I’ve been taking photos over 1800 days in a row. That’s a long time. 5 years to be exact.
It must have been 2008 when I first came across the idea of taking photos every single day. That was in my flickr days. Does anybody still remember the platform?
I thought I could never do that – taking photos daily. Edit them. Share them.
Because who takes a great photo every day?
As I’ve learned over the course of the past 5 years doing this project, it’s absolutely not about the perfect shot. Not just because it’s impossible (for me anyway) but because life consists of so many micro moments and most of them aren’t photogenic or beautiful on the surface. What’s so precious about them though is how these mundane moments come together tell the story of an ordinary life. And that’s beautiful.
Well, it is to me. Because it’s my life.
At the end of my Project 365, which I run from birthday to birthday (November-November) rather than January to December, I look at these photos in a photo album or a slideshow. It fills me with so much joy. And it reminds me of all the things I’ve done, tried, failed and succeeded in. This is my story, the 42nd year of my life.
Given the feedback I received on this video above, I know it struck a chord. People are intrigued and curious how to follow through with such a big task of creating images every day for a whole year. So I thought I’d share a few things that helped me and that I’ve learned over the years.
- Before diving into Project 365, I did a Project 52 – a photo per week. I took a portrait of a stranger or a friend to work on my ability to quickly connect with people and take a nice portrait. I also lead a group programme called 12 months where every month a few photographers went out to create images to a theme. Following that I started a daily photo project 100 mornings to train myself to take vertical photos – I kept forgetting to do that. Coming from a film background, all my visuals lived in a horizontal image. All of these projects prepared me to do a year-long daily photo project.
- When to start: I decided to start on a day that wasn’t January 1st because January for me is full of expectations and pressure that I didn’t want to add to. Plus, starting on my birthday made this super personal for me
- Editing: In the beginning, I edited my photos daily to make sure I don’t create a huge backlog. Now I have a reminder in my calendar to do this every Sunday. It turned into a routine and editing photos weekly means I don’t accumulate too many images so it’s manageable.
- Gear: I have a designated camera for this project that sits next to me on my desk. The battery is always charged and there’s always room on the SD card. To start a new habit, which a project like this is, you have to remove as many barriers as possible and make it easy to follow through.
- Staying organised: I created a structure of backing up, organising and naming my files so I know where in the year I am and if I missed a day.
- Missing photos: If I missed a day, I didn’t let this stop me. I usually fill the spot with something generic from another day. It’s only happened a handful of times though.
- Sharing photos: I shared my photos on an Instagram account that isn’t my main channel. It’s just a kind of photo album – I don’t worry about likes and comments. I don’t think sharing these images is necessary at all.
- The final result: I make a point of printing my photos at the end of the year. Too often we keep photos on our computers and phones and never look at them again. But this project was supposed to teach me to be present and enjoy my life. Looking through the photos brings me so much joy and printing them makes it easier to take them out and look through my memories.
The photos from this past year aren’t exceptional by any means – but that makes them so powerful to me. This is my life – and my life is by no means super exciting!
If you’d like to hear more about my Project 365, feel free to have a listen to my interview with Alison Hatch from Photographer’s Create or with Raymond Hatfield from The Beginner’s Photography Podcast from last year.
And if you’d like to try a Project 365 yourself, I’d love to invite you to my new substack where I share monthly emails with tips and inspiration for how to stick with a year-long project. I also offer daily photo prompts for paid substack subscribers.
Whatever you take from this article and this project, I hope it inspires you to be more present and document the things in your life that you’d like to hold on to. After 5 years, this has turned into a habit I don’t see myself breaking anytime soon!
