52 Project, a weekly photo challenge

I met first-time mom Lila at an event in San Francisco and she told me that the 52 Project was the best thing she did as a new mom.

The motto is “A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in (fill in the year),” and although you might think, aww man, I wish I started this in January, I’d like to remind you that any 52-week period makes up a year. We start school in September, our babies turn new numbers whenever their birthdays are, and we pay taxes in April. Today is just as good a day as any to embrace a new practice.

Lila’s son Grayson is a year old, and she identified one favorite photo of him every week for the year. The project is “hosted” by Jodi, the blogger behind practicingsimplicity, who has a little link widget on her weekly posts so that other participants can share their weekly posts.

In this post about the 52 Project, Jodi explains a bit more: it’s about documenting childhood, savoring the short phases, and practicing the art of portrait-taking.

Portraits are about the subject taking center stage, though they don’t have to be head-on. It is about framing the photo intentionally, capturing exactly the aspects you want to capture, rather than a happenstance snapshot.

Related: Project 365, which is not about your child, but about your life, and your point of view. Bonus: there are apps to help you remember to select or take a picture each day to be your Project 365 picture.

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Whitney

RookieMoms.com co-founder Whitney lives with her husband, son, and daughter in the San Francisco Bay Area where she writes about parenting, crafts, and activities that moms can do with babies in tow. She and Heather also publish 510Families.com, a site for East Bay parents.