31 days of colour - day thirty one - the seasons finale

i've always taken photos. perhaps not as everyday as i do now but i always remembered to take my camera with me whenever i was on holiday or away for the weekend. jane's kids were amongst the first ones i took photos of and i'm sure jane won't mind me telling you that my photographs graced their photoframes for many years as their kids grew up.

when my neices came along i realised i was woefully out of date when my brothers eldest daughter would pose for a picture and would walk up to my 35mm camera and look to see the resulting image immediately.  i received my first digital camera when my family asked what i would like for a big birthday i was about to celebrate. since then i have moved onto my second camera and i have a whole slew of images of friends, family and anything else that takes my eye from over the past five years. doing this 31 day project has shown me quite how many images i have (and quite how badly they are saved, seriously no tags anywhere).  it has also shown me how my style has changed and evolved and which things catch my eye over and over again. as the years have progressed i've set myself photography projects, collaborated on other photo blogs and created this space with jane where i get to share with you what has caught my eye and shaped life on a daily basis. to me, i wouldn't be able to share in this space if i was unable to photograph the things that have brought meaning or life to my days to illustrate what my days are truly for.

one of the first projects i set myself involved a tree. this tree is on the property that abutts the bottom of my garden and is viewed to my left across my neighbours gardens. the house i spent my teenage years in was opposite a property that had a japanese acer in the front left hand corner of its garden. each morning as i opened the heavily lined brown curtains in my bedroom located at the front of our house i would notice the tree as it changed from a deep dark russet red brown to a vibrant golden burnt orange hue through the seasons. the seasonal colour wheel lives on vividly in my minds eye. in my present home, my bedroom is at the rear of the house, just as this tree is at rear of my property. each morning as i draw my lightweight white cotton curtains i notice not just the colour change but how large this tree has grown over the thirteen years i have observed it. only this trees seasonal colour change doesn't just live on in my memory. i have the photographic evidence. each morning as i stood in my kitchen, usually eating hot toast dripping with butter, i would reach for my camera and take a photo of the same view from the top of my back doorframe before heading out to work. as i trawled through my images for this project i kept seeing this same tree image. individually they looked almost identical, it became almost dull and boring seeing the same thing with such repetition and i wonder if that is why those images lanquished untended, unfinished; my eye had grown accustomed to the seasonal spectacular it put on each year. i always intended to turn these images into an animation and this 31 day project has given me the impetus to finally finish that very first photography project. 

so with the help of a friend who understands video better than i, i am able to present my first finished photography and animation project. (subscribers, please click over to the blog to see the one and a half minute self hosted video). i shot the images over a fourteen month period from october 2009 to christmas day 2010.  i hope you have enjoyed 31 days of colour, thanks for  joining me on the journey.  

Emma