366 Project

The 366 Project is a photo-a-day type project for 2008. Starting on January 1st, I will shoot one picture a day and upload it to this gallery. This will hopefully continue until December 31st, 2008. This is a completely new thing for me to try, and I will hopefully stick with it for the duration of the 366 days.

I had two options when starting this. I could either shoot one picture that somehow documents the day, or I could attempt to take one decent to good photo every day. I am sort of doing a mix. If nothing super special happened that day, I’ll try and shoot a good photo. If something exciting/important happened, ill try to represent that in a good photo.

But wait, why am I saying 366? Well, that’s because 2008 is indeed a leap year. To see the entire project, please visit: www.pbase.com/connorroelke/366_project

Some select photos from the project:

And the final photo:

It’s the 31st, one year since I started this. There were days that I couldn’t wait for this date to come. There were days I hoped this date would never come. It’s weird how this is such a huge part of me now. I feel like I’ve been doing it forever, like it’s part of me. Yet at the same time it seemed to go by so fast.

The original goal of photo of the day was to both improve my work and be continually shooting. I got my first camera Christmas of 06′, I haven’t been shooting very long. My work is divided into time where I was doing photo of the day and the time that I wasn’t. I don’t even really remember the time before photo of the day. I’ll go back into my old pictures and try and remember when or where I shot that. But I can remember just a tiny bit of every day of this year. If you asked me what happened on March 8th, I could open up that picture and tell you a little bit about it. Last year? Come on. I don’t even remember what happened the month of March.

On the average day, I would probably think about photography about 10 times. Whether that was riding in the car and framing a shot in my mind or seeing a shot on the cover of a magazine and admiring their lighting (or, on occasion, thinking “I could have shot that better!” which didn’t change the fact that it was still not my shot). Photo of the day quadrupled that number. This year I thought about photography more than any other subject. Which doesn’t sound like much, but you have to realize it was on my mind 50% of the day. That’s including sleep.

When it started, I had about 11,000 shutter actuations on my camera. Before I sold my d50, I had 35,000. My D200 came with about 2800 and now has close to 12,000. If my math is correct, I shot around 35,000 pictures in a year. Triple that of the previous year. So the goal of continually shooting is checked off.

Did I improve? I think so. That’s subjective though, you’re free to have you own opinions. Although there wasn’t one point where I was just instantly better in my eyes, I think the quality of shots improved across the board. In the beginning, I shot macro photos of tools and sculptures as a late night grab photo. By the end, I was squirting water onto irons to make steam. The level of interest between the two is the difference I think.

It seems like the question of the hour is “would you do it again? Did you enjoy it?” which both have the same complicated answer. Would I do it again? That answer you’ll find out in a paragraph or so. Did I enjoy it? Yes. There were so many days that I wanted it to end, but there were so many more that I enjoyed every minute of it. I remember in the beginning walking around my house at 11:30 trying to find anything to shoot. But I also remember all the laughs my friends and I had doing some of these. A big thank you out goes to Max and Joey for all their support. They were also the most photographed thing in the whole project, so they deserve it. I also can’t thank my family enough for putting up with me bringing a camera everywhere and making my Mom, Dad, and Sister drive me places for photographs. My Grandma also provided so much support, I probably heard from her the most about how much she enjoyed the project. There were a few days that I sat on my bed and thought “should I end this now? I don’t want to do this anymore.” You wouldn’t be reading this if all of you haven’t supported me through this whole ordeal.

But I still left my first question unanswered. Will I do this again? The answer is “sort of.” I realized about three weeks ago that I couldn’t just stop this. After much talking with my family and friends, my Dad came up with the idea of Call the Shot.

Call the Shot is my project for next year. Instead of shooting a picture a day, I’m going to shoot a picture a week. But where’s the fun in that? I know I can do one a day anyway. So, at the start of every week (I’m saying Sunday), I will tell you what the shot for the week is going to be. The fundamental problem with the 366 was that you had to post one a day, even if you needed more time to revise the idea. I’ll have all week to shoot something I’ve had in my head for a while. A shot I’ve been planning. If it doesn’t go well the first time, I still have another day to revise and make it that much better. The goal is that it will improve my problem solving (well, photography wise, doubtful if this will apply anywhere else) while also providing 52 really good shots instead of 365 pretty good ones with a few really good ones mixed in. There won’t be any off days and there won’t be any mess ups. I’ll have all week to get it right.

Along with all this new (hopefully) exciting news, I bring you my new website, www.connorroelke.com. Although not yet finished (but so, so close), it will be the home for the 52 week project as of right now. A blog will be set up within the coming week as POTD has recently turned into a photo blog if you haven’t noticed. I’m hoping for frequent updates as well as the call out and shot every week. Be sure to check it out.

Now, about the actual photo you see here. You’re looking at all of the photos of the 366. You might be saying “But wait, Connor? You didn’t shoot this today. There’s no photo here!” but that’s okay. As your nose is pressed up to the computer screen, it doesn’t look like much. Now scroll back up to the photo and walk back 10 feet. Seriously, don’t read on. Just do it. You might look like a fool, but do it anyway.

You there? Good.

If you don’t see it yet, it’s me with my camera in front of the TV. Behind me is the ball dropping in New York City. What’s more, this is shot in the last second of the last hour of the last day of the year. I’m sure the exif probably says it’s the first, but trust me. I’m still a little on edge because the shutter hadn’t clicked until I heard “ONE!” from all the happy masses on the big screen. It was down right frightening, there was a chance I could have missed the last photo of the day. Phew.

So with that, I leave you. Well, for a few days anyway. By the time you read this there will be a new section on Pbase for the 52 week project. Along with that is the first call out of the week. We have some extra days until Sunday, but by next Sunday the photo will be up. That is if all goes according to plan.

Today, January 1st, I will not take a photo. I will not take a photo for the first time in a year. That’s a scary thought.