A Photo A Day...For The Next 365

A friend, +Sandy O'Shea of Wings of Love Photography,  posted a new image every day in 2011 and I was inspired and intrigued. I loved checking her Facebook page every day to see what she had come up with.  On the last day of 2012 she pondered whether she should take up the project again for 2013. I thought it would be a great idea to do it myself, since I had just looked over my Lightroom library and wondered why I take over 10,000 photos a year. I saw it as a challenge for growth and by Day 3, I was I was already regretting it. Suddenly it seemed like a burden.

Another friend sent me a link to 366pixels.com. It seems photographer Todd Warshaw took on this same challenge last year and I enjoyed reviewing his beautiful photographs today. I've decided not to be overwhelmed by the prospect, but to try and use what I've learned to share with others and perhaps learn a thing or two more. Todd stated oh his blog that he learns something every time he takes a photo. That's true for me, too.  And he added, "a good deal of the time I learn that I should have taken a different picture." So nice to know how another photographer feels.  Sometimes it doesn't feel perfect but we have to give it our best shot and hope we hit the nail on the head every now and again.

The photo above was a lot of fun because my husband was willing to write backwards in the dark.  His first effort was funny. Too much light and he didn't have the "backwards" quite down.

So, we learned that we had to do it a bunch of times until we got it right.

On Day 2,  I was fortunate to get to downtown Austin early - no traffic this week - hooray! I took a bunch of images of iconic things but it was a very gray day. Then I took photos of my grandchildren, always fun for me to capture. At the end of the day, I had 50 or so photos but none seemed "just right."  I posted this one on Facebook because I liked the empty look of what is a normally busy street and I liked the old fashioned sign on the right in contrast with the Capitol building in the center.

In retrospect,  I think the one of my Grandson smiling in his sleep was a more compelling image. I guess that is what I learned from that experience.  Don't be in such a rush to post.  Take several looks at my options before plowing ahead.

Day 3 was another drab, overcast day.  I got some interesting shots but nothing hit me as great. So I started playing with my NIK filters and spent too many hours trying different effects. In the end I posted a composite of 4 different filters and was dissatisfied with my post but was happy to receive several comments all saying they liked one particular effect (the one on the bottom left). So nice to have audience interaction.  I highly encourage anyone to comment here!

On Day 4 I had several of the Grandson who just discovered how to smile vs. an interesting outdoor Christmas icicle light capture.  Little Nate won out but my photographer friends seemed to enjoy the colorful icicles a bit more.

Choosing is one of the toughest parts of this challenge!!!

Today is Day 5 and I saw some cool Christmas balls up in a neighbor's tree.  As I tried to capture them, I saw that I was reflected in many of the balls.  There were several that I liked when I finally got to editing them.  This is the one I selected.

OK, so I've survived the first five days and gotten newly inspired. From now on, I plan to post a Photo A Day on this blog. Please come back and see what I come up with, and feel free to make recommendations, suggestions, comments. Because it is all about growing and learning from our failures.  Happy shooting, friends!

Failures that don't kill us make us bolder, and teach us one more way that won't work, while opening the door to things that might.

                                                                          -Seth Godin