Cindy McEnery makes a point to take a walk every day in this chilly month, delighting in public art, architecture and moments of beauty
by Ayn-Monique Klahre | photography by Cindy McEnery

According to photographer Cindy McEnery, “January is the absolute down time for me. It’s grey, it’s cold, there’s nothing going on.” That’s why about three years ago, she challenged herself to take a picture every day of the month. “It forces me to get up every morning, grab a coffee and get the dog in the car,” McEnery says. “We’ll roam around and delight in discovering alleys and passageways you don’t normally notice when they’re full of people… Though sometimes if it’s too cold outside, I’ll take a photo of something in the house.”

A serious amateur, McEnery started focusing on photography about two decades ago, when she retired from a career in sales for IBM. “I enjoyed using a camera as a child. I always had one around and I’d piddle with it,” she says. After a “brush with breast cancer” in 2014, she combined her interest in photography with the practice of strolling. “My doctor said, I don’t care how bad you feel, walk every day,” she says. (She’s been cancer-free for 11 years.) So she’d grab her iPhone to seek out images as a way to add dimension to her walks. After that, she started taking lessons, learning more and more about the practice. And while she has the full range of professional cameras, she just as often uses her iPhone’s camera to capture photos.

She often takes 30 to 40 shots of the same thing, trying different angles — like one side or the other, or higher or lower, or close-up or further away. “It becomes something different as you learn and understand it,” she says. “I’ll spend a lot of time on one subject. I tend to be drawn to the details; I never see the forest for the trees.”

McEnery generally prefers urban architecture and finding her images along city streets. “I like to pick up the sense and the vibes of the city,” she says. “Right now, Raleigh is so exciting.” Sometimes she’ll set off with an idea of the direction she’s going in, like the Warehouse District or Oakwood Cemetery. “Other days, I’d have no idea,” she says. Dorothea Dix Park is one of her favorite places to shoot. “I love to go there and take my dog to the run, then see what’s out there. It’s exciting to see the energy there, with all the kids and strollers and dogs and bikes,” she says.

McEnery has found that her pictures evolve over those 31 days. “Initially, color catches my eye,” she says. “I love murals, they’re amazing, and the way buildings are being painted in Raleigh right now.” Over time, she’ll find she’s looking for more nuance, paying closer attention to the intersections between spaces and people, experimenting with different photography techniques or ranging wider in her search for something interesting to shoot. “When I start out, it’s a lot easier than it is by the 31st of January!” she says. “But when I make the effort, I’m always rewarded.”

For this issue, McEnery shared some of her photos from last year’s challenge in hopes that it might inspire a creative practice for others. “In January, everything can be viewed through a new perspective,” she says. “There’s so much joy out there, but you have to take the time to look for it.

This article originally appeared in the January 2026 issue of WALTER magazine.