April 30th marked the end of another O’Clock Project and phew am I’m glad it’s done. I know, I’m probably supposed to say how wonderful it was and how it motivated me to shoot all the time and to look for all the pretty light. But you guys! It was HARD this year….like dragging my butt to pick up my camera hard. I suspect part of the problem was that I was already in the middle of a 365 project, and adding constraints to it was more challenging than I expected. April was also the busiest month in business I’ve ever had with 6 sessions (4 sessions a month is usually my max) and shooting anything personal felt forced after I’d already held a camera for hours a day. Half way through the month I had to drop my lofty goals of trying new techniques and learning new tricks, and instead decided to simply shoot the way that feels good to me – it was photo project survival mode.

If you’re not familiar with the O’Clock Project, it’s an idea I cooked up 3 years ago where the goal is to capture one image during each day’s witching hour for a whole month. It’s a project that is aimed at finding beauty in the tough times and stepping back from the situation to view it objectively through a viewfinder. I tackled the first year on my own, but then the next year I invited mothers from around the world to join me and share their own witching hour beauty on Instagram. You can check out all of the participant images from this year at #oclockproject2017. My ‘hour’ this year was 4:30-5:30pm.

In the end, I am still glad I stuck it out and finished the project because I have some new favourite images from it. (That always happens, doesn’t it? Favourite images come from the toughest situations.) They are photos that are honest and so true to life. They are my kids tired and cranky at the end the of day, usually without pants, or with a hair style that no longer resembles what it looked like at 8am. I often fall into the ‘perfect’ trap, scared to share what my house really looks like after a well lived day, in fear that I’ll be judged or that someone won’t hire me to create art for them because I can’t keep up with my dishes (yes, that is a real thought I have!). But as mothers, we are all in this together and we all know that it can be hard at times, so sharing unfiltered photos is important.

Below are a few of my favourites from this year’s project. We Facetimed with Grandma while she was away, scootered through the neighbourhood, read to Meadow & Pixie (our guinea pigs), jumped on beds and survived the craziest hour of each day for another month.

Fiddle Leaf Photography offers in-home photography in Edmonton and the surrounding area. Kelly also mentors other photographers to help them realize why they started in photography in the first place and how to get back there (with projects just like this!). Want to learn more about photographer education? Check it all out here.