in January of 2015 I was getting fed up. Between the day job and dealing with the nastiness of winter in Michigan I was not finding any time to focus on photography. So what is the most logical course of action when you have too much to do and not enough time to do it? Start a 365 day photo project, of course!
There's a lot of different ways to do a 365 project, some people pick themes and try to shoot in line with that for a week, month, or some variation. I just wanted to wing it and shoot whatever I found interesting. I started out with the idea that I would kind of document my day to day activities but it didn't quite pan out that way as I'll explain later.
First of all, the only rule I was going to follow was to take at least one photo every day. No themes, no elaborate set building, no posting to every insta-face-twit every single day. Those are for people who don't spend 50 hours a week at a day job, own a house and have dogs that need to poop every 2 hours. If I was out shooting for any reason, I'd use one of those photos. If not, take a little time and shoot things I find interesting throughout the day. Edit and post to my blog and Flickr as time allows. Other sites can wait.
So on February 1st I began this ambitious project and quickly came face to face with an unfortunate truth. My day to day life is boring. Get up, deal with winter, go to work, come home, deal with winter, go to bed, and try to squeeze a little bit of photography time into there. Rarely did anything interesting catch my eye during my commute and when it did I was usually stuck in traffic or late for work and missed the moment. If I didn't want 365 pictures of the same thing I was going to have to go out and find them. So I began to take a break from work during the day and go out for a short drive or walk and look for things to shoot. And for a foggy morning sunrise, well, I would just have to be late for work.
Day 39: Gateway to a Mysterious Land
The Good, Bad, & Ugly
I managed to complete the project some 7000 photos later and missed just 1 day.
So did I become a super expert master photographer after all that? Well, no.
During the project it felt like I wasn't learning anything or improving, especially on those days where I found myself at ten to midnight without taking any photos and having to rush around and shoot a light switch or something. But a few weeks after completing it I went on a trip to the Florida Keys and found things had changed in subtle ways. Focus, exposure, and compositions were coming more intuitively. I spent less time thinking about the camera and was acting more instinctively.
I also came up with quite a few ideas for new projects, but the 365 project didn't leave me anytime to pursue those. Good thing I wrote them down, eh?
And more than photography, I learned two other things:
I really, really, hate winter.
I need more adventure in my life.
Time to rest my brain and let my heart take over for a while.
With yesterday being the Vernal Equinox, a.k.a the first day of spring, here's to hoping that days like this are behind us for a while.
I gotta go where it's warm!
Obviously they didn't see my post from a couple days ago, otherwise they would be running away from me...
A series of variations on the same subject.
Australian Style = Down Under
As I reach the halfway point of my photo-a-day project, this tip is a reminder that a good back-up plan is essential for dealing with large quantities of photos. My current back-up system is the inexpensive Sinology 413J, loaded up with 10TB of hard drives. Should be good for a while, even with the 50 Megapixel 5Ds.
A howler full of the elusive Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout, good stuff!
Ever wonder what happens to hidden Easter eggs that aren't found? Saw a squirrel running around with this one and chewing it open to get at whatever goody was inside. The squirrels will be the end of us all.
Well at least that's what it looks like to me...
37/365 Shipshape Shadow
38/365 Trees & Fog in Kollen Park
Close-up of the front of a portable heater.
So my wife found this unusual looking light at a thrift store and knowing my fascination with photographic lighting she bought it for me. Turns out it is photographic light, sort of. It's a medical lamp for viewing mammogram films. So I present to you, the "boob lamp."
Hardly any color was in this scene so I converted it to black & white with Nik Silver Efex.
Macro of a 1970's era Mamiya 645 film camera found in my grandfathers' camera collection.
Some days aren't for going out and finding things to photograph, some days it's all work.
With temperatures in single digits and lower and snow piling up I'm just going to believe that this is real and I'm really there right now.
To fend off the doldrums of cloudy gloomy days and 4 degree temperatures I decided to tackle a 365 project starting February 1. So far at 19 days in I'm still going but definitely lagging with the editing and posting. Nevertheless, here we go with day 1 of 365.
Back to the '80s. Yeah I spent a lot of time there playing Atari games and eating Doritos.
Sunken Gardens, Lincoln Nebraska
30 May, 2014
