At the start of January I began a new year-long photography project: Life In 52. The idea is simple – to take one photo a week for each week of the year. It’s a lifestyle photography project, documenting little snippets of my life that I want to remember.

The project is being hosted by Sarah Cornish from My Four Hens Photography, who I had the privilege of learning from directly on my solo trip to Colorado at the photography retreat she ran last year. When she announced this project I decided to use it to put into practice everything I’d learned.

There is a Facebook group dedicated to the project, where participants can post their images each week to share their work, hold themselves accountable and also in the hope of being featured on the blog on the Life In 52 website. Go have a look at the blog – the collection of submissions (and the stories behind them) are breathtakingly beautiful and inspiring each and every week.

I’ve had seven of my images featured so far – one in Week 6 of the project, and also in Week 9, Week 16, Week 26, Week 32, Week 37 and Week 40 as well. I’m so proud that they’ve been chosen. I’m looking forward to putting together my final collection of images at the end of the year to see how much I’ve grown – all fifty-two images that will sum up the story of 2018 as it was for us.

Here are my submissions for Weeks Forty-One and Forty-Two:

WEEK 41

“The easiest way to miss their childhood is by missing the everyday in search of the extraordinary.  Don’t miss how extraordinary the everyday truly is”.  Ginger Unzueta wrote these words a while back and they really resonated with me.  I’m guilty of constantly wanting to seek out the special, to create magical moments with my girls.  I forget that sometimes those things don’t need to be forced.  They’re far more memorable and meaningful if you allow them to just happen.  Our time with our children is mostly spent doing the everyday.  And the everyday really can be extraordinary.  If you let it.”

WEEK 42

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson.  If there is one thing I want my littlest girl to learn and know and believe above all else, it’s to keep her big heart wide open, to continue to share her sensitive soul with the world and to relish every deep feeling that she has.  They are her superpowers.”

You can follow along with all the other submissions from the Life In 52 project on Instagram by following the hashtags #lifein52 and #m4hlifein52. And you can see the featured posts from the group each week on the Life In 52 blog (updated every Monday).