Project 2 Journal: Form that gives substance

So Friday's my half-day off work... I work nine-hour days and just four hours from home on Friday. Throw in time saved from the one-and-a-half-hour commute, and that's a solid chunk of five-and-a-half hours on Friday that's pretty much all mine. And the kid's at school and the wife was out of the house today. So I watched House of Flying Daggers. Hong Kong wuxia films are cool, and director Yimou Zhang really knows how to do them.

So, when that was over, I gave thought to this current assignment and dusted off a Beanie Baby polar bear for the project... my wife, who makes jointed "teddy bear friends," doesn't keep much of her finished work around the house (selling it or giving it away), so I had to settle for a commercial product. I thought it would give me some practice for shooting her stuff, and the white would work well for showing gradations of shadow.

In the end, I got some images that fulfilled the letter of the assignment, but they were just boring. I feel like I won't get anywhere with this whole "improve my photography" effort if I go through each project with the goal of meeting the assignment without trying to be creative. I don't expect every shot to be fine art, but it ought to at least be interesting.

I've decided that what I really want for this project is a white rose, or similar flower with large, curvy petals. I think I could do something more interesting with that.