After many loooong months (12, in fact), I am finally finished my 365 day photo project. As of July 31st I am no longer obligated to find something to take a photo of every. single. day. While that does alleviate some amount of pressure, I now actually enjoy carrying 10 lbs of cameras everywhere I go, so I don't feel that the end of my 365 will really change how often I use them.
This project has been long. Sooo long. So long that before this year, I never really had an appreciation for how long a year is (trust me, it's a LONG time - if you still need convincing, I challenge you to do 50 jumping jacks a day for 365 days, except you have to find a new location every day in which to do them, and wear a different outfit each time). It has also, fortunately, been a very rewarding experience. Here are some of the ways in which I have been pushed/shoved, pulled, poked and prodded over the last 365 days:
It's hard to think of something new and creative to do every day, so I ended up taking a considerable number of self portraits (I hate having my photo taken). No matter what the end result was, it was always an unpleasant process.
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| Pretending to read this book |
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| Homage to American Psycho (my Halloween photo) |
Most of the time, however, I did not feel like being in front of the camera. As such there were many days of struggling through a lack of ideas
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| A knob. Yes. A knob. Not my finest moment |
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| Gerrard, bored with my silly ideas. |
A benefit of struggling with knobs etc. is to be forced to look at things from a new perspective
Another benefit: what started as a desperate kind of gratitude for "attractive objects I normally have as a backup photo" developed into a deeper appreciation for the beauty of everyday surroundings.
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| Gerrard, always a stunner, and some daisies |
I have learned a few new techniques over the past year. For instance, I can now fly:
Create hurricane force wind in my living room:
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| Janet |
And infinite loops:
And use the force:
I also learned some things about using an off-camera flash
But I have a long way to go with that - it's still pretty hard for me:
Most importantly, this project has really deepened my appreciation of photography. I currently shoot mostly with film, every day, even surpassing the need to get one good picture for my project (on the...ahem...FOUR analogue cameras I've acquired since January - it's a little addictive), and this past winter, I learned how to develop and print my own negatives
It's been a demanding but invaluable experience!
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The full set of images is here
