In 2010 I started a project called “Picture a Day”. The idea is simple enough — take a picture a day for a year. I started off strong, with the perfect subject matter: my family’s new puppy, Indiana. I kept going strong through 2011, but faltered and stumbled into 2012. I gave up in March of that year with the rather uninspired “Troll Attack”.
I’ve decided to start it up again with the goal of taking the 112 pictures I need to complete the project. I’ve started with [243/365] The Return, which is a shadowy self-portrait of sorts. I’ve also begun filling in a few holes — some photos, like [014/365] Ice Berries never made it into the Flickr set.
Why return to it now? Partially because I want to complete this project, even if it isn’t in a single year. But more importantly, I really enjoyed “Picture a Day”, and I enjoyed it even more when I looked back on the year that was (or the year and a half that was). Pictures of the kids, pictures of the dog, pictures of the kids with the dog, heck, even the pictures of board games all represent these snapshots in time. As I’ve written before, I look at them, and I remember exactly what I was doing at that moment.
Take the “Ice Berries”. I remember standing there in my boots, the sidewalk slick with ice, the grass crunchy with its own crystalline coating. I remember the cold humidity of the air, and leaning in close to the berries to get that shot. Not all have such intense memories associated with them, but many do.
And then there’s just the fun of looking back on the past that was. I love this shot of NeutronLad and Indiana. The picture of the beer advent calendar isn’t amazing, but the concept was, and the “Boo Shot” of the Halloween lights at the Cosmic Cup always makes me smile.
This time around I’m making a few changes. I’m posting the photos to my Flickr account, but I’m not duplicating those shots in my Facebook album. While the Facebook photos got more comments, it was a pain to manage photos in two places. Instead I’m going to focus on Flickr, and promote the shots in Facebook, Twitter, and Nuketown.
I’m not going to try and shoot with our Nikon D60 camera; I like it, but coordinating camera time with my wife was difficult. Instead I’m focusing on using my iPhone 4. It’s old by smartphone standards, but it takes decent enough pictures for Picture of the Day purposes. My new MacBook Pro should help considerably; it used to take 15-20 minutes to mount a camera and download photos; that happens almost instantly now.
It’s a bunch of little things, but they all contribute to helping push through the Photo 243 barrier. Keep up with my renewed efforts via Flickr.