Basically I was supposed to take one picture per day. I think I got to day #10 before I had to find a filler. I had no idea that taking one picture per day could be so difficult. Rephrase: I had no idea I could make taking one picture a day so difficult. My general goal for the year was to learn to use my new camera better. Check. I think I did that. I believe the problem was I also used the term "general goal". I had a few of them and I think it would have been easier with one clear-cut purpose: pictures of daily life or "arty" pictures. I ran the gamut on what I took with a few "Crap! It's 11:48pm and I have no picture!" moments.
I started by posting them to the 365project.org website. People can "follow" you and leave comments. This was very helpful when I was looking for criticism and I followed some great photographers who gave lots of inspiration. But I really started trying to make every shot something special when I just wasn't taking the time to pull that off. And it was the uploading every. single. day. and trying to comment to these nice people who were finding time in their day to comment on my pics. Ugh. Too much stress so I deleted that part. By mid-summer I was just taking the pictures and filing them in my computer.
Here's a favorite from each month:
January: Really not my "favorite" for the month, but it's what kicked off the year...
(That New Year's Resolution lasted about as long as my original picture-every-day-intention.)
February: This is one of the shots I was happiest with up to that point. It was an "Intentional" shot. I really did want this outcome and I was so proud of myself that I got it.
March: I don't know why, but this picture was one of the most viewed in my collection on 365project.org
April: I rarely like the use of selective coloring, but I wanted to try my hand at it. I was really happy with this one and Maddie liked it too. Bonus!
May: This was a crazy shot. I read on my friend, Sheri's, picture posts about trying to "make" a macro lens from what you have. You simply remove the lens and hold it against your camera backward. Other than the fact that I shake way too much doing that, it was kind of cool - but blurry. So, then I played with a lot of textures and ended up with something way out of my "box" but one I still really liked for some reason.
June: There was really no special story behind it. We were visiting Kay and I was walking around her house taking pictures. Jake had set up every single army man she had on one little tray table and I was practicing a blurry background. I love that you can just barely make her out sitting in "her spot".
July: Out on my parent's pontoon for July 4th I was able to capture this sunset. This is only slightly (and I mean slightly enhanced). All while on a boat even!
August: I think this was taken at the Arboretum on a bit of an afternoon walk-about. Flowers were one of my favorite things to shoot: they stand still.
September: I tried a couple different "self-portrait" shots throughout the year. This was one of those "I need a picture!" days and was taken with the "Instagram" app on my iPod Touch. Thank goodness I got the newer model because that little camera saved my patootie on many days!
October: This is about the month where I thought this project was never going to end and my picture collection through December shows it. I believe I was laying on the ground at a park to get this shot while a girl and her boyfriend wondered what the heck I was doing.
November: This shot was actually intentional and as I was dashing out the door. Jake's science class was asked to bring in items that helped show the change in our seasons. We had parked our car outdoors the previous night and when I went to leave I noticed this and realized it showed the changing season. Since I couldn't save the actual frost for him, I ran back in for my camera. This only took about 10 shots to get what I wanted and my fingers weren't too frozen in the end.
December: This was the month I was going to DO IT...get through the month with a picture EVERY DAY. Or not. On December 31st I looked through my files and realized I was missing seven days worth of pictures. One of my better months, actually. However, I wanted my last picture to represent the project so I enlisted my family's help.
Would I do this challenge again? Probably not. I'll enjoy the pictures I have from "that one year" but that's it.
However, I am going to try for a 52 week project. This is only one picture per week. I have a clear-cut goal in mind: to take "intentional pictures". I don't want to run around in the last 10 minutes and grab whatever photo I can. I plan to think about what I want to take a picture of and try to execute that idea. I'm not above copying someone else's overall picture idea if it helps me learn how to take better pictures. I'm not out to sell anything, just learn and enjoy.
I have my first picture done for 2012. Only 51 more to go.
2 comments:
Great pictures Kerry. I would love to see all of them! I am kind of regretting joining the 52 group I did already. It's hard for me to have a "theme". I need to be inspired, but this theme business is killing me!
You inspire me in so many ways.
BTW, how do you keep your towels so white :)
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