What to Photograph on the “Boring” Days

Episode 7 of Life, Documented talks about the doubts about photographing life when everything feels repetitive or dull. This episode is about shifting your perspective, finding meaning in routine, and discovering why the so-called boring days often matter the most.

🎧 Listen to the episode:

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

One objection I hear a lot when it comes to Project 365 is this:

“There’s nothing interesting to photograph in my life most days.”
“My life is boring.”
“It’s not worth taking photos when nothing is happening.”

And even though digital photography is as close to free as it gets — apart from the storage — who wants to “waste” a photo, right?

If you’re stuck in that loop, you might need to change your point of view.

Dr. Wayne Dyer said:

“When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”

Think about it — your favourite people are probably the most beautiful people you know, inside and out. That’s not because you just happen to have the most objectively beautiful people in your life. It’s because your brain tells you they’re beautiful because you love them. Because you notice them. Because they matter to you.

The same thing happens with moments.

Things you pay attention to become more meaningful. You’re not lacking moments to document — you’re just looking at them the wrong way. And when I say “wrong,” I don’t mean that as a judgement. It’s simply an invitation to shift your focus, or your angle.

And this isn’t about romanticising your life — although if you want to do that, please go ahead. I definitely do it sometimes.

But even without romanticising anything, we can normalise the so-called boring activities — and see how they can be beautiful despite, and often because of, their repetition.

Morning routines.
The school run or your commute to work.
The mess in the kitchen when you’re making breakfast.
The bags and piles of clothes that aren’t supposed to live on the floor.

In the past six years, I’ve taken plenty of images like this. Not because they’re pretty, but because they’re real. My life isn’t very exciting most days but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing to document.

On days when excitement is missing, I turn to my ordinary domestic life. Piles of laundry in the hallway. A shot of the pan while making dinner. I once spent 100 days photographing my commute to work, simply to challenge myself to see different things while walking the same route every day.

Those photos are wonderful and varied and also very similar — and they’re a true reflection of what actually happened.

So why do these everyday moments, the ones that seem too ordinary to document, matter so much?

Because they feel forgettable — but in reality, they shape us the most. They’re the moments that quietly age into meaning. Right now they might seem unimportant, but in a few years they’ll bring back details you would otherwise have forgotten.

Children, especially, recognise themselves in routines. They love repetition. It helps their brains develop, build memory, and understand the world. This is memory. It’s identity. It goes much deeper than just noticing what’s in front of you.

Before I leave you today, I want to give you a small exercise to help you see differently — to change the way you look at things, so the things you look at can change.

Choose one repeated moment and photograph only that for a week. No fancy camera needed — your phone is perfect if that’s what you have. Pay attention to what you start noticing once you move past the obvious. That’s it.

If you feel like sharing how this exercise felt for you, I’d love to hear from you.

Life, Documented

Hosted by Anja, a documentary family and personal branding photographer, the show explores what happens when we start documenting our lives with honesty and attention — without pressure, perfection, or fancy gear.

New episodes are available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

If you’re listening, you can subscribe in your podcast app to get new episodes automatically.

Thank you for reading Life, Documented.

You can share this with someone who’s documenting their life. ❤️