It started last year & Sayer was my inspiration. I had an idea to officially document his birthday every year by taking photos of him in our photo studio. I would come up with an idea of how to take the photos by using his interests from the previous year as my guide. I turned 40 last year & felt that it would be a good time for me to start documenting my birthdays too.
Now over the years, I slowly started to shy away from the camera myself- being much more content behind the lens rather than in front of it. However, this little exercise in documenting each year has helped that shyness a bit. Deep down- I'm really a ham & it takes the right photographer to bring that out. I started realizing that music, a fun idea, & a timer on the camera was just what I needed to really enjoy the self portrait process. I now look forward to my birthday for a different reason than I used to - so I can fiddle around in the studio with the camera. This year I was excited to play around with the idea of being literally in the '40's & my love of vintage cameras. Yes, I just finally saw the Woody Allen movie, Midnight in Paris, which I think inspired my little photo shoot tremendously.
I think it will be cool to look at February 17th every year through my eyes. This year the focus was the camera & last year it was balloons.... but really, it's always about having a really fun, creative hour to myself on my birthday. Do you have a birthday tradition?