Lunch Break

Well, that’s done.

A year ago I started taking a photo every day, inspired by Ari Scott’s 365 project. I also wrote a small manifesto at the start of this, so I thought it’d be nice to write a short postmortem regarding what I’ve learned from this.

Then I restarted this three times and realized I don’t have some profound thing to say at the end of this. I took a photo every day for a year. Once you get in the habit, it really isn’t that hard of a thing to do, and I fully believe any of you could do it. Am I a better photographer than I was a year ago? Absolutely. Do I have a better understanding of my process and the habits I need to follow to do good photography work? Yup. Is any of this particularly useful for you to read about? No, of course not. They’re my habits and processes, they wouldn’t be the same for you.

But if there’s anything you want to get better at right now, just start doing it. A lot. Don’t wait until the right time, and don’t make up excuses for yourself like “I don’t know everything I need to know yet” or “I don’t have the right equipment.” Certainly don’t use “I can’t do this every single day for 365 days” as an excuse! Do it once a week if you have to. But once you start, make it a priority, treat it like a job, and then you won’t quit, because you will have made it important to yourself. I know this seems like pretty basic “practice, practice, practice” cheerleading, but I don’t think most people have this concept internalized as much as they think they do. I know I didn’t a year ago.

To those who have asked, no, I’m not going to do another 365 project. Not yet, anyway. If I were to do another one, I’d want to focus it in on a specific thing more. But I will still be photo journaling online, it just might not be every single day from now on.

Lastly, thank yous! First, thank you to Sarah for pestering me at 4am, drunk and sleepy, to post a photo before passing out, on multiple occasions. Thank you to the headshot clients who didn’t raise objections to my using their weird outtakes. Thank you to my roommate for letting me use his stuff as props and not asking me to put my light tent/modeling lights away from the kitchen table even ONCE this year. And lastly, thank you to everybody who has enjoyed this project. It really made my day whenever someone asked me about a photo, expressed excitement at having “made it in” to one of them, or even just liked one of the photos online. Thank you for following along, friends.

“Talent is luck.  The important thing in life is courage.”  ~Woody Allen