East Preston woman’s year-long photo ambition

Loving mother Lisa Stevens, 27, of Saxon Close, took a photograph every single day for the past year of her two-year-old son, Ewan, as part of an online, life-sharing blog.

Lisa, who has lived in East Preston for more than eight years, shared intimate and touching moments of Ewan, from learning to walk to his second birthday, on social networking site, Blipfoto.

“This is the first time I have ever been involved in photography,” said Lisa.

“I had been guilty of snapping blurred and out-of-focus pictures with no meaning before.

“Initially, when I heard of the site, I wondered what on earth I’d have to take a daily photograph of, but as my Ewan started developing and reaching milestones that I wanted to capture, it made me realise that even if I didn’t take photos of anything else, I could use his milestones as my subject.

“It’s been tough sometimes. I’ve had moments where I’ve struggled for inspiration, but I’ve fulfilled my challenge of taking 365 photos – even if I do have a few gaps in my journal here and there – and it feels good.”

Lisa, who is married to Day, says that taking photos on a daily basis helped her overcome the difficulties during a period of post-natal depression.

“Taking the pictures gave me something to focus on. It was a massive help in getting me past my problems with post natal depression. It also provided me with some inspiration, too. I wanted to capture, not only the positive moments in life, the negative ones, too.

“There’s always the temptation just to catch the positive aspects of life and ignore the rest. I believe it’s both of these elements combined that help to define a person.”

Lisa, who is still adding, or “blipping”, pictures to her online journal, feels that she now sees the world in an entirely different light.

She now shoots more pictures of the world around her, including the beaches at Littlehampton and East Preston, as well as the pier in Littlehampton.

Her journal and photos can be viewed at her Blipfoto account www.blipfoto.com/narabug