Why I take so many pictures

The 365 project has me really thinking about photography in a way that I haven't really before.

I mean, I like to take pictures, but when you are trying to take at least one "sharable" one per day (and sometimes failing, like yesterday) you start to ask yourself what exactly it is that you want to capture.

Rod seems to have lost interest in actually taking photos, but he does pipe up with suggestions every now and then -- usually pretty esoteric, deep and meaningful, and just not suitable for my project.

Why?

I like esoteric. I like deep and meaningful. Why is it not right for my project? It took me a while to figure that out.

I have come to realize that for me, photography is mainly a way to record the beauty around me. I can warm up to "journalistic" photography, too. That is, recording what happens around me, good and bad. But 'high concept' art of all kinds -- photography, painting, all of it -- has always left me blank.

I guess I'm just not that smart. I prefer the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood to Picasso, it has taken me years to warm up to the Impressionists, and most"Modernist Abstraction" leaves me cold and not a little confused.

I want something else from my photos.

I want to share a sense of the wonder and delight that I find around me. I want to share a sense of warmth and familiarity. Making folks think isn't really one of my artistic goals. Thinking, for me, is the purpose of words. Pictures are more about emotion and my goal is to evoke positive emotions as much as I can.

Now I know what I'm looking for. Let's see if I get any better at finding time in a busy day not only to see it, but capture it. ;)