I've started up a new personal project, and I'm so very excited to share it with you on this blog! It's a 365 photo project, which basically translates to taking a photo a day for one year. This isn't an original idea; in fact, it's pretty commonplace in photography circles. If you don't believe me, I Googled "photography 365 project" and got this. To be honest, I hadn't even considered a 365 project. Until my photography mentor, New Jersey-based photographer Lena Antaramian over at Live Love Laugh Photos started posting pics from her project. (aside: Her photos are absolutely wonderful, and I definitely encourage you go check out her own project progress. I will also say up front that I've gotten some inspiration from a couple of her shots.) Well, that planted a seed in my head, and after mulling it over for a few days, I decided to get started!

I have to say that getting started was tough. After all, I didn't start to really consider this project until we were a week into January, and didn't actually start seriously until last weekend. My first photo is from January 10th, and the next one after that is on the 12th. Since then, I have been all in. Three-sixty-five photo projects come in all shapes and sizes. Photographers can choose a theme, and stick with it for the year. Some people, for example, might choose to do self-protraits for a year. For those looking for inspiration, there are guided 365 photo projects out there. For my own project, I was pretty set on capturing a photo (or two) of my daily life. Since I specialize in lifestyle photos, I viewed this as a wonderful way to develop my craft. It's tough to come up with different themes every day, especially when your life is primarily made up of routine.

As tough as it is to come up with new "material" each day (and I've only been doing this for a week), I find that this project challenges me to take my photography to the next level, which in turn provides my clients with even more awesome, and memorable shots. In fact, I am so excited to wake up every day and plan my next photo. Sometimes I have a particular moment in mind. For example, today, I wanted to get a photo of my husband preparing our weekday smoothies in the morning. I asked him to wait as I prepped my camera for the shot, but aside from that, I didn't ask him to pose. My daughter, however, has a very artistic flair, and adores posing for the shots. I have to say that she's a total natural at this, and comes up with the most adorable poses (might be some parental bias here).

I encourage you to check the blog and Facebook regularly, as I will be posting photos here. The blog will serve as a weekly digest, where I'll post all of the photos for the week. I will also post the photos on Facebook on a daily basis, in case you're too excited to wait for the weekly blog digest. Each photo has a title and the date, so that you can see things as they progress. With my daughter being 4-and-a-half, this will be an exciting way to see how she grows and changes over the past year. I can't wait to turn this into a nice photo album for family and friends. It will make a great Christmas gift for this year!

So, drum roll please...presenting the first set of photos from my Photo-a-Day: Snapshots of Life in Toronto project! Enjoy!

Me mucking around in the basement with self portraits last week on Thursday.

My daughter loves her princess dress-up clothes. You'll see her in her various dresses throughout, the year, I'm sure. Here she's coloring in one of her new princess coloring books. How fitting!

Making pancakes and waffles are a weekend tradition at my house. My daughter loves mixing the batter.

My daughter has taken to brushing her teeth on her own (with some assistance). This was taken before bedtime. No, she doesn't sleep in the princess dress.

I think that this image perfectly captures my daughter's intense look. She wasn't actually upset when I took this picture. I took this after school, when we got home. She's eating grated cheese.

I took this just before I left to take my daughter to school. My husband had already left, and she was waiting by the window to see him wave good-bye as he drove off.

I'm glad that my hubby let me post this image. He wasn't too keen on having me take a photo of him shaving at 6:30am on a weekday, but I love how it captures that still-groggy feeling.

I was going to post just the shaving photo from the 17th, but after I showed this one to my hubby and he declared, "I love this one!", well, I had to post this one too. My daughter LOVES her lip balm.

Stay tuned for the next digest post with new photos coming out next week, and of course, stay up-to-date on my Facebook page for the daily posts!