I belong to several groups and have several challenges each month.  Challenges keep me fresh and inspire me to photography something every day.

One of the small groups that I led is focused on Contemplative Photography.  And the challenge for February for this small group is to take at least one photo of a subject for a week.

I expanded upon that and took a photo of my subject for a little over a month.  The inspiration for the challenge is Mark Hirsch's work for over a year about "That Tree" where he photographed a tree and then published a book, "One Year in the Life of a Tree".

His photos over that timespan are incredible.  In our small group and with me, the results were insightful, but probably not the kind of photos that would make it into a book, unless it's self-published.

But the learning was vast.

Part of my dilemma was picking a subject knowing that I was going to be gone for 10 days.   So, having props around the house or in my immediate vicinity weren't going to work.

And then I put on the self-defined constraint.....I was going to do this at least from Jan 19 to the Feb 19.  At least a month of photos.

So, I needed something that would always be with me.  And I already knew that my bag was completely filled to the brim for my January adventure into Death Valley, with hiking boots and poles and all of the other stuff that you bring on a hiking vacation.

I tried to pick something as a subject that would always be with me.  I thought about my face....but that was a bit much for me.  Too much revealing.  So, then I thought about my left hand.  It's always with me.  It's not my dominant hand.  Its something that actually could be a stretch and then some.  I also considered that this might be a great time for me to get to know the different photo apps that I have on my relatively new iPhone XS.

My first shots were kind of boring.....but I kind of liked the shadows of my left hand.

Jan 20 Shadow Play Three

And then they involved music....playing songs and having music that shows how the left hand is involved.

Jan 21 Just touching the keys

I suddenly realized on my trip to Death Valley that I always use my left hand to indicate the start of a panoramic.  Why not make it a bit more interesting and have the subject mean something rather than a mere placeholder?  Zabriisky Point and don't notice that I could really use a professional manicure.

Jan 31 Zabriski's Point ThreeThis id my third entry into my fingers of my left hand series.

This is totally not planned. I use my fingers to indicate the start of a panoramic series. And this was just to get that started.

But I like the very, very out of focus Zabriski's point.

And then I played around with cameras and taking photos.

Feb 10 Playing with the old camera

Food photos are a natural.  But who really cares about my high cholesterol diet?

Feb 16 Breakfast One, Portion Potato

It wasn't until near the end of my month long experience that I became more experimental and thought about very, very creative ways to include my left hand.

But my absolute favor is a take on "Hear no Evil, See No Evil, Speak No Evil".

I have to say that I enjoyed my little exploration of one subject matter.  I mainly used my iPhone and the app, Procamera.  I like many of the features of this app.  But its just a means to an end.  Having an interesting subject matter and a little creativity always helps.

Today is my last day of me focusing on my left hand.  I have to say that I look at it in a different way.  It's not the ignored hand anymore.  And, perhaps, in the future, I will think about featuring my left hand again while traveling and when I want an interesting and provocative subject.