Well – that’s it then – One Photo A Day for One Year.
When I set out on this project, I didn’t realise what I was letting myself in for. I wanted a way to have a proper record of a year of my life, and, having never been good with keeping a diary, taking a photo every day seemed a good way to do things. It also meant that I had a reason to get out and about with my camera. And, for good measure, it was a way to make me experiment with lots of techniques I’d never even heard of before starting the project.
The pressure of needing to take a shot every day forced me to get out and take photos of things I had never bothered to do. For instance I’d walked by the new bridge in Castleford loads of times, but never really spent any time looking at it. Similarly with Sandal Castle – I’d walked around it a few times, but never really examined it.
The same pressure also got me to try something completely new. When the weather outside is not conducive to shooting, you need an indoor project – mine rapidly developed into a tabletop light-box rig to do small product shot type work. That’s not to say I didn’t do other indoor work – I’ve never had so many photographs taken as this year – my failure rate for self portraits seemed to be incredibly high – maybe 1 keeper in 300.
There have even been days where the shot-of-the-day has turned out to be an old shot revisited. I liken this to going into the darkroom and re-printing a shot from old negatives, but it’s still a new end result. And while on the subject of film and negatives and so on – I managed to achieve another photographic ambition this year – I actually loaded a reel of film, shot it, developed it at home, scanned and produced prints all on my own – not a Minilab in sight.
A 365 isn't easy. For the first few weeks it seems good fun, but your ideas soon start to run out. You will also have days when there just wasn't a chance to take a photo and you end up taking a shot of something naff just to keep going. That is just the way it is! I’m actually quite amazed that I only missed one day in the year.
On the flip side it is very rewarding, you get a year of your life documented in photographs, you get to learn MANY new things, and I learnt many without realising it. The whole "got to get a shot" mentality just gets into your blood - I know it's made me look for photo's where before I'd just have walked by oblivious. It's definitely improved my eye for a shot, and the sheer volume of shooing has improved my technique.
Yes - it's a silly idea. Yes, you do end up taking the odd snap just to get a shot in the bag. Looking back on mine, I've got quite a few of them. Though, surprisingly, I also find that some of those shots bring back memories of that day better than some of the clever, technical or aesthetically pleasing ones.
Will I be doing another one next year... Nope. I've enjoyed it, and it's been a worthwhile exercise for me, but I'll probably be going for the one good shot per week approach this year coming.
But that doesn't mean that I'd say it was a bad idea to do one, and I’m happy I did, It’s probably the most creative thing I’ve ever done, and I’m immensely proud of the results.
