Good morning (or afternoon, or evening, depending on your locale), my readers!

Today’s daily challenge will hopefully get you out of the box and thinking. Instead of a writing challenge, it’s a visual challenge. All you need is a camera – be it from a cell phone or other mobile device, or an actual camera, it doesn’t matter.

Your challenge for today is to take photos. If you had to describe your day to someone using ONLY photos – not words – what would you choose to photograph? How about if it was limited to 10 photos, or even five, or maybe just one?

Photography is a beautiful way for us to appreciate the world around us and the experiences we have in our lives. Some photographs can speak volumes; some have massive amounts of detail, while others are so simple yet say so much.

Some people might say that a photograph is nothing compared to the real experiences of life, and that’s definitely true. After all, seeing photos of your all-time favorite band in concert can’t even come to close to providing the true experience of being there in person: the music, the people, and that palpable taste in the air of the excitement and energy all around. A photo of a wedding can capture the smiling bride and groom, but it can’t capture the complete feelings of love and pure joy that surrounded the happy couple.

Photos are great for capturing moments, and if done right, they can capture emotions, too. But to make myself clear, photographs aren’t substitutions for real life experiences, and I’m not trying to speak as though they are.

This challenge is really about opening up your eyes to really experience your day in a visual manner, and to figure out how to best express that day to other people. Personally, I usually take photos to serve not as memories, but to jog MY memory in reflecting back on experiences I’ve had. If I think about a vacation I took years ago, I may not remember every experience, but looking back at photos brings up all sorts of swell memories, inside jokes, flashbacks of conversations, etc. It enhances the memories that I’ve already gotten.

So don’t use the photographs as an excuse to not fully enjoy or experience your day — but use them as a way to frame the context of your day.