Welcome To Week In The Life 2012 | Thoughts On Getting Started
Photo spread from Week In The Life Sunday 2011.
Welcome to Week In The Life 2012!
I know many of your around the world have already started the process of documenting your week - thanks for sharing your excitement via Facebook!
Two things before I share some additional thoughts on this process:
• SHARING YOUR CONTENT | In my post tomorrow morning, where I share my words and photos from today, I'll include a spot for you to link to your photos and words. It's been fun the last few years to check out all the different links to see what's happening for others as they experience the content gathering portion of this project. In addition, here's a couple other places to share: (1) Big Picture Free Week In The Life Community (message board + gallery) and (2) Flickr Week In The Life 2012.
• GIVEAWAYS | Today begins a week long series of giveaways celebrating this project. Each day you will find a new giveaway post featuring two of my Week In The Life giveaway sponsors. The giveaway post will be open from 3am Pacific to 9am Pacific the following day. On Sunday I'll have a giveaway featuring all the 2012 Title Sponsors. All the winners will be posted next week on Tuesday or Wednesday.
Don't miss today's giveaways from Chic Tags and The Vintage Pearl. Click here to see what they are giving away and leave a comment to enter.
THOUGHTS ON GETTING STARTED 2012
As I get ready to embark on this project once again, I wanted to share a few things that are rattling around in my mind:
1. FIND YOUR OWN RHYTHM. I usually begin with lots of enthusiasm and end feeling so very ready for it to be over. And that's totally okay. This can be an intense project - it's also one that is very rewarding when you commit to seeing it all the way through. Everyone is going to have their own pace with this project. Set yourself up for success with the right attitude: you'll do the best you can with what you have in front of you. For some of you your rhythm will be all iphone photos with text documentation via Instagram (love the idea of using that one tool to capture the words + the photos). Others will use the Daily Sheets as you go about your day. Some will use a blank journal or a Smashbook. There's no right or wrong. Make it work for you.
2. USE WHAT YOU HAVE. A combination of iphone and dslr photos will likely make it into my album. With this project I tend to use my big camera more because I'm thinking about it - and it's good practice. So many of my favorite shots happen during this week because I take more photos than usual of whatever it is that's happening around here. And I keep it simple.
3. THOUGHTS ABOUT THE "STUFF." Week In The Life used to be more about capturing the "stuff" than it is these days (for me at least - again, make it what you want it to be). Last year when I did WITL I collected very little stuff - for me it's mainly because I'm already actively capturing those things in Project Life. What I liked and learned last year is removing the "stuff" component enabled me to focus more on the words + photos for this project. It's really totally and completely up to you. I loved the stuff that I gathered in my older Week In The Life albums.
4. NO GUILT. I say this every time - with all the projects. If you miss an afternoon or a day don't throw out the entire project. All the stories and photos you collect can come together into a million different formats.
5. LIFE HAPPENS. Good, bad, sad, crazy, boring, fun, life-changing, life-affirming, life-challenging. Anything can and does happen because that's how life goes. Be open to capturing it.
6. HAVE FUN. Sometimes this project can feel a little like a chore - especially towards the end of the week. Make it fun. This is something I'm going to try to remember as this week progresses. When I start feeling stressed or overwhelmed I'm going to be conscious of it and just take a step back and a deep breath. When it starts feeling like that something that often helps me is to figure out what I haven't captured yet. Did I manage to get photos of breakfast each day but nothing of dinner because I was too busy? Do I have a ton of photos of Simon and very few of Anna? What's missing? Asking myself those sorts of questions usually helps get me back on track to finish out the week.
7. BE REAL. Yes. Your life may look completely different next year or two years from now...mine certainly looks different than last summer. The cast of characters is essentially the same but there are some very big differences. Take this opportunity to document what your life is like right now - all of it. My hope, and one of the reasons I keep doing this project, is that you use this as an opportunity, not just as a creative project, to take a good look at your life. What do your love? What do you dislike? What do you hope never changes and what would you change right now if you could? Show me the wonderful, simple everyday pieces of your life.
Wishing you all the best as you embark on this journey of documentation!
Ready, set, go!
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I think i need a little planning.. very few pictures up to now but possibly a busy evening for photo taking!
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Ali, what type of lens do you normally shoot with on your Canon? And do you shoot auto or manually? I wasn't going to participate this year cuz I am in a weird photo-taking funk lately--but then I decided to give my inner self a break when I realized that I just need one shot to consider the day "recorded." Thank you.
I use a 24-70 lens. I use AV mode - I've been in that funk and what actually got me out was taking a ton of photos that I didn't care about (at least not initially) - just trying stuff, playing with angles and height and light.
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I was so excited about joining in this week, but then we had a problem in our house that we've had to deal with and repair, so we're living with my parents for a few weeks. I'm already stressed out over everything, so I decided that I need to NOT take this project on this week. But, I am really looking forward to checking out what everyone else comes up with!
