Picture A Day

My friend Brad recently had a good idea: take a picture a day, for a whole year long. In fact, it was such a great idea that he did it a few years ago.
This time around, however, he came up with a twist: get more people from more locations to join in on the fun. He asked if I'd be interested in joining in, and I certainly was. So, we started today. I guess we'll see where the project takes us, how to present it, and all the other details like that as they develop. Here's my picture of the day:

I had to get up early this morning to go to a meeting in San José. I was up at the ass-crack of 6:20, and when I looked out our kitchen window I saw the view above. It was pretty nice and inspiring, all things considered, although not as inspiring as a few cups of coffee. In any case, it was cool to see the early morning fog rolling in like that, so I thought it might be an appropriate picture for the first day. I have a couple of runners-up posted just below.

Now, a bit more about this project. Brad is a professional photographer when he's not moonlighting as a lawyer, so I know that he's a great photographer (he's the one who took our wedding pictures). He's obviously light years ahead of me in terms of skill, knowledge, and results, so I'll have to make an effort to not measure my pictures against his. He emphasized to me that the main point about this idea is to just improve both your photographic eye and, of course, your photographic skills. And I already feel like I'm improving in that sense; when you know you've got to shoot a picture of something, then you keep your eyes open for anything.

In any case, I'll posting more about this, and I imagine that it won't all go onto this blog. In the meantime, you can click here to follow my part of this project on my flickr page.

Today's Leftovers:

Some flags outside the San José center where I had the meeting. I waited around about 10 minutes for the wind to blow right, but it only seemed to catch one flag at a time, even though they were only about 6 feet apart. Talk about microclimates. In any case, I had almost chosen this as today's picture, since it's a good starting point as an American in Costa Rica, and it'd symbolize what I'm all about, basically. And maybe it should be today's pic. All I know is, that there American flag just ain't gittin'-er-dun or whatnot.

This was taken from the third floor inside the building where I had my meeting, but it's just better in real life. For some reason, the view of the huge crass billboards for Coke and Pepsi above the freeway (which remained out of frame), coupled with the green hills and obscured natural beauty, all epitomize San José. When I saw this view, I thought, "Oh yeah, I live in Latin America! Weird!" That seems like something you might not forget, but it slips your mind sometimes.

Anyhow, that's it for today. I'll keep you updated on the project. And hey, if you're interested, join on in!

365: Picture a Day Project    365 Leftovers    All My Pictures    Sitzbook