I’ll bet you panicked a little when you saw that post title. Oh no! Is she going to put 365 images in this post??
Don’t worry. Even I wouldn’t put that many pictures in a single post. Not technically, anyway. No, I just thought I would share a little bit about 2014’s Project 365 and my thoughts on starting another one in 2015.
As you may know, if you read my weekly TWiP posts, I did something a little different with 365 this year. This was my sixth year-long photo project, and I decided to shake things up a bit by focusing on a different theme each month.
This was an interesting experience for me. Some months dragged on and on (August:soul). Some months were super easy and definitely in my comfort zone (May:mornings), while others really made me stretch (November:monochrome). There were months with specific prompts (January:winter, July:summer, August:soul) and months where the theme was so loose, it was practically not a theme at all.
I enjoyed digging deeper into particular techniques, styles, and themes for a month at a time. And still, I have to admit I am glad to be finished following a script, however loose a script it may have been at times.
For 2014, at the beginning of each month, I whipped up a little inspiration graphic, and then at month’s end, I made a little calendar of images from that month.
Would you like to see them?
January: winter ←(see all of the images from this month on Flickr)
Whew! Looking back at the months like this is fun for me, and I am so glad I took the time to make these mosaics every 30 days or so!
For 2015 I am going back to doing a year-in-the-life kind of 365 Project. I’ll probably take most of my shots in the morning, since that’s my favorite time to do it. And I will try to incorporate as much of the slice-of-life, this-is-what-my-day-is-about-today kind of shots as humanly possible. That, actually, is one of the things I missed during the months with the more specific prompts. I like my 365 to be a snapshot of my day-to-day, and sometimes it’s hard to see where a prompt like “juicy fruit” has anything to do with my life, unless I happen to be eating a lot of fruit that particular day.
Anyway, I guess after a year of telling myself what to do, I am looking very much forward to a year of anything goes.
How about you? Are you thinking about doing a photo project this year? Are you a theme-follower, or a just-let-me-do-my-thing kind of photographer? Or are you a complete newbie who doesn’t yet know what kind of photographer she is?
One last thing – let me offer a word of encouragement. Like I said, 2015 will mark the seventh year that I am undertaking a daily photo project. When I started this, I was (let me be frank) not particularly good with the camera. I had an unassuming little point-and-shoot, and I wasn’t all that well-versed in how to make it sing. But the daily practice really helped. I was able to see a clear improvement between day 1 and day 366. (It was a leap year)
Not only did Project 365 improve my technical skills, but it improved my noticing skills. There is something to be said for being more in-tune with the little beauties present in your everyday life!
I wish you a Happy New Year! Thanks so much for hanging out with me here ♥
And if there is any advice I can give you on undertaking Project 365 for 2015, just ask!
