These days, nearly everyone has a camera in their pocket. With the invention of the smartphone and social media, it’s easier than ever to capture those everyday moments and share them with your friends and family. In the past, photographs were mostly for capturing special moments like holidays or momentous occasions, with occasional everyday photos sprinkled in. Now though, we can capture those little moments of magic in our lives every day and keep those memories alive for years to come. Here are some great reasons why you should start taking photos every day!
Keeping the memories alive
As I mentioned before, and as the title of this blog states, taking a photo every day keeps the memories alive! By taking a moment each day to capture a photo of your life, your kids, pets, or your surroundings, you can create a story of images. This story is unique to you and your journey. Photographs are a way of saving a memory that otherwise would drift away, never to be thought of again. Life moves by so quickly; it seems like we have moved through the different stages of life and hardly even noticed it in just the blink of an eye! When you practice taking photos of the everyday bits of your life, you allow your future self to look back on all the many wonderful stages of life and remember how those people, those places, and those moments in time made you feel.
It’s good for your mental health
Did you know that taking a photo every day is actually good for your mental health? It’s true! By making a conscious decision to find something worthwhile each day, you reframe your mind to focus on the good. Focusing on the beauty and uniqueness of each day and actively looking for something good to capture helps develop mindfulness. Humans are naturally wired to remember the negative parts of their day. Like when your boss yells at you for something you had no control over, or when some jerk cuts you off on the way home, or when your kids spent most of the night bickering with each other until it felt like your ears were bleeding. However, suppose you commit to making an effort to find the good each day and capture it in photo form. In that case, you can shift your focus to the beautiful bird you snapped a picture of outside your office window or the adorable shot you captured of your kiddos laughing together at something on TV. This shift in mindset can help promote peacefulness and finding joy in the little things.
It keeps you connected
The last year and a half has been so isolating for all of us. With the Covid-19 Pandemic raging throughout the world, people have had to fundamentally change how they connect with others. One unintended consequence of the efforts to squash this illness has been an increase in the number of people struggling with loneliness and feeling cut off from the world and the people they care about. Taking a photo every day and sharing them on social media is a great way to stay connected with friends and family even when you can’t be together in person. I know so many family members and friends who have said that social media has been a lifesaver for them throughout this challenging time because they have been able to see their loved ones through photos, videos, and posts on social media. So snap those pics! You never know who may be feeling just a bit less lonely because they get to catch a glimpse at your life and feel connected to you through your photos.
It fosters creativity
Photography is art, and art is a way to express oneself in its most basic sense. Art and creativity are things that make life more enjoyable. It is a way to expand our thoughts beyond those things that are necessary for survival and focus on the things that bring joy and meaning into our lives. Artistic pursuits are highly individual and unique to the person who creates that art. Photography is no different. A photograph is about the photographer as much as it is about the subject of the photo. It shows what the photographer saw and felt and reflects how they see the world.
It improves your photography skills
By taking photos every day, you are going to be constantly improving your skills behind the camera. Even if you are a novice with a camera phone, you will notice that the more you practice taking photos, the better your photos will be! You will naturally start to recognize what techniques work best for you, what angles you like, what lighting shows up best in your photographs. These skills will help you to create even more engaging photos as you learn and get better. Seeing that improvement will also make you want to keep going!
It encourages adventure and exploration
Committing to taking a photo every day will absolutely encourage you to explore the world and your surroundings a little bit more. Instead of spending the evening sitting on the couch watching TV, the desire to capture a great photo may have you taking a walk along a local nature trail, people watching at the park, or spending time playing outside with your kids. You may feel like taking a road trip somewhere new or choosing to forgo taking the same annual vacation as always and opting to find someplace you’ve never been before. By focusing on finding special moments and unique places to capture in photos, you may just start to expand your horizons a little bit, and that can only be a good thing!
There will always be moments in life that you’ll want to have captured by a professional photographer, your wedding day, your baby’s first weeks of life, family portraits, or senior photos for your soon-to-be graduate. However, these memorable moment photos should not be the only ones you have! Taking a photo every day isn’t so much about the big things, as it is about the little things that you want to remember far into the future. It’s about capturing the look on your child’s face when they are concentrating on a drawing, or the way your dog looks sprawled out in a sunny spot on the floor, or the way your spouse looked so proud the first time they grilled a perfectly medium-rare steak. Those moments, as much as the big ones, are what make up a life, and you’ll want to remember them just as much!
