week 1/52 {gratitude, 52 week photography challenge, chicago photographer}

By now you have probably heard about the 365 day challenges - you take a picture a day for the entire year. I debating signing up to do this challenge, but reality hit and I knew I would probably make it 3 days in and give up. Life is busy - two young kids, running my own business, getting a brewery up and running, plus time for myself doesn't give tons of free time for a daily image.

Good news is a few other photographers from NAPCP decided 365 was a lot to take on as well and decided to do a 52 image challenge instead - one image per week. Perfect! Each week has it's own unique theme and I will post my images here on the blog with a brief explanation about how I thought through the image.

Week one's theme is gratitude.

I thought about this image for a long time. I'm clearly the most grateful for my amazing family - my loving husband and beautiful daughters, and yes even the dog. But that felt expected and so I kept thinking. It came to me when I was brewing my morning coffee in my new Chemex that I am truly grateful for a good cup of coffee.

There are so many reasons why - first it starts my day off right. I am more energized and therefore ready to take on whatever the little munchkins are going to throw my way! I am not yawning all the time and thinking about crawling back into bed, I am happy with every single delicious sip. And happiness is contagious.

Second, it's fun. I am a former Starbuck's barista and have the coffee bug in a big way. I get a sense of accomplishment (albeit small) from brewing my own coffee and not leaving it up to those watery K-cups. Plus it's cool to watch - and looks pretty impressive too!

So there you have it, gratitude, in a home brewed cup of coffee.