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I am so pumped! This is my first year participating and I'm so in love with it so far.
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Looking forward to this, it will be different in many ways for me than last years. I almost decided not to join in as I was feeling unsure of what way to document it album wise, I decided on the mini smash journal and then created and printed forms for what I wanted to document along the week for each day!
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I have a friend who is doing 52 weeks and she is loving it - I think I will start my week today (even though its Tuesday here). Thank you for the inspiration.
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I started WItF last week because this week is not a typical week for our family. So, I am almost finished! Only two more days. It has been so much fun and I learned last year to document really well using Ali's Daily Sheets. My emphasis this year has been to capture the stories better. The babysitter, my husband, and I all write on the Daily Sheets. The sheets will be part of my final documentation so that my daughter can see how we all participated in this project to document a week in her life. Such a fun project. Can't wait to see how it turns out for Ali and the rest of you.
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I can't wait! I have decided to start on Wed Apr 25 as there is too much unusual stuff happening today and tomorrow. I am SO excited to get into WITL for the very first time - and for me, rebelling by starting on a different date than everybody else will really set the go-with-the-flow tone that I need for this project!! :) GOOD LUCK & ENJOY THE RIDE, EVERYBODY!
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I've never done this project before, and since I don't do PL (I'm scared), I'm really excited to try. I'm looking at it as a smaller version of PL. I have a template set up, and I'm looking forward to see how it comes together.
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Dude. 1st day in, and we've had first-time dent fillings, and now a trip to the ER for a broken wrist! This could be a looooong week.
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This week in the life I am doing from Sunday through Sunday. Yesterday was our first wedding anniversary and next Sunday we run our first 5 mile race. Wasn’t sure I could leave either of those events out so, it will be an 8 day week! Looking forward to your posts throughout the week! Have fun!
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I almost didn't start today because I'm getting over a bug - blech - so there aren't a lot of photos today and you know what? I'm totally ok with that. I'm hoping that instead of starting strong I'm going to end strong. It's all a part of being real, right?
Good luck to all!
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I am soo excited to start this little journey. I am so bad at documenting things so this will definitely be a challenge for me. Good luck to everyone!
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Happy First Day! This is my first time and I planned to do LOADS of journaling and not a lot of picture taking. Surprisingly I have taken 70 pictures (way more than I thought). All the meticulous writing gave me an idea of things to capture for the rest of the week! So looking forward to seeing what every one else is doing!
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Hi everyone! I am super excited about WITL, but I will be starting either Saturday or Monday of next week. This is my first time and I know I will be very inspired and not so scared to do this on my own after reflecting back on all of the experience encompassed on this blog! Thank you, Ali, for an awesome project and your amazing ideas and products!
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I am thinking about doing it this year finally. I'll wait a week or two before I start my week in a life. Our life is not as usual these days because my husband is at home for two weeks. I prefer to show our real life, with everyone running at school and at work and at soccer practice... Thanks for your inspiration Ali and for showing YOUR week in a life.
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This is my first time doing WITL although I have been interested since CKU 2005. Looking forward to seeing what everyone posts.
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I'm not embarking on WITL right now but what a lovely pep talk for life and our creative projects. Thank you.
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I love taking on this project and I love seeing what everyone captures during this week!
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thanks for the inspiration Ali. I started yesterday with a hiss and a roar and then today i havent taken nearly as many photos or written much but it's still early enough to keep going.
thanks julie
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I love this. Thanks for all the wonderful tips. I feel like there is a huge team of Week in the Lifers out there and I can just hear Coach Ali cheering us on "Go Team!" As I was reviewing my photos tonight I thought to myself, "This is why I do this" and it just made me so happy. Thanks for sharing so much of yourself and for guiding us on this journey. Have a wonderful week!
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Today was so easy for me. Much more than ever in the past when I've tried WITL!! It was very fun!!
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I just got home from working at a polling station during our provincial election and even though I have only a few photos, they are will be great for telling the story of this day! And I'm going to include the front page of the newspaper tomorrow too. Thanks again for the idea, the support and the encouragement, Ali!
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[...] If you are unfamiliar with what I am talking about and want to read more about it, you can look here. So here is today, monday, april 23 in pictures + [...]
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I simply love the WITL project and I've got 2 other mums doing it with me this year (in Brisbane, Australia). One of them did Project 365 last year after encouragement seeing mine and I said this is a pretty intense project and I think harder than one photo a day for 365 days (believe it or not!!) but it is totally worth it. This is my third year but I am definately breaking the project into two this year. This week, photos and journalling and next week put together the album. It is too much pressure doing it all in the same week...exciting but a lot of work so I feel it's easier this year.
I also encourage anyone who thinks they have a boring week ahead to do it anyway....life is not all fun every day of the year. Some weeks there is nothing but home time and that's when you get to think about and appreciate right now. Can't wait to see everyone's links. Kathy A, Brisbane, Australia
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