1 second everyday | bismarck, nd dslr camera class

I want to share this personal project I did in 2017. I talk a lot in my Everyday Life Workshop about the importance of capturing your children in their everyday lives (hence, the name of my class). I teach parents how to do just that, and do it well, using their DSLR cameras. But I also talk about embracing imperfection. Often times, just capturing the moment is more important than creating a technically perfect image.

At last year’s workshop, I was only a few weeks into this project and starting something in the dark and seemingly uneventful days in the middle of a North Dakota winter just wasn’t all that fun at first. It was at that workshop where I found myself eating my own words! I realized that the things I was worried about most in starting it, like awful lighting and poor iPhone video quality didn’t mean a thing to me in the end. Those imperfect, uneventful days are the beauty of our life. The things we do day in and day out that seem ordinary now are the things we’ll never want to forget.

This notion is exactly why I started the Everyday Life Workshop five years ago. Tomorrow, I will be opening up registration for the next workshop which will be held Saturday, February 10 in downtown Bismarck. (Details can be found here.) Whether you attend or not, I hope this inspires you to challenge yourself to capture more of your family’s everyday moments in 2018.

1 second every day | the milbradt family | 2017 from Everyday Art Photography on Vimeo.

I created this video by using an app called 1 second everyday.  We all have our phones within reach nearly 24/7, so taking a video clip of your life each day is a very achievable task.  Set yourself a reminder on your phone if you need to so you don’t forget, especially when you first start.  There were plenty of days when I didn’t remember to capture it until my children’s bedtime or even after, but I was still able to capture something for that day.  To be fair, I did totally miss 4 days, too!

This genius app allows you to easily import your videos from each day and trim them down to exactly one second.  It stores each clip for you and puts the date stamp on it. (Often times, once I have my videos uploaded to the app, I just delete them from my phone, but the app only keeps the 1 second clip, not your entire video.) When you’re ready to view the full video, it mashes them all together and the outcome is magical, especially 365 days later! I exported my 2017 video and used some video editing software to add in some title frames as well as the music.  If I can give you one tip from the start it is to remember to always only HORIZONTAL videos!  In the beginning, I had to scrap a couple of great clips because I took them vertically with my phone.