March this year saw my greatest attempt yet at starting and follwing through on shooting a photo a day. I can’t quite say I managed to shoot an image a day, but I got pretty close. Then April hit and with it came Comedy Festival, and as is the case with festival contracts, my time bled away from the productive and invested itself in the whirlwind of that magical time of year. May has been spent researching better journaling techniques and the careful migration into new territory: photo development at home.
The thing is, whenever I try to do this, I find almost-instant improvements to my work, but also in my approach to it. When I do this daily practice, I find myself trying to explain to people why it’s a worthwhile pursuit: it forces you to consider every image you take; it forges a more critical eye, even where there is no immediately apparent photo to be taken; it creates more room to consider variation to your images; it provides a landscape in which not every piece of artwork has to be the masterpiece; it develops a visual vocabulary and style; it allows the time for creative work, even when you don’t have massive chunks of time to devote to a work... it keeps me in touch with my own passions, and drives them a little deeper each day. It takes some pressure off, permits experimentation, leaves room for the personal, and improves all aspects of the craft.
What’s nuts, is I do other daily practice for all other pursuits... so why is it that I am so critical of myself in the photographic medium? Why is it so hard for me to turn off the overanalytical brain and simply snap the things I love to see — especially when I have a camera with me almost always in the cute portable package of phoebe’s phone?
I have therefore decided come June 1, it’s happening. (If I state it publicly, there will be followthrough... right?) I can’t promise every daily photo will make it into the public realm, but I will endeavour monthly (at the least) to give an update on the output, lessons learned and fun tidbits about endeavouring to fulfil the brief: a photo a day.
I don’t want to make promises, as they seem made to be broken — but I don’t want to disappoint anyone, so it’s on the priority list and daily habit tracker for June, let’s see how we go, hey?
