Who's up for a challenge?

It's the new year again. That time when we all make resolutions, knowing we only 75% intend to keep them. Let's not address the photography goals I made for myself last year. A month or so later I went and got myself pregnant and was suddenly too tired to do much of anything. (But I did make my website! And I did try to carry my camera with me more. And I did do some maternity, i.e. my own.)

The new year is also the time when a lot of photographers begin challenges. 365 challenges. 52 week challenges. More power to them, I say. Anyone who successfully completes a 365 (366 this year) challenge gets a major "You Rock" award from me. I know better than to start that type of challenge. I don't like to set myself up for failure. When Cooper was born my goal was to take a portrait a day for 30 days. I think I got to day 14, but I'm going to blame exhaustion for that one. Still, it would be nice to try to give my creative muscles a stretch in a completely "no-pressure, failure-proof, I-work-full-time-and-have-two-kids-and-am-writing-this-blogpost-on-the-train-because-I-have-a-killer-commute-but-I'm-not-complaining" kind of way.

So I saw the Project 24 challenge on the Florabella Facebook page the other day, and thought this might be the kind of challenge for me. Here's the challenge:

Sounds good, right? No deadlines, no rules. What could possibly go wrong? So here goes nothing. I'm jumping on the challenge bandwagon. Of course, I wouldn't mind some help. You know, the occasional comment, like: "Hey Katie. You haven't posted a challenge photo in a whole. Stop being such a slouch and get on it already." And I'd definitely welcome some company. You know, comments like: "Hey Katie. I'm doing the Project 24 challenge, too. Here's a link to my latest photo." Who's with me? You don't even have to post it to the Florabella page necessarily. Just do it for fun and post to your own blog or flickr or whatever. No really. Think about it.

In the mean time, here's my first attempt, No. 19-Light and Dark. And in the spirit of "truly anyone can play along," I'll tell you that this was taken with my iPhone camera on the train (did I mention about my commute?) and processed with photoshop express on my phone.

Happy New Year!

p.s. The book is called Let the Great World Spin, and it's by Colum McCann, and yes, I would definitely recommend it!