Look Out Below!

My friends Mike and Ann called to wish me a happy birthday. Mike and I got talking about blogging, and photography projects. We talked about photo hosting, year-long commitments and project ideas. I mentioned how much I enjoyed a year of mornings and a year of evenings and how many great 365 photo projects I have seen.

Mike said he would like to start a year long project on January first. I was very enthusiastic about the idea, and when on December 31 I heard a radio story about this project, I immediately forwarded it to him. Apparently Ann heard the same story, and did the same. Mike, who is a brilliant and professionally trained garden designer decided he would take two pictures each morning, one of his front yard and one of the back. While his back yard has been developed over the past several years, he has yet to tackle the front yard. This means that the front yard pictures will have both a time-lapse seasonal quality, but will also document the work that he will be putting into the front garden this year.

Ann, an accomplished photographer who has among other things captured the Dalai Lama laughing, decided to play along. She will take a picture at the same time each evening. (Given their respective up early/up late personas, it is fitting that Mike has an 8 am project, while Ann will shoot at 8 pm. I can just see Mike trying to convince Ann to do a morning project with him.) I am so excited to see their pictures, it is all I can do not to email and call them daily until they start making their pictures accessible to me online. (Hint Hint)

In the mean time, Mike's infectious enthusiasm got me going, and inspired by the first photo above I decided to start a photo project of my own: Look Out Below. I will be aiming my camera down, giving me something to focus on outside of my usual comfort zone of people's faces and silly signs. I will be looking for patterns and abstractions, but also trying to use this as a way to pay attention to a part of the world that gets short shrift most of the time.

As many of the pictures may not be self-explanatory, I will use flickr's description function to include a sentence or three about the picture; where I took it, why it was interesting to me, or some other detail that seems pertinent.

Given my other ongoing project (i.e., the twins) I was not sure I could commit to a year, but at the least I will run this one for 3-4 months. I am adding a link to the set on the sidebar of the blog, and I will try to put up the daily photos on flickr every few days. But first I have to remember to start packing my camera with me everywhere again.

Please let me know if you are starting (or are in the middle of) a photography or other "daily" project. I would love to keep up with your efforts!