August Break 2013 – Summary

“Summary”

Scrolling through the images from the past month, I see and am reminded that we had some fun times, and some not so fun times…

There are images that I absolutely adore here (and within the posts themselves)… and others that I am rather “meh” about…

All in all, I’d say it was a good month… but not as great as last August. Having a week of your life sucked away due to family illness will do that, I suppose. The boys and I never did get around to doing some of the awesome things on our TO DO list – like hitting the drive-in and launching the rocket again. Luckily, Septembers are usually mild around here, so maybe we can still squeeze in some fun after school and on weekends.

As for participating in the project this year, I’ve gotta say that I found the whole prompt thing… challenging. Some days it inspired me to create something really fun (like the balloon day) or find something meaningful (the “you are beautiful” sign) to share. Other days, I felt pressured to post any old thing I could come up with to fulfill the requirement, oftentimes being less than thrilled with the result. Yes, I know I really didn’t have to post daily, but I felt like I had committed to the project and I needed to follow through for some reason. If I do another prompt challenge in the future, I think I will give myself a little more freedom to not post any old thing, if it doesn’t please me enough. To only run with the prompts that inspire me, and that I have the time to dedicate to creating the image I want to create. And to still let my eye wander away from the “goal”, to enjoy the freedom of discovering the images that bring me joy more organically (not to sound all pretentious or anything =P).

Again, participating has allowed me to reconnect with some “old friends” from previous years (like Rosie and Justine), and make some new connections (hello new people!) What I found most interesting is that the project really shifted from being a Flickr-based project, to an Instagram one. At the time of writing, only 3,911 images had been posted on Flickr, while 18,496 (!!!) appeared on Instagram. I think I doubled the number of “followers” I had this past month, as well as started following dozens more – and I am very excited at the prospect of continuing to enjoy great images with these people in the coming months. (Although, I don’t think there were quite as many comments shared in this venue… hmm.)

Anyhow. I am glad I did it. I learned some new things about myself, and my iPhone camera/apps. But I am glad to not feel the pressure to post daily – unless I have something interesting to share. Well, yeah. Okay, then. Thanks for the great month, you guys… and Susannah. See y’all around! =)

Note: I was feeling a little glum about the photos in this post, so I decided to collage some of my favourite images together instead.

The softer side of August Break.

The stronger side.

There. Better. 🙂