What a year! As you have probably read in my New Years post, this year has been quite the roller coaster. So many ups and downs that I probably would not have even remembered them all if I hadn’t been doing this project. On of Dec 31st 2013, I took my last Project 365 picture. It was one that we had planned, probably from the beginning of the project. My buddy Louis and I both started P365 on Jan 01 2013 and have had lots of conversations through the year about “What should I take a picture of?” and “I am out of ideas!!” also “Why did we agree to this!!”. In the end I am glad we stuck with it though. I look back on some of my earlier shots and can actually see a lot of progression in technique and style. (Quick Edit: Louis wrote up his post about P365 over on his site: http://www.gamutofgeek.com/i-need-to-figure-out-my-picture/ )
There are a number of types of shots that I don’t know that I would have done had I not been forcing myself to take something every day. By the end I really started to see myself shooting in 4 different categories:
- Life event – Something significant happened that day and I wanted to document it. Usually this was something like a concert, or event we went to see, but occasionally was something like “we went to see a movie”.
- Outdoor Artistic – This was when I wanted to capture something outside in good lighting, and usually had to travel to get, or at least spend some time getting the right shot.
- Indoor Artistic – If weather was a limiting factor, or I just couldn’t get out, I typically went for a new style or technique. These shots often involved a lot of set up and there is a certain style to them.
- Lazy – Let’s face it, getting a shot every day is tiring. Some days there just isn’t much to shoot and life has beat you up. So I would just grab the camera and take a picture of something/anything.
We had some pretty lenient rules set in place before we started:
- Using the DSLR was primary, but falling back on a Cell phone was ok (Sometimes you just don’t have your good camera on you)
- Midnight was not the cut off, before you went to bed was. (When we started, Louis was working a late shift and would often be up till 2-3am)
- Try and do something different each day
One of the big issues I had in the project was the time change when I was going to and from Kuwait earlier in the year. There was actually a huge scare involving day 35. You see, I apparently suck at numbering. I was constantly getting my day number mixed up (until I found this website to help me with it) so I would usually use the picture from the day before as a reference. Well, with dateline crossing and time shifts, also being up after midnight, my numbers were always getting messed up.
Some time in August, I went into the Flickr set and did a manual count, only to find that my pictures were off by 1 day. Not just the numbering, but the actual total count was missing one. I was crushed. I traced the issue all the way back to Feb 5th. This was the day I traveled back to the states from Kuwait and apparently lost almost an entire day in the process. I freaked out and started looking everywhere for any pictures I may have taken. Thankfully I found that I had taken a picture of my breakfast that Sarah made me. The time frame matches up and I was saved.
After that I was much more diligent about numbering.
So now that I am done, I am planning on taking a small break from carrying my camera around everywhere I go. (Even though Sarah bought me an amazing new camera backpack). Now it’s on to projects that I can focus the theme.
Some advice to anyone willing to try P365? Do it, but go out and explore! Work on something new each day, be it a location, a technique, a style, etc.. Explore Flickr and find some types of shots that you want to try and then do them. Most importantly….. document your life with it. Lots of stuff happens around you, grab a picture of it, but don’t forget to experience it too. When you have the picture, put the camera down and enjoy the show with your own eyes too.
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