I’m not sure why I settled on “eyes closed” as a unifying theme for this year’s December Photo Project, but by the end of November I knew it was time for something new. In the past I have challenged myself to take shots of people only, however I wanted to attempt something else this time around. After 12 years of the DPP, I could not shoot the same ornaments any longer. (Oftentimes I would find myself wandering around my living room at 11pm grasping at straws for the day’s image.) This year I had the added pressure of working on a final exam for my theology class. While it was rather refreshing to insert a little art into my studying hours, I also gave myself permission to not shoot daily. When I could, I would, but aside from that I cut myself some slack. I knew that some folks wouldn’t like my “eyes closed” idea and I was okay with that. In the end I found a theme that was a lot of fun and truly interesting. It grew stronger as I added more faces to the project, and I could not be happier with the end result.

This month I want to toss up some outtakes from my DPP. I’m keeping post-processing simple by making them all black and white with very little, if any, editing. Enjoy!