Foto Friday guest post: Getting through a Project 365

As many of you know, I’ve embarked on the 365 — well, 366 — project for the second time. This time is because it’s a Leap Year and I thought it would be cool to take a photo for 366 days in a row. I succeeded in 2010 doing a 365 and swore I’d never do it again. 

Here I am two years later — doing it again.

I met Mike online at about the same time I was doing my first 365. He, too, was doing one. And as a fellow geocacher, he wanted to join our 365 group. He did and also succeeded in the 365. Since then, I’ve grown to consider Mike one of my better friends on the ‘Net. He’s a stellar photographer and his feeds are fun to watch. 

Here’s the thing about Mike, though — he hasn’t stopped taking a photo a day since that 2010 project. That means, in just 365 projects, he’s taken photos for nearly 750 straight days. I’m willing to bet if he looks back on it all, it’s probably longer as I seem to remember looking at his Flickr and seeing he was taking a photo a day before “officially” starting a 365. 

There are people with longer streaks out there, to be sure. But each year, Mike has said he was going to stop. But kept clicking away. Below is his look at this incredible streak, along with some of his best — and worst — images over that time. 

Enjoy!

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I’ll admit it — I take a lot of photos.

I’ve been into photography since my dad gave me a Kodak 110 camera for Christmas when I was about 7 years old. When digital came of age, I was ready to jump in. I started out with one of those great Sony Mavicas that used 3.5-inch floppy disc as storage and I was hooked. My first boy was born in 2000 and that increased my exposure count exponentially.  A friend introduced me to Flickr in November of 2004 and, Katy bar the door, I’ve been going gangbusters ever since.

Throughout my time on Flickr I’ve engaged in various projects ranging from DILOs (Day in the Life Of), 12-of-12s, photo walks, etc., as ways of improving. Not even necessarily the quality of my photos, but improving the way I look at the world around me. I had never attempted an actual Project 365, but the idea intrigued me.

I had twice in the past done one of sorts. I documented each of my boys when they turned 7, taking a daily photo of them for a year. My travel schedule kept me from taking all 365 so I enlisted the help of my wife and other family members. We missed a day or two but I achieved what I had set out to do.

Here’s a few of my earlier projects:

• John’s 7th Year
• Will’s 7th year
• 12 of 12s
• DILOs

With few warm-up projects under my belt, in 2010 I began taking a photo a day for my first Project 365. I wondered if I could ever complete it and never dreamed that almost 750 days later, I’d still be snapping a daily photo. There are certainly folks who have been at this much longer than I, but it’s quite a feat for me.

I’ve enjoyed going back and seeing what I was up to over the last couple of years. It’s an interesting way to journal my activities. In looking back, I can see that not every photo was golden and I recall waking in a panic more than once thinking that I had forgotten to take a photo the previous day, only to find something on the phone or on another camera.

In the category of uninteresting photos, I found several instances where the only photo I had was of my room number at the hotel. You see, I have a tendency to forget what my room number is, especially when in a period of heavy travel. So I try to always snap a quick picture of my hotel door so I can find my way home.

Not the best photo but a photo nonetheless.

Another popular but no so interesting subject in my stream is food.

It’s handy. I eat every day. Sometimes more than once. There are many times I’ve taken a photo for Yelp or Foodly or some other food-based social community but there are some on there of what we’ve cooked at home.

Then, some images are just plain uninteresting because I just needed a photo.

Seriously, what was I thinking?

The photo to the right isn’t the only one. I have another similar one.

Speaking of interesting, I took a look at my photos tagged ‘Proj365’ to see what Flickr found as the most and the least interesting photos.

I’d agree with the most interesting. It was taken in December 2010 during the Winter Slice Lunar Eclipse and is a merge of several photos of the moon in its different stages of eclipse.

The least interesting?

It was not the cable sticking out of the ground, though it should be. Instead, it’s a sunset photo taken with Instagram while out on an evening run in January 2011.

The absolute worst came on August 17, 2010.

I just happened to snap a photo of my dentist’s door as I was walking in. It’s blurry. It’s total crap. But it was the photo I took all day. In the end, I was happy to have it.

There was also a day where all I had was a photo of a cup in the hotel room. Fortunately, my sister had take a picture of me on the golf course and I decided that it would count as I had taken a photo.

Within the period of nearly 750 photos, I’ve traveled to many places, had fantastic experiences and have done many different things.

I’ve shared a living room with a president.

And photographed someone who turned out to be a future Heisman Trophy winner.

I have run in marathons and half-marathons.

I’ve been from the West Coast to the East Coast and many points in between.

I’ve been to the snowy Rocky Mountains, and to the sandy beaches of Turks and Caicos.

And I have the photographs to prove it.

If you think a Project 365 is something you’d like to try, I say what are you waiting for? Pick up the camera and start shooting. It doesn’t have to be January 1 – December 31. Just start shooting.

The best piece of advice I can offer you is to take some sort of picture in the first part of your day. Any picture will do. Use the camera on your phone or whatever. When the day has gotten away from you and you are sitting down to upload your photos, you will be glad you did.

Also, apps such as Hipstamatic and Instagram (on iPhones) can make a boring phone camera photo into a more interesting image, if you don’t overdo it. If a Project 365 seems like a daunting task, try a Project 52 as a warm up. If you are like me, you’ll find yourself taking a photo every day, anyway.

I highlighted some of my less-interesting photos earlier. I’d like to leave you with a few that I am proud of and hope you enjoy them as well. Good luck in your attempt and keep on clicking.

Mike’s Flickr sets for his 365 Projects:

• 2010
• 2011
• 2012

If you are on Flickr, add Mike as a contact. You can also follow him on Twitter.