August was our first full month apart since Hannis moved to Rwanda (sad face) so we decided our first Broadener should last the whole month. What better way to have an insight into each others’ day to day lives than by taking a themed photo every day?
So, the rules.
- iPhone camera only
- Must be taken on the day unless it’s reaaaally good and you’ve spotted an opportunity to take a photo in advance because you’ve looked at the titles for later days
- They must be square format to avoid too much faffing for posting them on instagram
- It shouldn’t be ridiculously hard work. If it’s stressful, it’s wrong.
- You will only find out what the other person has taken a picture of once both have been done.
Simples eh? Some photos got vetoed for rule breaking. Some were amazing, some were dreadful. For “clock” I took a screenshot of a sweet countdown timer on my phone that was counting down the days and hours and minutes to my trip to Rwanda. HARD NO apparently. (ok, ok, it was a cheeky try). Hannis is frightfully good at spotting a nice photo opportunity and has a lot more experience taking beautiful shots since he’s had a DSLR camera for a few years. Some of his photos were really rather stunning (or am I biased much?).
Here are the days’ titles (links to Instagram posts if you click on the title too):
- Your Neighbourhood
- Clock
- Where I Sat
- Drink
- Kitchen
- Outside
- Homemade
- Loud
- Bumpy
- Parallel Lines
- Share
- A Treat
- Different
- Black and White
- Colourful
- A Pair
- Fresh
- On The Ground
- Open
- In Between
- A Goal
- Lunch
- Money
- Commute
- Green
- Water
- Morning
- Above
- Happy
- Something Old
- Love
So how did we find it?
We really struggled with “different” which was surprising. I thought it would be one of the easier ones. Turned out taking a photo of something (or someone) “different” feels a bit un-PC and rude so we decided to take a picture of the same thing in different countries which was much more interesting anyway.
My favourite theme was actually the first one, “your neighbourhood“. It was a real dichotomy to put the two photos of our neighbourhoods side by side and I can’t wait to see Rwanda in real life, it looks so earthy but green at the same time. But really the most different of the photos was the day we did “drink“. Hannis was having a beer doing some DIY (building a drinking game called cornhole) and I was at a wedding where the Wedding Breakfast was a luscious afternoon tea with Champagne. Cliche central, I kind of wished the photos were taken the other way round (until I scoffed the scones, then I wasn’t sorry).
Other highlights for me were Hannis’ photos for “outside” and “something old“.
Hannis is really good at capturing light and sometimes I’m amazed at what he can do with an iPhone camera. Hannis liked “loud“. It’s quite fun and challenging trying to capture sounds, feelings or smells just with pictures.
We were both surprised (and pleasantly so) that we picked experiences for “a treat” rather than food or drink. Playing with my god-daughter is honestly so much fun and I don’t get to see her as often as I’d like so it really embodied the title for me. Hannis hasn’t had much time to relax since he hit the ground running in Kigali so equally his moment to relax in his hammock was a real treat.
Posting a photo every single day was so much more effort than it sounds but I loved the way it made us open our eyes all day long looking for the right moment. It made me appreciate that there is beauty and opportunity in every day.
So what did you guys think? Which were your favourites or least favourites? Sit tight for our next Broadener, it’s gonna be very different but very fun!
Lots of love
Fern xx
