Burggarten, Monday, 6:30pm

The problem with a 365 project (yes, I'm still doing that, if you can believe it) is the potential it has to take all joy and fun out of photography. You lug your camera around all day in the hopes of being inspired, and then all of a sudden you're on your way home at 11pm and you realize you haven't taken a picture yet that day. It's cold and windy, you're tired of photographing your same old neighborhood, and you settle for yet another half-hearted iPhone snap with a shake of the Hipstamatic app. Or (and maybe this is even worse), something catches your eye and you ARE inspired, so you take a few shots, decide at least one will be good enough, and then you immediately turn off your photographer's eye because you've already gotten your shot for the day. And before you know it, it's been a month since you really enjoyed being behind the lens.

If you're lucky, just when you get to that point, a change of season and a change of scenery will intervene, and you'll end up wandering through the Burggarten just before sunset to inconspicuously photograph strangers with your telephoto lens. And you'll remember why you started the project in the first place, to document this charmed year in your charmed life.

 

 

You'll walk away full to bursting with inspiration, and you won't be able to stop the sappy feelings that wash over you, like a deep love for the breadth of human experiences going on in just one park on just one night, and a desire to become both the young couple helping their toddler take her first steps, and the old couple sitting together on a park bench in companionable conversation.

You might even go back for more the very next evening.