Well I am done with project 365…. and it’s only Day 9.
Actually… if I am honest, I was over it on about day 5.
It’s not the fact that I had to take a photo each day, being pushed to get the camera out was great. It was much more to do with the fact that I took crap photos, and that really really bugs me. It seems the harder I tried the worse my photos got. I was looking for the perfect little moments in life, something wonderful and whimsical and worth remembering, and all I got was a poorly composed, blurry photos of my messy house.
There are so many people out there who are taking amazingly beautiful photos every day. So much inspiration to delight and annoy me.
I’ve recently discovered this blog – Habit – where a group of women are posting the most stunning photos of every day things with lovely little blurbs to accompany them. It’s such a wonderful glimpse into their lives.
RaMa MaMa is another one who has that magic ability to catch a little bit of each day. The gorgeous Dee at Walking Barefoot on the Earth is also a master at catching those moments. I love them and hate them both at the same time for being so stinking talented!
There were a handful of great photos in among my Photo A Day attempts… but they were the ones that I took because I knew I HAD to catch that moment of loveliness. The photos taken simple because I needed a photo for that day were all dismal and I haven’t even bothered to add the last few to flickr.
I can’t bear to post the bad photos, just so that I have something to post each day and the whole thing is making me cranky. As stupid as that sounds, I don’t need any extra excuses to be cranky, I’ve got that covered all on my own.
So there you have it folks… this has to be the lamest attempt at Project 365, giving up after nine days.
Though maybe I won’t give up all together. Maybe I will still challenge myself to pick up the camera every day, I am just not going to worry about posting the photos if they aren’t something I love. I am not going to number them and I’m ditching that special flickr set of mine. Obviously I can’t photograph under pressure, and I don’t have the knack of making every day things look amazing, but that’s ok…. I can still take photos, I can challenge myself to take more and better photos, and I can just post the ones I like when I get to it.
No rules…. no rules people!
Lets go with a No Rules Photo Project…. even I can’t fail at that! Can I?
Really? I don’t believe you! I think you’re probably being way too hard on yourself, Kate! I’m doing the 365 project, and I don’t really dare look at the photos of people I know, but I have to say, that a lot of the photos in the group I’m in on flickr are pretty ordinary, some don’t even look like any sort of attempt to frame the pic, some aren’t even taken by the people submitting them – it’s more a logue of what’s happening in people’s lives each day…
Doesn’t bother me, I have my own agenda with my photos, so I just focus on that. The thing is, I’ve submitted 5 photos so far (two today) and of those, I think I like one, the rest are very ordinary, with boring topics, or silly topics (because I was desperate)… I think that’s the lot of the photographer, of any artist really, when we’re honest 95% of what we put out their is mediocre at best, but once in a while, we doing something brilliant, and that is what keeps us going…
My biggest issue atm is trying to come up with something even mildly original – everything is either a complete rip-off from so many catologues out there, or only a topic of relevance to me, but completely dead to an outsider…
I have to say, I just had another look at your photos, and I think they’re great. Crisp, bright, and certainly do capture the magic of every day life. I don’t think we can get good perspective on our own photos because to us they’re “done”, to other people they’re “fresh”, yk?
*whispers* Neither do I…
I think you have great shots there, but I am so with you on the no rules rule!
maybe you could still do it, just aim for one a week instead of one a day. One a day is a LOT to ask for imo. But I bet you could do one a week. :) So maybe it’s the 52 challenge instead of the 365, hey, that’s cool too. You’ll be original.:)
How about taking Project 52 instead? One photo a week!
I’m enjoying Project 365 but purposefully not looking at anyone elses as my photography skills are seriously crap. But I’m hoping they’ll improve as I go!
I am having that problem with my photo taking too – the harder I try the worse they get.
I think I’d better just go back to randomness – it’s bound to give me something great here and there! lol
I hear you.
I think your photos are absolutely stunning and I think you are way too hard on yourself but I hear you because I look at other people’s photos and I want to be as good as them.
I never will be.
I have lost my photo groove.
sorry to hear you’re discouraged by the 365 project. I really think it’s about just taking photos of your every day. some days that’s pretty ordinary. but that’s life. that’s part of my aim, to just capture the ordinary, because that’s the bulk of my real life. so today it was a photo of the bowl of oranges on my bench – not ground-breaking, in poor light, ordinary bowl and just oranges. the boys are eating at least 3kg of oranges a week, so a bowl-full on the bench is short-lived. but that’s my real life. nothing extraordinary, but worth recording. in 50 years the people looking at your photos won’t care that it isn’t a breath-taking photo of a baby’s eyelash, or a humming-bird in flight, but they WILL care that you took the time to document your ordinary every day life – don’t you wish you had such a snapshot of your grandmother’s life (just for instance). do it your way, take the photos, and take the opportunity to celebrate your ordinary life. there will be times and places that produce great photos, but I also don’t want people down the track to think that my life was all “moments” or perfect photo ops. that’s not real. take a photo of the mess. that’s real. hugs from me. Deb
You know, my photos are taken not with my eyes but with my heart. If I’m not feeling it, I can’t pick the camera up at all. When I do feel it, the photos just come. Its not about the technical at all. There are no rules. If you feel it, you can see it. When you see it, it is just so easy, it just happens.
You already know this, thats why as you said, when you just had to catch the loveliness, the photos were great.
The No Rules Photo Project sounds sooo much better to me! I would never even attempt a 365. I tried a month long challenge last year and only lasted 6 days! So you got further than me with your 9!