenty of sports in my youth, but frankly, I felt no compelling need to put my kids in a sport, especially not in a competitive sense. Then my boys told me they wanted to play baseball last year. And not just recreational baseball but intense, time-consuming year-round baseball. And, as usual, my kids were right and I was wrong. They are learning things playing sports they could never learn otherwise. Right now, we are learning about facing our fears of failure in a very public way. My youngest is a good player, playing “up” with older, more experienced kids. He still doesn’t weigh 50 lbs and it’s scary and intimidating facing talented kid pitchers. He wants to be perfect and worries endlessly about strike outs and ground outs at first base, beating himself up terribly when it happens, which is relatively often. Sometimes he gets so worked up he feels sick to his stomach before he goes up to bat. But he is a tenacious little bugger and he keeps working at it, keeps wanting to practice. I know he’s going to figure this out. Failure isn’t the problem, fear of failure is. 4/365

Jan. 5, 2015

Stalker.

Because when I spy through the gap in the door, I get to hear all your pretend conversations without interruption. 5/365

Jan. 6, 2015

Keeping It Real (Sometimes).

And this is why it matters… Non-posed, non-propped, non-photoshopped photos of our families are documents that tell us where we lived, who we were, and why we mattered.Shown, from left to right: my grandmother, my grandfather, my mother, my great aunt (sister of my grandma), my great uncles (brothers of my grandfather), and my 3rd cousin (?) daughter of my great aunt and uncle, double cousin of my mother, on their farm, circa 1949. 6/365

Jan. 7, 2015

Mind Games.

In the mornings before school, sometimes we play chess. I’m not a good chess player, but he’s seven and it’s frustrating that I haven’t won a game since around Thanksgiving :/ 7/365

#JD 365 Image Pool Spotlights

In addition to my own 365 project, I want to include some lovely moments from others “playing along” and adding their work to the community under the hashtag #JD365Project. Please be sure to give them some love and consider adding YOUR best “everyday” images captured with your camera phone (only) to our image pool. It’s NEVER too late to join.

© Image from Irfan Cheema, you can follow him at: instagram.com/irfancheema

© Image from Claudia, you can follow at: instagram.com/cosibella

© Image from Rebecca Grabek, you can follow at:  instagram.com/vlilacskyphotography

© Image from Judith Krasinski, you can follow her at:  instagram.com/yellowlabrador100

© Image from Effie Lissitsas, you can follow at: instagram.com/merryfieldsphoto

© Image from Nat Windsor, you can follow at: instagram.com/natwindsorphoto

© Image from Christy Dunn, you can follow at: instagram.com/christydunn

© Image from Laura Zimmerman, you can follow at: instagram.com/laurazim

© Image from Christy Dunn, you can follow at: instagram.com/vanestle

A New Years Resolution of mine is to blog more this year. And I have a lot of material I’d like to blog, so I’m rolling the work out in pieces.

Tomorrow I will be sharing with you the first week’s worth of images from my 365 project on Instagram. If you’re interested, join in! It’s for camera phone images only and the hash tag is #JD565Project.

Today, I want to share with you the images I took from my three days on the beaches of South Florida where we visited with family. I didn’t take my “real” camera out much, and instead, had fun capturing images with my iPhone 6+ and Panasonic Lumix TS5, which is waterproof. Both shoot jpg and are relatively simple point and shoot manual cameras. The processing you see for the first sets of images were done within my phone, editing within the built-in camera library and also using Instagram filters. (Follow me on Instagram here).

This series was also shot with my iPhone, just processed more simply, mostly just using JD Foundations actions Bright Glow, Warm Dimension, Sharpen, Golden Saturation Bright Blush Saturation.

This series was shot with my Panasonic Lumix TS5 and processed with the Foundations Actions Bright Glow, Warm Dimension, Sharpen, Golden Saturation Bright Blush Saturation. The shots with more retro golden tones were additionally processed with the tint Terra Cotta from the Earthy Tints Set.

Over the next few weeks, I’m going to be offering some tips on how to take better shots with your camera phone, so please stay tuned 🙂

And just in case you were wondering, here are 2 photos taken with my “real” camera. I edited them with the same Foundations Actions as mentioned previously.