Daily Picture Grade 4 - Day 84

Picture today is crooked. Too lazy to change the lens so I had to lay far away on the floor to capture a spin (yes, that is what she is attempting). Laying there, I realized that I shove a lot junk into spaces below the knees. I might need to clean that up a bit! I can't straighten it with a crop as then I lose her head or her feet. I would hate for the spin to not look complete. But this morning what I noticed the most is how we've broken this task down into a routine. Last year we took 172 Daily Pictures. This year already we have taken 83. 155 times we stage, take the picture(s), load them, sort out the best, fix it (not often), export it, load it, caption, publish. I even have a method for sorting out the best: look at them all in full screen, mark any potential keeper with two stars, delete the others, re-look at the two stars and mark the better with three stars, delete, repeat until 1 is left. a little like doing an eye exam each day, "better like this... or this...". I think that as humans we prefer to break everything down into repeatable processes like this. It is soothing to give our brains a rest I guess. I have read articles about how little of our brain we actually use, and I suppose this mental automation contributes somehow. And our nature makes us desire to run on automatic as often as possible. We call that "simplify your life". BUT, I added this commentary because I stopped the automated process this morning and took a moment to really look at one of the pictures. I let the right side of my brain take over and pondered context a bit. I was thinking about the conversation Natalie and I were having during her spin efforts. Sigh, that led me to give her a virtual hug thinking about how much I love her. I think we all need to break our automation more often during the day. Take a moment and LOOK at the picture of your family next to your computer screen. Try to remember how you felt during that moment (hopefully it was proud but perhaps not) and let it wash over you. I promise it will make completing your task more fulfilling than when you do it on Automatic.

"Spinner, Spinner, Chicken Dinner"