I decided to do my Navajo Trip for my photo project. I am really really glad that I decided to do this one instead of the New Beginnings idea. I am so much more attached to this project and when I was shooting for the new beginnings I really just came to a dead end and couldn't think of anything to shoot leading to "weeds instead of good photos". I went down to the Navajo Reservation for a week on a community service trip just before Christmas and it was an amazing experience that I will never forget. The girl in a lot of these photos is the daughter of the people we were helping - 7 year old Shauntay. She is like my best friend, I had so much fun with her. When we first got there she was really shy and you can catch a glimpse of that with the very first photo with her dog. She soon opened up though as i kept talking to her and soon i was doing everything with her. She wanted to help out in everyway she could- she brought us water and helped wheelbarrow out muck from the goat pen- she was so helpful and kind and taught me a lot. She had practically nothing, you can see that in the photos. I asked her, "Do you have any friends that live near you that you play with?" "No, just my family. I see my friends at school." So she played with her dogs or her cats or her siblings, or just by herself. She showed me a fort that her sisters and her made in a trailer where they would draw pictures and things like that, hidden away in the back of this garage. The ninth photo is one that represents like 45 minutes of just playing- she picked up this random plastic spoon on the ground and started playing with it, using it to fling balls of dirt to see how far or who we could hit, digging holes in the ground and burying little treasures that we found like a rusted old hot wheels car or her secret arrowhead that she had never shown anyone before or beads that she found on the groud. We raced each other for a long time too, just running over the expansive red dirt for the joy of running. She was sweet. We were there to serve her and she served us. She brought us water in little dixie cups because she thouught we would be thirsty. I love Shauntay, I really miss her a lot and I hope that I can keep in touch with her and hopefully see her again someday. I love how they are so happy and so giving even though they have so little and not much to give. My life has been changed. Okay now that that whole journal entry thing is done-phew-I guess I am supposed to talk about my photos... I love the light in these. Moral of the story- the sun is the best light source you are ever gonna get. I love the story(obviously). Moral of the story- get connected to your photos and take the time to care. I love the compostion on a lot of these. moral of the story- shoot your photos with the end in mind, don't be lazy- make good shots initially and don't count on cropping. I think I did that well.
My favorite part about this project is that when i took these photos I was not thinking about doing my photo project, my project was something completely different. I was taking pictures of my experiences, using techniques that i learned from taking photo. And I think that is really why we take photo-so that we can look at the world differently and have the capability to document and remember our lives through the power of photography, because lets face it the photos that we really want later are the ones that we have memories and feelings attached to, not ones that fulfull some project requirement.
Life is Interesting. So show it. Everything and everyone has a story. So tell it. There is Beauty everywhere. So recognize it. There is good light. So find it. Life is constantly happening. So enjoy it. And take your camera with you.
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