My strategy for each photo was actually to be creative, use my imagination, and use everything I could around me to create the look I was after. I even took a walk through the neighborhood and took some photos around the neighborhood to check for any potential stuff in my pictures that I wanted to see. I mainly used my ceiling fan light, as that is the only fan I have; in some images I also opened up the blinds and turned off the light to use the light from the sun. I made sure my flash was turned off because I wanted all images to have no flash, even by accident. I even did one with the garage door open but no other light as well, and the sun was behind me. In some images I was facing the sun, and in others I was making sure that it was behind me.

I did capture the required times of day; one was when I first woke up that morning, which was about 7 am. The next was around noon, and the other was in the evening after putting my daughter to bed (the date and time are off on my camera; I have to reset it), which she went to bed at 7:30 pm at night, and it was already dark around this time.

My composition is original because I doubt anyone else would have thought of doing a pack of Tahoes for their picture or a burning cigarette or even a portion of where the phone sat. This was for my manmade urban setting, but I did research, and urban is short for suburban, hoping I did that right. So, I thought of what you might see in a suburban setting, and a city came to mind. Like the suburbs of a major city, you would expect to see people smoking and talking on phones, so I wanted to portray this without too much work or too much hassle.

As for the natural surroundings, I wanted to try and portray things I do on a daily basis and my favorite stuff. It was a tough decision choosing the best images. I chose the Camp Rock fleece blanket because I love this blanket; I have to sleep with it every night, and it goes on every car trip with us, so I felt like I would portray this and my love for the blanket in the image. I am a huge soda drinker, so I took a picture of the Pepsi I was drinking, and it is near my computer, which happens to be where I spend 99% of my day anyway. I also took a picture of my backyard right after I let the dog in. I got the idea to do my backyard, especially since pretty soon it will not look this nice because it will start getting colder here soon! I believe that all my images will speak to the viewer and that they are original not just In the image, but in the thought process I put to use with them.

What do you think? Do these images speak to you? Let me know how!