At least one photograph per day for the duration of the school summer holidays, that was my target, and I’m delighted to tell the world that I have achieved it! In recent years the school summer holiday is an ideal time to work. Office business doesn’t seem to be much quieter, but the trains have seats to spare and the weather is usually pleasant, an ideal time to carry the camera with me at all times and perhaps even take a detour on the way home – for art’s sake.
Several months ago I did consider taking part in a 365 day project, which basically means doing what I have just done for a whole year? But, with the added restriction of only being able to post one image per day? Imagine what an incredible amount of self discipline that requires, and I take my hat off to those who have achieved that goal!!
One advantage of such a professional project must surely be the lively discussions and comments between photographers worldwide. Judging by my online feedback, I can only assume that my project rarely saw visitors outside my circle of friends and relatives. It is this lack of interest that has saved me hours of writing comments to others… but at the same time deprived me of very useful criticism.
I feel I have profited enormously from the whole idea. The project has inspired me to consider subjects that I would normally perhaps not have considered and indeed it has whetted my appetite to discover exactly what my camera’s capabilities really are.
When I first started my photo blog I was quite proud of the fact that my pictures were not retouched, enhanced or whatever. After a while I realised that a bit of help from photo software was perhaps not such a bad thing, and now I’m sure that the old art of developing is far from obsolete. Whether an image is developed in a darkroom or on a PC is surely only a question of in which century the image was taken. But for the sake of this project I decided to work straight out of the camera. Not for puristic reasons, but simply because I didn’t want to sit for ages in front of a computer, every day, for thirty seven days.
Wanting images straight out of the camera, I began experimenting with exposures on a larger scale than usual to obtain the results I was looking for. In general I’m quite satisfied with the outcome, and although I won’t be de-installing The Gimp just yet, I may well do more work straight from the camera in future.
Black and White photography has taken a back seat role during the project, so I’m thoroughly looking forward to posting a few B&W images on the blog again soon.
As far as future projects are concerned… I’ve already got one lined up for the Autumn, but first I’ll enjoy a break and carry on with my normal, occasional blog work.
Thanks to all those who have looked, read, written, encouraged and criticised!