31 Days of Taking Great Photos in Your Backyard

Happy October!

This month’s project is a bit of a departure for my blog: 31 days of taking meaningful photos, right where you are. (I’m using the phrase “in your backyard,” but of course plenty of readers don’t have a backyard. The idea is to continually practice looking for the beauty that surrounds us, wherever we are.)

What’s “31 Days”?

Every October, the blogging team over at 31 Days of Writing puts together a month-long blog link-up. It covers a number of categories, and participants write on their chosen topic throughout the month of October.

Here’s what I will be writing about this month:

On Mondays, “Taking Meaningful Portraits”;

On Tuesdays, “Documenting the Present”;

On Wednesdays, “Making Use of Unique Points of View”;

On Thursdays, “Capturing Light”;

On Fridays, “Moving on from Missed Opportunities”;

On Saturdays, “Using Childhood Memories to Add Resonance”;

On Sundays, “Celebrating the Rhythm of the Seasons.”

I’ll be delighted if you read along throughout the month. And I urge you the check out the other bloggers involved in 31 Days. People write about a wide range of topics in various categories. Some writers focus on offering helpful tips; others share inspiration or take readers through the steps of projects they’re working on.

My blog focuses on photography–specifically, I spend a lot of my time exploring New Topography (i.e., the human-altered landscape). To those who aren’t familiar with this phrase, this movement came into prominence through the work of photographers like William Eggleston, Robert Adams, and Stephen Shore. Lee Friedlander, though he wasn’t precisely aligned with the New Topographers, is another photography giant whose work has always fascinated me.

What I’ll Be Sharing in October

This month I’ll be sharing short essays, one each day, on the topics listed above, along with photos. I’ll also be doing my regular blog entries, including interviews with photographers whose work I admire.

I hope you’ll enjoy reading some of these posts. If you want to subscribe (click on the button over on my sidebar), you’ll receive updates automatically as they appear on the blog. And I’d love to hear your thoughts on anything posted here!

Sunday, October 1: Photographing Fall