The 365 Project- Capturing Little Pieces of Time

It's-33C with windchill at this moment in Toronto. I guess the people from Manitoba don't consider this very cold out in their province, since they do the -40's fairly frequently.
It's so lovely outside though, with brilliant sunshine. Makes me want to go out gallivanting in the city. Sunshine has been hard to find over the recent couple weeks with some horrid wet, slushy snow, in between some beautiful white snowy days with the kind of snow that crunches under your boots.
I would love to go out in this sunshine, but the thought of bloody nostrils keeps me indoors today.
Besides, I have not written on my blog for a while now, so it's as good an excuse as any to stay in and update.

I braved -33C to run out on to the balcony and take this shot which I may put up on my photoblog here: http://365project.org/sweetsadie/365/2011-01-15   if I don't find anything better by tonight. Pity, the light is so good for once.

I have been working on the 365 Project for 207 days now and it's been gripping me in a way that is unexpected. I really started it because it is a way of keeping a photo diary. My pictures help me tell a story, (not that anybody cares). But they tell my story, and my views of this city that I make my home. I've seen the same scene in other people's photos and they're alike, but they're different. We see the same things differently. It's a different perspective, from a different angle, or at a different time of day, or season. Pictures have moods. Pictures are emotive.
I love about this project, that I can look at people's photos from all over the world, and see parts of their cities and neighbourhoods that you don't see in the tourist brochures. It's a stranger's little eye on something special to him. And no one would know about what he saw, until he published it up on his photo blog or diary. And when we write about the photos, we capture not just the picture, but the thought we had in that moment.
And some little bug just got immortalized because we put him out in the public pixelated space.
I like the amateurish random shots of plant and animal life, that some people do, as much as the really sophisticated ones that the serious photographers put out there. Some people on the project go into great details about white balance, and texture and composition. And others just want to capture a scene that made up part of their day.I am in the latter category with my point and shoot camera. But I would at some point, like to learn how to take more professional photos as well. And you can bet that despite proper training, I would still want to tell a story.

Tomorrow is my birthday. Wow, that came around rather fast. Time accelerates as we grow older. There's just not enough of it to do all the things we did not get done when we took for granted that we had all the time in the world. So much to see, and savour, and listen to, and  care about.
I have to do something special every day, something that makes me feel good. Then I can look back and say every day was a good day.
This was a summer day this year:

And this was Fall

 And Winter