Photography Styling Challenge #12: The Final One

Here we are…. the end of the road.

Twelve months ago, I created this challenge to give myself (and anyone who was interested) the opportunity to develop my staging skills and to capture it through the lens of a camera. I expected nothing from putting myself out there like this, so I’m deeply humbled that this challenge attracted the number of participants it has. Each month we staged a mini vignette and adjusted the settings in our camera to snap several hundred images in order to find five perfect ones to post to our blogs for our peers to critique. It certainly has not been an easy feat!

This month especially was the MOST difficult for me. What was I thinking when I came up with “Personal” as the final theme? It’s so broad. There’s no real direction. It’s completely stupid.

But I posted it in the list of themes, so I couldn’t go back on it now. Not when I really, really, really wanted to. That’s why I’m writing this post at 11:30PM on Sunday night, just moments away from the first Monday of the month. I didn’t have a solid idea until seven this evening, then I had to collect the props, stage them, and photograph them. Then drop everything to go to dinner with the family. After that, I came home to sift through all the photos I took before dinner, scrutinize the final five in detail, and blog about it all.

Here’s where it gets personal. At the start of this year, I fell ill. I’m talking flat out so-sick-out-of-my-mind-I-couldn’t-get-out-of-bed-couldn’t-do-anything-but-sleep ill. At first, it was just flu-like symptoms. I was feverish, I coughed day and night, I couldn’t breathe through my nose, my body was sore all over, and many other things that may or may not have been associated with the flu. And I was always tired. I couldn’t stand up for longer than three minutes without feeling tired. I couldn’t walk ten steps without feeling winded. It was all very out of character for me.

The doctors couldn’t give me a diagnosis, which was the worst part. I had to endure these painful symptoms without treatment. I won’t bore you with all the details of my illness, but basically, it knocked me out for the first three months of this year. During this time, I seriously considered taking a break from this challenge until I got better, but I felt all the participants viewed me as some kind of leader and I couldn’t let them down by skipping even one month. I persevered and did the best I could to come up with ideas that were within my capabilities of fulfilling each month’s theme.

I think in the Fashion theme, there were a lot of comments expressing disappointment that I only posted two photos. The truth is, my mind was so blurred at that time that I couldn’t think of any more than those two angles, and frankly, I was too tired to do any more work than I had (selecting the clothes, color coordinating the pieces, hanging them onto a dress rack, and then photographing them really wears you out!).

In the Patterns theme, I chose to cut paper feathers because I had no energy to do anything else. I cut those feathers one or two at a time each day. It was an arduous process, yes, but it was all I could afford.

Needless to say, my DIY projects were completely neglected. Because of that, I had nothing to share with you on this blog.

I’ve been on the mend for a while now. The doctors finally figured out what my problem was, prescribed me some medication, and I’m feeling loads better. I’m actually feeling like my old self again and back to working on some DIY stuff that I’ve been putting off.

I chose to photograph flowers to show how my health has improved. The first thing I did as soon as I felt better was to start my vegetable garden again. I would show you how my veggies are growing, but they are still in their infant stages and there is nothing glamourous to show. Instead, I stole a few peonies from my mother-in-law’s yard to represent me coming back to life by getting back outdoors.

I hope you’ve all enjoyed the Photography Styling Challenge, whether as a participant or a reader. I’m excited for the next chapter of this blog. Stay tuned for more things to come!

Annnnnnnnnnnnnd SCENE!

Make sure to check out the other participants of this challenge:

Take a trip down memory lane and view the past themes:

Photography Styling Challenge #1: Food
Photography Styling Challenge #2: Table Setting
Photography Styling Challenge #3: Wall Vignette
Photography Styling Challenge #4: Morning
Photography Styling Challenge #5: Bedroom
Photography Styling Challenge #6: Order
Photography Styling Challenge #7: Chaos
Photography Styling Challenge #8: Patterns
Photography Styling Challenge #9: Fashion
Photography Styling Challenge #10: Light
Photography Styling Challenge #11: Living Room