Project 365 – January

Over the last year or so I have started and dropped a lot of photo projects. Really, the only one I have ever been able to keep up is a Project 365 where you take a picture everyday. I did it in 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010. Then I took a break for a couple of years. I started to feel like I was trying so hard to get a good picture some days that I was actually missing out on what was going on. But recently, I’ve started to miss it. Plus I love looking back at that year in pictures and seeing everything that was going on in my life from the ho-hum to exciting trips. So, this year I decided to try again. I’ve made it through the month of January…

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I’ve told myself I’m not going to be concerned about getting “photographer” quality shots this year. Instead I am going to focus on the little things that happen in my life everyday. I was invited to join a great group on Facebook who are also doing the project. Everyone in the group seems to have the same goal which takes a lot of the pressure off.

Have you every done a Project 365 or are you doing one now? What do you get out of it?

Btw: If you’d like to see any of my pictures so far this year bigger, you can see them in my Flickr set.

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7 Comments to Project 365 – January
    • Manisha
    • Many of your photos are inspirational to me, makes me think harder about improving the quality of my own images. But life gets in the way and so, I’m going to something similar – focus on the little things that happen around me.

    • Katherine
    • I don’t know if I could do a full year, but I am doing a photo challenge for the month of February. Do you find it easier to take whatever picture you want or to have prompts? Or maybe you never did one with prompts.

      • Kat
      • Katherine, I tried doing one with prompts last year and really struggled with it. We had a word every week. Perhaps it was just that the prompts themselves didn’t speak to me. I think I find it easier to just take a photo of whatever grabs me & not worry about whether or not it fits a theme.

    • DrRuss
    • Kat,

      As you have probably read, I am doing an Envelope a Day challenge where I doodle on an envelope and post it every day.Not high art but the challenge means something different for me. So far, here are my thoughts:

      (1) I need to get out of my comfort zone and share the not so perfect things that I do. This forces me to post every doodle that I do. Because of the commitment to post every day, I am forced to share what I have done.

      (2) This is important because I had become so obsessed with only showing perfect things that I would become paralyzed by the imperfect nature of what I was creating. Rather than work through the process, I would just stop.

      (3) By posting the imperfect nature of what I am doing, I am enjoying the process more. Out of everything that I post, I can usually find “something” that I like about the doodle.

      (4) The intrinsic rewards of completing each day’s doodle, for me, is very gratifying so I also get the enjoyment out of completing the day’s “assignment.”

      (5) Finally, when I arrive at my day job, my mind is in full operational mode because I have already started the day creatively on the subway ride to work. I have been amazed at how my doodles have jump started my office work.

      Finally, I think the challenge is about the process rather than the content. Think of yourself as a well trained athlete–you can’t be expected to perform 100% and win every time. So picking something in your day to chronicle is a smart choice. Think of the lasting memory that you will have for future viewing. I, too, love your photographs (as I have already mentioned). If I were you, I would take your 365 pictures and afterwards get them bound in a book.

      Sorry for the long post.

      • Kat
      • Thanks for your insight Dr. Russ. I did put the first year into a book, but never got around to doing the others, I really should. I think you are right, giving myself leeway to not take a perfect or beautiful picture everyday has made it a lot easier.

    • Barb
    • I love this idea, wish I had heard of it in Dec. so I could have started in Jan. but, I think I’ll start now & see how it goes. I did something similar last year with my knitting. I decided I would make matching scarves for my entire family so we could take a family picture with them at Christmas. I made scarves all year long (in addition to my other knitting projects) and finished the last one on Dec. 23. I made 50+ scarves (I made some extras). However, we never took that picture because we have so many doctors & nurses & other medical professionals in our family we couldn’t get everybody together – we’re still planning to get everyone together at some time to get that picture.

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