For the last couple of weeks I have been trying to participate in The Daily Shoot, which describes itself as “a simple daily routine to motivate and inspire you to practice your photography, and share your results.” 

Today’s assignment was listed as this:

Henri-Cartier Bresson said “Photography is nothing – it’s life that interests me.” Make a photo that reflects this quote.

This quotation and assignment immediately tweaked my interest.  After all, just a couple of weeks ago I had posted a blog entry about living life in the moment and “creating the past“.  Over the course of the morning I debated what sort of image I wanted to create for this assignment.  I was rolling around various ideas in the vast vacuum that is my head when I had an idea strike me.  The result is the photo you see here:

I felt the urge to try and explain why I posted such a crappy photo to my Flickr page by explaining in the comment section, and I felt I would share those same thoughts here as well:

From a purely photographic perspective, everything about this picture is wrong. The white balance is off and the subjects are backlit. It was captured with the crappy camera in my iPhone so the resolution is poor.

Years from now no one will care about the poor lighting and composition yet everyone who was there will have fond memories of the day we gathered to bid farewell to one of our coworkers and friends. Photography is more than making beautiful pictures, it is about capturing the moment.

I think when it comes right down to it, that likely explains why I took up this photography hobby in the first place, even if I didn’t know it at the time.