D List

 

After a run near my in-law's house

 

My sister bought this for Chris a few years ago

In the entrance of Whole Foods

 

I had meant to capture this during the Cs, but better late than never

365 - Final Status Report

I did it. I took a picture a day for 365 days.

4/24/07 New Vistas

5/18/07 Holding Hands

6/8/07 Zoo Train

My 365 project was both harder and easier than I had initially thought it would be. I really enjoyed taking pictures every day. It (please excuse the pun) focused my attention on what was important during my day. Some days it was hard to get a picture I liked, especially when I was in the office and not with my favorite subject. This led to pictures of my blackberry, craft projects or Chris looking bemused at 10:30 pm. For crafts, it was probably good - a regular photo album most certainly would not include pictures of things I made during the year, but now I have a little record of the clothes, toys and superhero capes I put together for myself and others.

7/21/07 Sheep Wagon

8/22/07 Diving Helmet

9/26/07 Chicago El Train (camera phone)

Ironically, after a year of taking pictures with my little pocket camera, at the very end of the project I finally bought a nice camera. The past 5 months my little Sony has been half-broken. Maybe I dropped it one too many times, but it won't let me zoom. When I try, it freezes up. I am excited to use a camera with more whistles and bells. I sort of feel I earned the camera by sticking with the project for the full year. If I could keep it up with the Sony, the Nikon should really make me want to take pictures.

10/7/07 Pumpkin Patch

11/11/07 Matched Crazy Hair

12/17/07 Hats

One side benefit of this project is that it has opened me up to the possibility of trying other projects. The other day Susie and I were talking about families that gave up buying things for a year. One such family was profiled in the Oregonian recently. They decided they could buy things that ran out regularly (food, paper towels, toilet paper.) but not things that broke or wore out on a longer-term basis (toaster, clothes, birthday presents). Susie said a friend of hers tried it for three months, to break herself of the habit of shopping when bored. I am intrigued by the concept, but also scared by it. A year without buying? It is practically un-American, right? (Another reason to do it.)

1/3/08 Bunka's Birthday Card

2/26/08 No Trace of Her Fun Day is Evident

I am not jumping into this kind of project just yet, but I am open to new projects, especially creative ones. I think for now I will start a 52 photo project. A picture a week is a bit more manageable than one a day. And now that I have my brand new camera, I have to keep using it, right?

3/16/08 Bacon-face

4/3/08 Thomas

What a difference each day makes

Earlier this week I read about Hau's project to photograph an aspect of her family's life every day for a year. She encouraged her readers to participate, and almost without thinking I told her I wanted to do it. So I am. I've set up a flickr set, and put a little flickr rotating photo doohickey in my sidebar. I may also occasionally post my "365" photos to the blog.

After I set up the "365" set, I took a peek to see who else is posting using "365" as a label. Turns out lots of people are. Plus, Emily let me know about a 365 Kids group on flickr. Take a look, there is some good stuff out there.

I told Chris that I was going to do this, and he gave me a smile suggesting he recognized my desire to jump into this kind of project with great enthusiasm but maybe not too much thought. He knows I get excited and take on projects that end up having a life of their own. In this case, I have thought some about how I can realistically engage in a photo a day project. I make no promise that I will upload my daily photo to flickr every day. I can take a picture (or 30) every day, but I will need a little slack on the posting side. I will try to do it at least weekly.

As much as it makes me nervous to type this, I promise to post a photo even if I am not happy with any of the photos I take on a given day. This is going to be the hard part for me. I make no claims on being a great photographer, but I am vain. That aside, I will try to get past my discomfort to give you a daily glimpse into what is happening in my world.

Photo 1/365: Ada post-nap

So, who'll join me? It will be fun!