Day 1: January 1, 2010
I’m going to try Project 365 again, posting one photo a day for a whole year. I was going to do this in 2007, but I visited my sister on New Year’s Day and accidentally left my camera there, and decided that meant I had to wait a whole year to begin. In 2008, I tried really hard and stuck it out for the whole year, but with gaps — I only have 198 photographs. In 2009, I gave up in mid-January. But I have a good feeling about 2010 — this year I’m really going to try to do this right!
It only takes a couple of minutes to take and post a photograph, but remembering to do it every day is more difficult than I thought. Some days I forgot, sometimes I just didn’t feel inspired. I’m good at making resolutions, not so good at sticking to them. But even though I’ve had limited success with this in the past, it was a good experience. I think it made me take a lot more pictures than usual. I always take a lot, but mostly on weekends or when I happen to be in the mood. Some days I took lots of pictures, but then struggled to decide one I wanted to have represent my day. Some days I deliberately set up a photograph, like I did today, as a statement about the day. Other days I took pictures of random objects just to have a picture, any picture.
As the set starts to grow, I would look at the batch of thumbnails and start seeing my recent past in a glance. I always started in January, and for the first few months I am reminded of how much I dislike the darkness, cold and lack of color of winter in Massachusetts. Come spring, and my thumbnails burst with color. Trips stand out in the set. And I could see other patterns, too, like the periods where I was feeling particularly lonely, bored or unimaginative, where I take way too many pictures of my dog.
So I’m starting again, filled with hope that 2010 will be the year that I really do this, and have a perfect year of photographs. I hope I succeed in actually doing a photo a day, but if I miss a day, I hope I stick with this anyway, and just keep going.
A Few Links
- Project 365: 2010 — My Flickr set for this year (with just one picture at this point)
- Project 365: 2009 — My Flickr set from last year’s attempt, which only lasted two weeks
- 366: A Photo a Day for 2008 — My most successful attempt, with 198 photographs
- Project 365 — Flickr group for sharing and support
- Project 365: How to Take a Photo a Day and See Your Life in a Whole New Way — An introductory article with some good tips on getting started
Pingback: Wenham Cemetery in the Snow