2012 Photo 365 wrap-up
I had some doubts that I’d get through the whole thing, but I did it! 366 daily photos!
My goal for the project was to become a better photographer and, to a point, I think I have. I’m definitely more competent with my camera and am able to look at things a little differently than I used to be able to. I think the thing I most improved on is when it comes to using an external flash. Since a large amount of my photos were taken at home with horrible natural lighting, I was forced to learn how to properly bounce my flash off of walls and the ceiling to create more natural looking lighting.
I’m definitely walking away from 2012 with a ton of photos that I would have never taken if not for this project. For me, that alone makes it worth it. While there were many points when I may have been just going through the motions to make it until the end of the year, I was still forcing myself to think about photography in some manner every day. Just having to think about it and being forced to try new things had a huge impact on my photography and there’s a clear progression of that when going through the photos chronologically.
As happy as I am that I did this project, I won’t be doing it again in 2013. There were a lot of times when the project was a lot of fun and it definitely paid off, but there were also a lot of times when it was a burden. After a long day of work, I wasn’t always in the mood to deal with taking a photo. Some days were just way too busy to even think about picking up my DSLR. Taking a single photo a day doesn’t seem like it would be too time consuming, but my goal was to create “at least one presentable photo everyday.” It couldn’t just be any photo, it had to be something worth sharing. That isn’t always quick and easy. Add in marathon training and time was a premium. This project was a lot of stress for me. Worth it, but stressful.
Still, I liked that this project prevented me from getting lazy or my camera from collecting dust for weeks at a time. I love photography, but every hobby needs a little motivation when you’re feeling lazy or even just a bit off. So I still wanted to do something for 2013 to continue that. I’ve decided to do a Photo 52 project instead. This time it won’t be about just producing a photo every day. I’m going to have a weekly idea or theme and have all week to capture that. The project won’t be limited to just one photo though. The end result of each week may be a single photo or a collection of photos. Either one.
Anyway, since I stopped posting the photos here ab out halfway through the year, I’ve embedded a Flickr slideshow of all 366 photos below. Enjoy!
