fin.

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.

Pretending to read this book

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

A knob. Yes. A knob. Not my finest moment

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.

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:

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

My 2011 in photos

I realize I'm a bit behind on this, but it's still January so I thought I would still be able to get away with doing a more personal blog post about my relationship with 2011. Suffice to say we had our ups and downs but can still be friends :)


There was lots of travel:

Punta Cana

San Francisco

and of course, home

There were a lot of goodbyes:

And a lot of reunions - I visited Winnipeg for the second time:

observed others engaged in fishing

fired a rifle for the first time (scary!)

demanded road-side stops on the highway for photos

I watched some of my friends get married!

Heather & Anthony

Appreciated a number of Nova Scotia sunsets:

And learned to appreciate the art of breakfast

I moved into a real person apartment, above ground and everything!

and adopted a fuzzy friend:

Gerrard is very tolerant

I invested in a wide angle lens:

I learned how to manually operate my film camera:

I turned some of my friends into models:

Jessica

Janet

Janet

And even turned the camera on myself :/

also, learned a bit about Photoshop

and about flash photography

and finally didn't hide my whole face

And I celebrated a second Christmas on New Year's Eve!

Family portrait

I'm looking forward to 2012 and I hope you are too :)

Happy Halloween!

90/365., a photo by n.white1 on Flickr.

A recreation of this image, from a fun movie!

A collection of portraits

I recently signed up for a membership on a website called Model Mayhem with the hope of gaining some more experience shooting portraits. I've pretty much pushed the friends I already have to their limits in terms of impromptu photo shoots, and I prefer to be behind the camera, so I figured it might be a good way to meet people who actually like to have their pictures taken.


Of course, listing oneself as a "photographer" requires uploading a sample of images from a portfolio. I have a fair number of photos on Flickr, but have never really put any thought into what I would include in a portfolio to best represent my photographic 'style'...if I have one.


So, here is a collection of my favourite portraits (you can see a few more here!):

Heath

Emily

Heather & Anthony

Jessica

Gerrard

Man on a boat

Girl

Self portrait