Project 365: More Than Just Photos

Good morning! As promised, here is our guest post by the wonderful Lynda of Daily Window! Thanks Lynda!


By November 2009 I hadn't picked up my digital SLR in over a year. Instead, I took pictures of my two young sons with a Cannon Powershot point and shoot. It did an adequate job, but when I compared those photographs to the ones I took of my oldest son with the SLR, the difference in quality was painfully obvious. I told myself over and over again that I needed to get out the SLR and start shooting, but it remained tucked away in my closet, completely abandoned.

Then a wonderful photographer friend of mine, Lauren, posted one of her really cool Day in the Life entries and it prompted me to ask her when she became interested in photography. Her answer was so beautiful:

"Once we decided to try for a baby, I wanted to be able to document their every milestone beyond basic snapshots. I want my children to be able to look back at photos from their youth and see what beautiful, amazing little people they were and have those memories captured forever."

I'm not sure if she's aware of this, but in that moment she inspired me to dust off my digital SLR and learn as much as I could about photography for the sake of my children. Shortly after reading her words I marched to my closet, grabbed the camera and took this shot.

Committing to Project 365

Motivated by Lauren, I committed to participating in Project 365 in 2010 and vowed to take a photo daily through the rest of 2009 to get into the habit. If you're unfamiliar, the project requires one photograph a day for a year. It sounds simple, but it will integrate itself into every aspect of your life.

Committing was a big deal for me. I started the project twice before and failed miserably:

In 2007, I tried 365 Days, a sub-group of Project 365 devoted to self-portraits. That's right, 365 photos of MOI! Except I got halfway through January, found out I was pregnant and suddenly my every spare moment became devoted to learning about pregnancy and childbirth. Photography-schmotagraphy.

In 2008, I began Project 365 Kids, another sub-group. Elias was three months old and I could count on all my digits how many photos I'd taken of him in his first two months. But the stress of new motherhood was too much and again, I was done by mid-January.

But this time, I blew past mid-January and here I am, almost eight months later, still taking photos daily. Other than Lauren's push, why am I succeeding this time where I failed before? Primarily, I think it is because I treated this as a true project from the beginning and set goals for what I want to accomplish.

Goals Reinforce Commitment

At the end of 2010 I want to walk away with something deeper than the photographs themselves. It may seem like a lot of work to prepare for a fun little project, but I feel it's critical to contemplate your goals before embarking on any major endeavor. What are you trying to accomplish? How are you going to accomplish it? How is this going to enrich your life? If it isn't, is it worth your time?

My mission statement is to learn more about photography and photo editing in order to take great photos of my family and life.

Here are the three goals I set prior to the beginning of the year:

Day 3: My oldest son and Maltese.

1. Reach 1000 subscribers through Twitter, Facebook and RSS subscriptions. It may seem like a strange goal for this project, but photography gives me a great focus for my blog and still allows me to incorporate photographs and stories of my life. Prior to the project, my public blog completely lacked direction. It was entirely personal with nothing to offer the readers but my life story. My kids are cute, but our life is not that interesting.
   
2. Learn and apply something new once a month. That is a minimum to allow for life getting in the way. Photography is such an interesting field because there is so much variety in what the equipment can accomplish. Add an artist touch to the equation and your mind is frequently and most satisfactorily blown away! Even the pros admit: there is always something new to learn.
3. Create a family album I'm not good about printing our photos or creating family albums. It all exists online and I can access it whenever I want, so it's easy to forget that flipping through a physical photo album is nice too. While I'm tackling the other two, this is something I haven't even started; I'm not sure why it intimidates me so much!

What's Holding YOU Back?

So have you thought about participating in this project, but something is holding you back? Let's take a look at and break down some of the common reasons I get from people when I ask whether or not they've ever thought of participating in Project 365.

Day 132: A quick snapshot to symbolize a busy day I've since fallen in love with. Day 176: By using spot metering, I was able to capture the gorgeous colors of the sunset in this silhouette!

1. I can't take a photo every day. It takes roughly 21 days to form a habit. Can you commit to 21 days of daily photos? I went roughly two months this year without regularly shooting anything because we uprooted our family and moved 800 miles. When life was finished interfering in my plans, I resumed shooting again regularly, but I do miss a day here and there (I missed one yesterday, in fact.) Some days I give myself "freebies" by shooting just on my camera phone. It may seem like the point of the project is to take a photo a day for a year, but really, if you are accomplishing your goals you are making the project work for you.
2. I don't have an SLR / My camera sucks. Repeat after me, "I am the artist, not the camera!" Your camera is a tool and an artist can be creative with almost any tool they are given! Sure, expensive cameras and glass are nice, but whatever you have IS your best tool. If you truly believe you need a fancy camera to take good photos, check out this collection of camera phone pictures. You'll be blown away!
3. I don't know enough about photography. But do you like taking pictures? They're called point and shoots for a reason - they make it easy to take photos! I don't know about yours, but my family photo albums are filled with blurry, strangely exposed photographs and lots of thumbs. We didn't throw them away becauset "We spent good money on this film!" Now with digital cameras and instant feedback from the camera, almost everyone can amass a collection of perfectly focused, well exposed shots. Plus, you can always make it a goal to learn throughout the year how to get the most out of the features your camera provides.

Tips to Help You Get Through the Year

At this point, you might be thinking about diving in and trying this out. If so, that is wonderful and is definitely the purpose of this article! Before you start, I'd like to give you some tips that have helped me immensely in the first half of this project and I know will continue to do so through the end.

Day 17: My first 100% manual exposure! On Day 17!
Day 21: Out of ideas already, this was inspired by another photograph I saw.
Day 142: This shot of my youngest seemingly meditating at the fence was inspired by a photography assignment on Fences.

1. Learn how to shoot manually if you have a camera that supports it. This is something I think a lot of people want to get out of the project. It can be intimidating, but actually it's very easy to learn. On Day 8 I wrote, Fun with Aperture, Shutter Speed and Metering
2. Read your camera manual. Before the project, I'd only glanced at and referenced my camera's manual. Early in January, I set aside a couple of hours and easily read through the manual cover to cover. I was surprised to find basic photography principles and tips! And of course, I learned how to get my camera set up exactly the way I wanted to and how to control ISO, Aperture and Shutter Speed in all of the camera's various settings.
3. Look at others' work. There's hardly a better way to stay motiviated than to look at as many photographs as time will allow. Flickr's Explore is a great place to peruse, but I also find my motivation from photography-heavy blogs such as this one!
4. Interact with other photographers. Blog hops Participate in forums, workshops, or just get out there and comment on other photographers' blogs. It's a great way to learn new techniques and show off your work!
5. Challenge yourself with assignments. I admit, there are some days (some weeks, even!) where I just pick up the camera, point at something and click away just because I know I committed to the project. Days like that are very little fun and they get me no closer to accomplishing my goals. I find I'm infused with inspiration and creativity by challenging myself.
6. Constantly read. Read as many photography books, magazines and websites as your time allows. You will be amazed how much you can learn about photography by reading an article for 5 minutes!

Are you participating in Project 365 this year? What are your tips and how do you keep yourself motivated?

Written by Lynda Giddens - Daily Window