This post is almost a week late. I promise I’ve been taking pictures every day, but what I haven’t been doing is editing every day. Big mistake! For anyone thinking about doing a 365 challenge/project, I highly recommend setting aside enough time every day to edit and post the picture. In fact, I recommend that you do a little more planning than I did (which was none).
I went into this project thinking “Hey, I’ll just take one picture a day. This will a fun and easy project!” The reality is that it’s overwhelming without a few guidelines. By week two I was really struggling for inspiration so I turned to the internet for some help. I Googled things like “365 project”, “365 challenge”, and “photo a day”. As it turns out, I am NOT the first person to do this, but I’m probably the most underprepared (it’s kinda my thing – ever run a marathon without proper training? Cuz I have.).
People actually put together calendars for an entire year of what they were going to shoot! That felt a little restrictive to me so I settled on a different idea – I would pick a theme for each day of the week so that I have some guidance as to what to shoot. Below are the themes I’ve chosen.
Mondays – Anything Goes
Tuesdays – Food
Wednesdays – Indoors
Thursdays – Personal
Fridays – Cats
Saturdays – Portraits (friends/family/self)
Sundays – Urban landscape
Disclaimer – I skipped Friday. I had tickets to the opera and didn’t get home until almost midnight. I took a few extra pictures Sunday to make up for it.
Divvy bikes lined up in my neighborhood. Not my favorite picture of this week, but I was getting desperate to find something to take a picture of. I feel like repetition is an easy picture. This was also the night that I started Googling this project and realized how unprepared I was.
I’ve never understood why people take pictures of their food. It’s never interested me, but here I am taking pictures of my curried mussels. I realized that I need a cleaner kitchen and/or table if I’m going to photograph food. Also, I highly recommend these from Wilde. Delicious!
My bedside table.
I wandered around my apartment for an hour looking for something interesting. All I can say about this category is that it’s going to be hard. It’s probably going to test my creativity the most.
My lion salt and pepper shakers. I love these because, well…. cats (duh!) and also my sorority’s mascot was a lion. I also realized these are not the only animal salt and pepper shakers I own. I guess I have a thing for salt and pepper shakers shaped like my favorite animals. When did I become this person??
Portrait of one of my favorite people on this earth. I took this at a bar while we were out celebrating a friend’s birthday. The only reason this picture turned out was because of the light from his cell phone. I learned that even my fast lens isn’t enough in low lighting. I’ll need to start experimenting with flash.
I liked the way the light coming through the blinds hit the table and chair. It reminded me of a noir film.
Rose is probably the subject of the majority of my photos. For every photo I share, there are another dozen sitting on my memory card.
Even if this project doesn’t make me a better photographer, I’m learning a lot about myself and documenting bits and pieces of my life along the way. Have you tried a 365 challenge? What did you learn?
Love your posts; your writing is delightful, your photos “artful”. Keep ‘em coming. jof
Love your pics! Can’t wait to see the next installments! Blessings to you – Vivian
Thanks, Vivian!