When I started out on this project, my goals and reasons were quite simple, get out with my camera and try to expand my creative horizons. I felt I was repeating myself and I needed to try and get out of this pattern. I don’t want to call it a rut as such but it is safe to say I needed to work on my creativity. With a new baby, work being busy and a host of other things happening, I knew if I didn’t have a project like this one my photography wouldn’t grow and I might even lose some of the growth I had made.
The goals for the project were simply this:
- Get out with my camera every day
– Go to the same places and force myself to find new and creative ways to see things
– Find out new subject areas that I would enjoy and could expand into
– Practice practice practice, like a runner, its not what we do once a month that makes the difference
I can happily say that I followed through on the goals above and they have lead me to some interesting places. First of all the practice practice practice part has been eye opening in regards to the way I react to oportunities, not only on the concious levels, but also subconciously. The new subject areas I have found that I am interested in should provide me with a lot of new interesting material to work with.
Lessons I have learn’t along the way
What goes in comes out, if nothing is coming out put more in, what I mean by that is inspiration cames from seeing / hearing / feeling /…. If you feel like your lacking ideas, find some new inputs. The more creative you want to be the more you will find yourself needing to find new sources of inspiration for your mind and spirit to feed on.
There is a fantastic community of photographers around the world who freely give their time, energy and experience. If you are feeling a little flat on the pushing the boundaries, find a new technique or tutorial and try it out.
The final phase
The project has produced lots of interesting images that have and will continue to be used for further projects. Indeed some of the images have already been sold as prints, used on websites and sold in calendars.
The final phase of the project is to release the photobook that I have been working on since Christmas. The photobook features the best of the images I have taken over the last year. The image on the front cover has almost every photo a day taken throughout the year. Alongside the photos are various quotes and snippets of wisdom that have helped me through the project. To view the electroninc version of the book click here. If you are interested in getting an A5 or A4 copy of the book let me know, and I will let you know the details.
What next….
Well that has been a question quite a few people have asked and one I have been asking myself. The photoblog has had over 2400 visitors (unique visits per day) and over 18000 page views. More than one client has told me how much they have enjoyed the photos I post. So I have decided to keep posting images onto the photoblog, I won’t promise it will be every day but it will be most days.
My next project however is based on project 365 but with aim of upping the quality and reducing the focus on quantity. The new project will be called Project 52. The goal of the project is to produce 52 images (1 a week) that I would hang on my wall. Once again I will aim to produce a photobook with the all the images from the project inside. I also want to focus on creating images and exploring themes, rather than just capturing images of things as I see them.
By keeping the photoblog running and working through Project 52 (if anyone can think of better name, let me know) I think I will keep the momentum going from Project 365 and continue the growth in my photography.
To all those people who have made comments on the blog, facebook and face to face, thanks it helped me a lot to keep focused and keep going. I have heard more than one person who is thinking about doing a similar project.
Mike
