I take a lot of photos, and I plan on taking more.

For Charlie's first year, I made it my goal to take at least one photo of him every single day. As a result, I have thousands of photos of him, and I treasure each and every one. So today when I read this blog entry, it struck a chord with me and reminded me of this post, where I briefly talked about the importance of taking photos and videos once you have a baby (and even if you don't have a baby, really).

I carry a camera with me at all times. For everyday trips out of the house, I use my point and shoot, saving my DSLR usage for when I'm at home. For special occasions, I bring along one of my DSLRs. Such was the case a couple of weeks ago, when Charlie and I went to the LA County Fair. Here are just a few photos from that day that I love:





So when Charlie grows into a sullen and sulky teenage boy, I'll be able to look at these photos and remember him as a sweet sleeping toddler with those lovely full lips and impossibly long eyelashes, that adorable sweater that he wore, the tantrum he had in the women's restroom as I was trying to change his diaper. It was chilly outside, the first little bit of cold weather of the season, and I ate a few bites of some chili cheese fries that almost immediately made my stomach churn. I was almost 34 weeks pregnant, and by the time the photo below was taken, I was nearly dead on my feet from walking around for several hours.



It was a wonderful and special day, our day at the fair. But one thing that photography has taught me is that the everyday should be documented right along with the special occasions. So for Burt Reynolds' first year, I'll be taking at least one photo of him each day, just like I did for Charlie. And to make things just a little more challenging for myself, I've decided that I will also be doing a family photo project, where at least one photo a day of our family gets taken by me or someone else, whether it's of Charlie, Roy, me, Burt Reynolds, or some combination of us. There will be some overlap, obviously, since I'll have the Burt Reynolds 365 project going on, but I'm looking forward to recording our first year as a family of four while also working on improving my less-than-stellar photographic skills.

It's a very ambitious project, being as we'll have two rugrats 17 months apart to deal with, but with this awesome blog as my inspiration, I think I'll be able to keep up with the picture taking at the very least. I really doubt that I will have the time or energy to share most of the photos here, but I'd like to. I really would. As with everything, though, we'll see what happens.