Sometimes the internet is such a cool place. And I know, sometimes it's creepy and overwhelming and addicting, but I've been trying to concentrate on gratitude lately, so let's stick with cool, shall we?

Remember that photo walk I took with my Lensbaby awhile back? We took that walk as a group of women who'd never met before (when are we doing it again, by the way?!), and instantly felt connected by our shared love of our cameras. We connected on Facebook and Instagram, and I feel so lucky to have their pictures continue to pop up in my feeds. So one of those women mentioned recently that she'd been tagged in a "My Everyday" challenge. Shoot your everyday for five days and post the photos to Facebook. She asked me to join along, and it was just the thing I needed!

Shooting my everyday moments are why I got the Fuji in the first place, and this challenge was just the thing I needed to slow down and pay attention. Face it, my days are pretty boring. I work alone, at home, with nothing but the dogs to keep me company until time to grab Cal from school. But this challenge made me stop and pay attention. It's the details that matter, right? A lunch. The way the dogs stare me down even after my food is gone. Homework time. A walk to my river. And that picture of Cal at the end of the hall? How many times have I seen just that view? Cal, digging in the closet for baseballs before he and Neel go out to throw. Without this challenge to focus my eye, I'm not sure I'd have ever thought to capture a moment that is so infused with what makes up our life right now.

Have you tried it? An everyday challenge? Some people shoot "A Day in the Life," and my friend Michele (who originally challenged me) is picking a theme each day (Her most recent was a series of photos of her son getting a haircut, and it was amazing!). Go on! You can do it! Stop and look around. Slow down. It's the details, the tiny insignificant moments that matter.

If you do decide to do an everyday challenge, please let me know. I'd love to know what you're up to, everyday.

I've been saying for weeks that I've fitted myself out with a new camera, and for almost as long I've been promising to tell you guys about it (I'm lame.) The truth is, I had to spend some time with this new baby before I was ready to talk about it. Welcome to my new world. Mirrorless cameras.

I'm happy to write a more technical blog post about mirrorless cameras, and about my new camera, the Fuji X-E2 specifically, but I thought first I'd write about my feels. ("Feels:" a nod to all the middle schoolers out there.) Why I made the switch, how I came to do it, and what I hope the change does for me.

Like most big decisions, this one started with a perfect storm of events. Two of my friends from my photography group went mirrorless. To say they extolled the virtues would be an understatement. And then I started thinking about getting a smaller camera for a trip we have coming up in a few weeks. In the middle of all this, I was, along with my friend Kim, teaching an iPhone class. One of the benefits of the iPhone, we told our students, was that the settings were taken care of for you, allowing you to focus on the composition of your shot.

As I thought about these things (and obsessively researched different cameras), I realized a few more. My photography has changed over the past few years, and I'm not completely thrilled about it. Am I better technically? Yes. Have I learned things about my personal style? For sure. But as I thought back on myself as a photographer, I realized that somewhere along the way I'd stopped carrying my Canon every where I went. Instead, I was carrying a little resentment each time someone said, "Oh! You didn't bring your camera?" My camera was heavy and big, and I got tired of people just expecting me to be the documenter of their events. I love taking pictures, but I also love just hanging out with my friends. So more and more the camera stayed home. And because of that, I was missing more and more opportunities to capture the memories that I did want to remember.

The studio became my default. If it got late, and I hadn't grabbed a shot for my 365, I'd head straight to the studio. Still life shots filled my feed instead of moments with my family, and I wanted that to change.

Enter the Fuji. I've had it a few weeks now, and its compact size makes it easy to take everywhere. I'm making conscious choices to capture the small moments that make up my family's life. I shoot completely differently with it, choosing aperture priority over fully manual. In fact, many of this camera's settings can be set to auto, freeing me to take my time and think about the composition of a shot. I trust the Fuji to get the settings right almost more than I trust myself, and there's an ease to my picture taking that had gone missing with the Canon. And I know I'll appreciate its size and ease of use whenever I'm traveling. What I'll also appreciate? Not having to worry about something happening to my Canon when we're on the road.

Have I given up on Big Daddy? No way! Many mirrorless users have totally ditched their DSLRs, but I know that's not the choice for me. In the studio, the weight of the Canon feels best in my hand. Out and about? I'm Team Fuji all the way.

I have a lot to learn still, to completely utilize this little gem to the best of my ability. We're not quite best friends yet (in that I know its innermost thoughts), but we're definitely sitting at the lunch table together.

Moving to new, entirely different gear can come with a crisis of confidence, and that has definitely happened to me. I'm trying to shift what I shoot and how I shoot all at once, and that can make for lots of messy moments. I've been doing this long enough now that I know that the best antidote for those messy moments is to just keep taking pictures. So that's what I'll do.

these days {life}

my every day {life}