365 Days of Pictures

Random picture from my 2008 self-portrait a day challenge that I did. Man, I miss the green grass!

Andrew asked me something in a comment here on one of my blog posts and I thought it would make a good entry. :) Here is what he asked.

"I was thinking of the 365 photo project myself this year, but instead will do a weekly project me thinks. Would like your views on doing a 365 project if possible. Intense at times for instance?"

My first thought is, "Go for it! What do you have to lose?" I mean if you don't finish it, at least you will have taken more pictures and documented a few things right?

Now I would love to tell you all that the first time I started a taking a picture a day for 365 days that I finished it the first time I started. Nope, I didn't. I did my first complete 365 days (actually it was 366) in 2008. I started it the year before and got maybe a weeks worth of pictures done, that's it. I also tried to do a picture of anything a day in 2009. I didn't get very far into that one either.

For 2008 I think that it actually helped that I had a focus. Self-portraits. At least part of me had to be in the picture and I had to take the picture. I hated being in front of the camera and wanted to have more pictures of me. I also went into this with the thought that I wanted this to be real life. That I didn't want to sugar coat anything and that I wanted the pictures to capture moods, things going on in life, essentially to be a nice capture of what the year held.

I think I'm starting to ramble here, and I'm sure that's not what Andrew had in mind. Let's try to get back to his question.

I don't think that it was intense. I wasn't all about capturing the perfect shot, I just wanted to make sure that I had at least one photo for each day. I carried my camera with me everywhere, just so I wouldn't miss an opportunity. I would highly recommend that.

I will admit that for me, the 365 days of pictures was time consuming, but not everyone is like me. What took me the longest was choosing the picture (very rarely did I take 1 picture to choose from, I took a few, but again, that's just me) and of course the editing of the picture. I played around with my pictures a bit in Photoshop Elements, and then I resized them, and put my name on them before uploading them to flickr. Then after uploading them to flickr, I blogged them all. The editing and that process is what took me the longest. Now you don't have to do all of that, but I did. In fact, I also decided to scrapbook those pictures and I'm still working on that book. I really should finish that....maybe that's what I will bring with me on the next retreat. But that's a whole different subject. :)

The 365 days of pictures was a great experience for me. I learned so much about my camera, editing, everything! I loved it! I also met some fabulous people while doing this and I was so inspired by other peoples pictures. I think that my photography skills improved, at least I hope they did. I also accomplished the goal of being in more pictures. I'm now more apt to be in them as well, I guess you could say that it got me over not wanting to have my picture taken. I also succeeded in documenting life every single day for a year. I would have loved to be able to look back and see a year in the life of my parents, or any of my relatives. What a great history.

A tip I have if you are interested in doing a 365 project, is to keep up with it. I mean obviously you will snap the pictures everyday, but if you want to share them somewhere, then do your best not to get behind. I remember being overwhelmed by not keeping up with that and being overwhelmed by it. I know and understand life gets busy, but if you are feeling overwhelmed by it, then it's not fun anymore. Sharing it right away also makes it much easier to share the story behind the picture, if there is one. There were some days when I went to share the pictures, I couldn't remember why I took that particular shot. What was going on that day, etc. But once again, that was just my preference, I like knowing the story behind the picture.

Honestly, I would encourage everyone to do a 365 project. I found it very rewarding as I described above. I caught many moments (even pictures I didn't share on my Flickr/blog) that I normally wouldn't of, simply because I had my camera at hand. To this day I still carry my point and shoot camera with me wherever I go.

As you can tell from my previous blog posts, I'm attempting a 365 again this year. I'm not doing self-portraits every day, but various things. I want to focus on the here and now. The story behind the photos. How life is now. Record my random thoughts and memories. Likes/dislikes. I'm also using this as an opportunity to learn how to use my new camera. Looking back on 2009 I realized I didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked, and I hope that this gets me back into it. I missed so many moments and memories. Everyday life moments.

I also found a really cool site through Twitter (I can't remember who initially linked me), if you are wondering what in the world you are going to do with 365 photos at the end of the year, it's a possible solution for you. It's called Shutter Cal. At the end of each month, you can order a box of prints from them with the date and a description printed on back. Now I haven't ordered these yet, but I'm planning on it, and I love how they look in the photos! I look forward to seeing for myself. :)

If anyone has any questions about my thoughts on doing a Project 365, leave me a comment and I will answer it! I love comments. :)