I have undertaken a long-term project – 365 Photo. This free online photo project requires you to take a photograph and post it each day to the 365 Photo website. It can be a photo of anything you want and using whatever camera you have, but the goal is to get a picture every day. The idea behind taking on a project like this is that it can help you become a better photographer by making you pay more attention to your surroundings and/or think through how to create a shot that you may have in your mind. So far I am not sure if it is working because even though I’ve taken a picture a day and posted it I can’t tell you how many times I say – “Dang it – it’s 10pm and I don’t have my photo for the day yet! I can’t do another picture of my cat…”. Fortunately I think this is a common initial reaction for a lot of people since you see a lot of folks whose first month of photos are their pets, kids, breakfast, coffee, etc. I know I was reduced to pictures of my slippers at one point. It’s not one of my prouder moments… But as time goes by your pictures get better (hopefully) and you begin to get new ideas for taking pictures of everyday objects, get inspired by what others have done, learn some new techniques, etc.
I’m really enjoying the challenge of this project. The photo below was my picture from March 13, 2012. I was at a loss for a photo so I pulled out some fish vertebrate I’d picked up from a vacation in California (from a stop at the Salton Sea), recreated a dinosour-like fish, added a little clipart kitty from Photoshop Elements and viola! If you want to see more of my 365 project you can view it here. Please feel free to leave comments or critiques of the pictures.
