Is anyone else out there thinking of starting a Project 365 in 2013? I think this might be the year I finally stick to one!
For those of you that don't know what this is, the idea is to take a photo each day in the year. You can choose to share and upload on the Internet (most people do I would imagine) although there is no reason why you can't just keep them to yourself if that's what you prefer!
So, why do a Project 365? It's quite a big commitment (if only to yourself) but I think the rewards make it worth it. You will have a visual history of every day of your year, and be able to remember what you did or who you saw, or even what you felt. If you are doing this with your children it will also be an amazing way to document their growth and accomplishments. Although this is not a reason why I am doing it this year, it will also improve your photography skills.
Although you will undoubtedly start off with a lot of enthusiasm, it can quickly wane. I started one last year but never really got into the habit of it so it fell by the wayside (I take pictures most days anyway, but just not as rigid as a photo a day!) My feeling is that it would be helpful to have a theme so that you have some structure to a 365 project, so this is what I intend to do this year. I had a look to see what other people are doing and there are lots of themes out there - children, crafts, self portraits, food, neighbourhoods. As I still want to have a lot of flexibility in my little project so I think my theme is going to be "thankful" - the idea being to take a photo each day of something that I am thankful for. It gives a lot of flexibility whilst giving me something concrete to focus on. Hopefully by the end of the year this will be a lovely visual representation of the good things in my life, and will hopefully make me stop and think a little bit each day. And I already have a plan of how I would like to display these - I just need to take a year's worth of photos first!
If a Project 365 seems a little too daunting, many people do a Project 52 instead - where you take a photo each week instead of each year. Same idea, but perhaps a little easier to commit to.
I also intend doing a Project 52, but for something different! I would like another project that is geared more towards improving my photography skills both in terms of creativity and technical ability (I see the Project 365 as more a personal project rather than a photography skills related one) This should definitely be harder, but hopefully worth it! Again, these usually have weekly themes that are open to interpretation, these are usually one word themes such as "Delicate" or "Alone". Your job is to simply to go out and photograph something that will fit that weeks theme. So, I'll either join an existing Project 52 Group and use their weekly themes, or I'll create my own at the start of the year and work to that. (If anyone likes the idea of doing a Project 52 along with me, let me know and I will set up some weekly themes for us and post them weekly on here!)
Let's just hope that I make it past February this year with them!
7 comments:
i think a 365 is a bit too much for me. i would get overwhelmed.
the biggest thing that scares me about a 52 project is the organization of it. how would i keep up with the week's photo? i guess i could keep a separate folder in lightroom. but then how would i ever choose one photo? i could easily do a 52 with the number of pictures that i take, but i'd need some guidance on how to organize it to make it work. i think doing a theme for each week would be very interesting.
My project 365 will be kept in a seperate folder -I'm not intending to share that (although I may post a selection on here from time to time!) I'm going to take just one photo intended for my 365 (I may take more during the day but just one photo of something that I am thankful for. My project 52 is going to be a creative one, so that's really for me to try to improve and challenge myself creatively. I'm going to post themes here each week, if anyone wants to take part, they can! I've never managed to stick with either before so I'll have to work it out as I go along!
Hmm I really want to try this. And I love the 'thankful' theme for the 365. But how am I going to stop myself taking a photo of my child on each of the 365 days?!! ��
you can always take pictures of things like your child's handprints along the counter tops, arts and crafts, dirty high chair trays, etc. for the thankul 365. that's really a neat way to capture the things that you otherwise may not remember. then you could do a giant poster sized print of all the pictures at the end of the year and frame it. hum, should i go for this project!?!
I think you both should do it! I think I may have bitten off more than I can chew with two projects but hopefully I'll stick to it. Remember you can always just take a snap with your iPhone so you can make it pretty easy on some days....x
Alrighty I'll give them both a go. I've always thought the best way to start the day is to think about what you are thankful for (attitude is gratitude and vice versa) but sometimes I forget so this will be a reminder! Do you think we should have consistency through the photos (eg all edited same way) or is there anything else we should keep in mind?
I thought about that too - I think I'll just edit each one as it comes, although I'm not going to do too much editing on the 365 ones, I think these might end up being more snapshots for me, but I can't resist a bit of editing. I'll keep them in a seperate folder though and if I decide I want them all to have a certain look, I'll batch edit them at the end. My 52 project is going to be my "creative" one so I'll edit each image on its own merits. Details of the 52 coming up shortly!
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