I had fun with this project but it definitely did not come wothout it's challenges. My husband and our three children and I traveled to Leesburg, VA to spend Thanksgiving with my husbands family. His parents recently downsized and moved about an hour away from their previous home to Leesburg to be closer to my husbands brother and his family. This was the first time we'd visited their new house so I really didn't know what to expect in terms of layout, lighting, etc until we arrived. The main living space is very long and narrow with windows on two sides. The sun rises and beams in the sliding door early in the day and then as the sun moves overhead it almost immediately starts beaming in the other window on the side of the house. There are blinds on the windows but they were left open for most of the day and when I closed them to help the glare, the sun still seemed to peek in. The long, narrow layout was also a challenge as I was right on top of everyone most of the time, pointing a camera in their face and taking photos rather then helping to prepare the Thaksgiving dinner (thought that could be considered a big "plus" depending on how you look at it. ha!) Regardless, I did have to help wrangle my kids at times, say hello to guests and also help prep some of the food, so I did feel like a few moments that would have been nice to photography were lost.

My husband and Father in Law also decided to fry a turkey this year. Yummy, but incredibly messy and must be done outside. Luck for them it was a beautiful sunny day, but not so lucky for trying to take photos. Their front walkway was the most level area to place the fryer but the area is also very narrow and runs along a retaining wall bordered by a fence. This orientation was probably even more difficult then the narrow space inside to try to photograph. There was almost no where to stand to get a good shot other then if I'd scaled the retaining wall or climed in a tree down by the small creek to get a better sightline. Neither of which I was willing to do for the perfect shot. While the turkey was frying the path of the sun made it so the sun was shining directly in everyones eyes for the majority of the time when they were outside. Not ideal.

The kids were also playing in the basement for most of the day, which had its own dark, overhead lighting challenges. I tried to make the best of it, though, but felt like I was constantly switching between super bright sunlight, bright and glaring sun/incandescent light inside and then dark, overhead light downstairs. I was trying to catch a variety of moments to help maintain a story arc and think some of my metering was off because I was trying to quickly switch as fast as I could and before people moved onto the next Thansgiving prep task or before my kids decided "no more pictures!"

Overall I think these 15 photos represent our Thanksgiving - red solo cups , makeshift table and all. In the downsizing, my in laws also decided to give away their old dining room table and chairs so we used a folding table and one that is usually outside on the deck. They also decided less dishes and glasses to wash when dinner was over was for the best, so red solo cups it was. To me that seems even more "American" to say "to the heck with fancy glassware". After dinner I was hoping to get a good photo of everyone relaxing on the sofa, full of turkey, but that never happened. The make shift table was still in the way and people dispersed rather quickly.

Overall I really enjoyed documenting this Thanksgiving and loved the photojournalism feel of the assignment. In the future I'd love to have a second camera so one can be set for one type of lighting condition and the other for a different type of lighting. If I was really trying to document something fast paced that would help with being able to ensure a better shot that is properly metered and has the appropriate shutter speed and aperture.