The 365 Project

Photography reflections

Shannon: “Mom, you need to write something, too, like a blurb.”

Nancy: “You mean I can’t just post a picture? I have to write something, too?”

Nancy (Thinking): This is going to be a lot of work. Seriously, a lot of work.”

And so it began the last day of December after we had made the decision to participate in The 365 Project.
Within our Twitter network, we had both seen links to posts all through 2009.
Now as the year was drawing to a close, I saw the sense of accomplishment as participants were planning their last shot.
With each of our full-time teaching jobs, paired with our workshops and presentations, neither of us wanted to commit to yet another thing.
Together, we decided, we could do this, and have fun along the way.

What is it?

Basically it is a commitment to take a picture every day for one year.

Why?

The reasons are limitless:

To reflect.
To learn…
about photography,
about art,
about yourself.
To grow.
To see things in a new light.
To be more aware of your surroundings.

And now this “writing thing”.

Fortunately I had just received a new camera,
and after several years of taking digital images using a Sony Mavika that was inherited through a grant project eight years ago,
I was a pro at the “auto shot”. Well, maybe not a “Pro”, but I was “good enough”.
Now with my new Canon, I had befriended the “green box” on the dial, and I was, again,  good to go.

Shannon and I began shooting, posting, and, oh yes, “blurbing” about each picture.

Then our first comment: “I love the pinecone shot!!! Just beautiful!!”
That certainly was motivation enough to continue to Day 2.

And so we did continue.

Until…

I received an email question:
“Do you remember your aperture setting on that sky photo?
Did you use aperture priority or F-stop priority?”

Day 16 ~ "Knit One, Purl One"Huh?

Now comes the part about “learning”.

Friends, Google, Twitter PLN, and my camera manual to the rescue.
And lessons learned from others’ 2009 365-Project Reflections:
Always, always take your camera.
Take lots of shots of your subject. I mean LOTS.
Move off of the green box and experiment with your settings.
Look at the properties of your pictures
and compare to remember what is used with the pictures that make you happy.
Buy and use a tripod.

Now I am learning about things like:
macro lenses
depth of field
1_4_10
aperture
f-stops
shutter speeds
and white balance and ISO…

And all those numbers. I have never retained numbers. I am a visual learner, and this is my biggest challenge.

So I am learning them in tiny, baby steps.
But the best part is I am seeing again.
When I was in college one of my areas of concentration was art.
I was forever noticing things that I could include in a portfolio and that mind-shift is beginning to return.
Yesterday on my way to meet Shannon, I saw a hawk on the side of the road hovering over a new capture.
Traffic was too busy to afford me a chance to stop, but it was soon after when I saw a pair of wood ducks in a huge puddle of water on the other side of the road.
Again I could not stop, but nevertheless, I was so excited at the chance to see them, and in fact, to BE SEEING them!

We’ll soon be at our one-third mark as March seems to fly by, and I am excited that Shannon and I will have a recorded “journal” of this year.
Each of the photos included with this post are linked to their original postings.

If you would like to see more of our “journal”, we invite you to visit:

“Recess Moments”