The difference between capturing the moments and creating them

The #100dayproject has come to an end, and I am thoroughly pleased to wave goodbye. When I came up with the plan for how I would participate this year, I thought I was choosing something easy - that way I could keep up with little-to-no pressure to "create" every day. Taking pictures is something I already do quite often, and I was armed with a brand, new camera, so this should've been a breeze, but it wasn't. I'm glad it's called a project and not a challenge, though, because I felt less pressure to keep up, especially on the days where I just didn't feel like taking a picture.

Some days aren't photo-worthy. Some days are so amazing that I don't think to stop and take a photo. Some days the lighting is terrible. Some days the pictures don't come out good no matter how many different angles I snap.

That being said, using my camera every day has helped further understand and appreciate the difference between capturing the moments and creating them, and this project was all about capturing the moments as they were, not staging the scene or arranging the photo before I actually press the shutter button. It's been interesting to look back on the tag in my Tumblr and just see the memory of the moment instead of all it took to "get the shot."

Over a decade ago, during my senior year of high school (!!!), I wrote an essay titled "The Digital Age of Photography: Friend or Foe?" in which I argued how digital photography can be manipulated to the point where the integrity of the moment is compromised, making it an enemy of artists who've mastered the art of analog. Maybe I was on to something?