365 Photography Project
With the beginning of the New Year, many people start to think about their resolutions and goals for the year to come. We often reflect on the year that has just passed, and things we may want to change or focus on in the future. For myself, the passed year has been quite busy and I have not been able to get out and shoot, as much as I would like.
For yourselves where did your photography bring you this year? Is there any areas you are wanting to improve on? Are there certain goals or skills you want to achieve this year?
I am not sure if you have been feeling the same way, but I have found myself contemplating the past few weeks what I want out of my photography journey this year. Obviously, finding more time and energy to dedicate to this passion is a big one. I would love to step out of my comfort zone and push myself to try new styles of creating artistic photographs.
Accomplishing a 365 photography project may be just the the ticket I need for some fresh inspiration in 2019. Having a goal like this will hopefully kick my butt into gear, to at least take a photo a day. I am truly hoping that this project will push me to create new content and push my artistic boundaries in exciting ways.
If anyone else is in the same boat and contemplating doing a 365 photography project this year, I would love to hear from you. I am sure there will be some up and downs, and some days of frustrations.
If you are interested in following along please go ahead and follow me @jessnaturally on instagram, where I am planning on posting my daily images to my stories.
Here are a few tips I am planning on following throughout my 365 project:
Always have my camera on me: We’ve all been there. We have the perfect scenario, but nothing to capture it with. The one time you don’t have your camera with us, is the one time we will wish we had never left it behind. While Murphy’s Law is something we normally encounter from time to time, the frequency of taking photos every day means that we have many more opportunities to experience it. Don’t feel self conscious. Don’t get lazy. Don’t ever take a break. Whether we are using our iPhone or Android or GoPro or DSLR, always make sure you we something to capture every opportunity.
There Is No Time Like the Present: Stop saying, ‘I’ll take a photo of that later.” or “I’ll take a photo of that on my way back.” Take the photo while the idea is in our head and the light is right. Moments of inspiration seldom come at convenient times and light conditions are seldom ever exactly the same twice in a day, or even a few moments later.
Share images: By committing to post every day to some public channel on social media or a blog, it’s a great way to hold ourselves accountable to posting those images consistently. Personally I am going to post to Instagram Stories and see how that works out.
Don’t expect every photo to be great art: There will be days when real life intervenes, be it because of work, illness, etc. Don’t beat ourselves up if we sometimes just share a quick snap. It’s okay, really.
Plan ahead & write down ideas: Planning ahead for a project is a great way to keep ourselves on track. Try to create a routine or schedule around our project, so that we are prompted daily to keep on track. Rather than wait for inspiration to find us, plan ahead and write down ideas for future photos in a notebook. This is great practice to get into for normal photo shoots and will reinforce creative thinking. Reviewing previously documented photo ideas will prove to be a great resource when spontaneous ideas are few and far between.
Train your eye to see light: Learn how to get the most out of the light whether sunny, overcast, or any thing in between. Learning how to get the most out of high contrast and low contrast lighting situations is a great way to broaden our photographic opportunities. In addition, experiment and make use of off camera lighting to supplement the available light to you.
Experiment! Don’t stay in comfort zone: Break out and risk the bad shot to learn something new. Taking the same photos over and over again because we are comfortable taking them, will not improve our photography. Step out of our comfort zone to try new things. Doing this is not dependent on buying new equipment rather opening our eyes to new styles and new subjects.
Try weekly themes: 365 unique photos is a sizable goal. When we are running short on ideas, think about weekly themes. Take photos of a particular location, a colour palette, portraits of family & friends, pet photos, macros, hidden letters, etc. Sometimes an infinite number of subjects are more easily pared down when thought of in terms of themes. Themes offer a sense of order and predictability bringing you closer to your end goal.
Set some personal projects to shoot for: This could be a series of pictures of household objects shot in imaginative ways. We could also, pick a scene in your hometown that we can photograph regularly throughout the seasons. Why not try creating a photo essay? Visit somewhere new, and tell its story through a series of photographs.
Use your 365 as an excuse to visit new places: You don’t need to travel huge distances. For example, there could be a photogenic church you’ve never visited before in the next town. Or a provincial park just a short drive away.
Edit & post-process every week: To avoid backlogs edit & post-process our photos weekly if not daily. Getting into a rhythm on editing & post-processing is key to completing your 365 project. For many taking photos is the easy part, but editing & processing the photos is the challenge.
Add notes to our photos: When posting daily photos online add notes as to what you thought worked or didn’t from your days photos. Post general photo shoot and camera setting info, that way we can look back later to refresh our memories or to see how far we have come. Anecdotal stories are also great information to look back on. Understanding how, why and when you photographed your subject provides insight to your creative thinking.
Accept that we may miss a day: There may be days when we forget to take a photograph for our project, and that is okay. Things happen. We can always take two the next day!
Make a photo book at the end of the year: Hopefully, we will see an improvement in our pictures and it’s great to have something concrete to show family and friends.
Remember why we started your project: Our 365 photography project is a fun exercise to help us improve our skills, not to stress us out. Having a clear vision of what our goal is at the end, and thinking about it as we progress throughout our project to re-focus. As with life ones destination is often far less interesting than the journey.
Black & White
Challenge yourself to shoot black and white. That doesn’t mean editing a photograph you’ve shot into a black and white picture- shoot a meaningful black and white exposure. Think about the light, and the depth and dimensions in your imagery. Study the work of black and white photographers such as Ansel Adams and understand what they do to their images to create impactful photographs without color.
Monthly Colors
This is a great one for social media or Instagram, and it’s easy if you don’t have a specific subject you’d like to shoot. You pick one color each month, and then shoot with a focus on including that color in every single photograph. So for example, if you select blue your photographs for that month might have a lot of water, blue facades, and blue jackets on your subjects.
One Subject
This works fantastic if you have a pet or a partner who is willing to be your subject. Try shooting one subject, every day, for a month. Change the environments, themes, and props that you use to photograph them to make each shot unique. This challenge is a great encouragement if you are looking to diversify your portfolio, and practice shooting a wide variety of genres and themes. With the single consistency of one subject, you can compare and contrast how each shoot you designed changed the look and mood of the photograph.
Self Portrait
Similar to the single subject, a self portrait project is another great way to push your creative boundaries. This is a great project if you are a fashion photographer or portrait photographer, to learn how your own body moves and how manipulating a model can drastically change the photograph. This is also a great project if your trying to get better at using tripods, or if your simply trying to step up your portrait game and want to practice.
A 365 photography project does not have to begin just on New Years, you can start one whenever. If you are feeling like you are in a creative rut, or need to focus your craft on something to challenge yourself. A photo project is a great way to start you creatively thinking again. These types of photo projects can be menacing at first thought, but provide fantastic opportunities to explore and learn not just photography, but creative seeing and post-productions skills.
There are many different online communities that support 365 projects including 365 Project, Capture Your 365, and many, many 365-themed groups on Instagram, 500px, Flickr and Google+. Joining a community can definitely help you in your 365 journey by providing encouragement and accountability. You can also, find many ideas, challenges, themes, and examples for inspiration and motivation.
Finally, and most importantly, remember to have fun! You’re doing this because you’ve chosen to, not because you have to. Yes, there will be days when it feels like so much effort to get your camera out, but think of the feeling of achievement you’ll have when finally complete the 365 days.
Have any ideas for 365 projects you plan on doing? I would love to hear them, please feel free to comment them below.
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