Day 50 - Smile for the Camera

under the bridge

Day 50...a nice little milestone!  A seventh of the way through this particular challenge...apparently I'm 50 years and 50 days old, now.

I'm really pleased to have made it this far, despite this blog being much more demanding than anticipated.

Although it's fair to say that it's been much more rewarding that I imagined, too, which does help motivate me to keep it up, day by day (by day).

Chatting with my daughter Kim about my blog earlier, she asked whether it made me do different things, things I normally wouldn't do. 

Well, it certainly does!  30 minutes earlier I had been in my wellies, in the stream that edges our garden, looking for interesting perspectives...not my usual chilly Sunday afternoon haunt, it has to be said! 

I think the best photography tip I've had was from Anna, who often recommends taking photo's from the perspective of the subject.   Most frequently, this means getting to a low position, whether I'm photographing Jazz, or one of the cats, or some fungi on the woodland floor.

Or a stream...

I've been using the voice control on my phone to help take stable pictures in physically awkward positions.   In this case I was crouched on the bank, one foot ankle deep in the stream.   Holding the phone an inch or so above the water, looking upstream towards the culvert under the little bridge we drive over to access our car park, it would have been difficult to touch the digital shutter release button without knocking the framing out. 

But simply saying smile is easy and works very well, and enables me to get some interesting shots.

The voice commands available to direct the camera to take a photo are;

Capture, Cheese, Shoot, and Smile.

It's curious to note that without conscious decision, it seems I have settled on Smile as my command of choice.

Capture and Shoot sound so confrontational and hostile, whereas Cheese just sounds....well, cheesy (normally this would be amazing, I grant you - but only when referring to actual cheese).

Smile is a much more pleasant and positive way to interact, even if it is with an inanimate object.  But the point is, it's more pleasant and positive for me to make an encouraging request, rather than barking an order or saying a random word.

I think it's a deliberate choice in the sense that I naturally gravitate towards a more open, inclusive way of being, and the word Smile represents a more affectionate way of approaching the world.

Smile, everyone!  :-)