Earlier this week, I wrote about looking back across 2012 and thinking about the coming year. One thing I decided to do was a 365 project — these are projects various people do over the years where they take a photo everyday and compile them. It seemed like a nice way to capture what 2013 will be like and I have been intrigued with the idea since I saw Kerry Crawford of the I Love Memphis blog do one on 365 Memphians and another on 365 things to do in Memphis.

If you’d like to follow my daily photos, I am posting them in two different places — my Google+ profile using the #365project and #365project2013 tags and on my new 365project.org website profile JPlovesCOTTON which even includes an RSS feed on it if you want to subscribe. I’ll post them here on occasion, just will be more timely in the other places.

So here are the first few days of my project which I’m calling 365 Colorful Adventures 🙂 Following are the photos I’ve posted with the brief descriptions that accompany them.

December 31, 2012 — 365 Colorful Adventures Stake Put in the Ground

I’m getting my first 365 day project set up. I think I will post through the community at 365project.org as it looks like there will be lots of opportunities to connect with people of various interests there — I set up http://365project.org/jplovescotton and plan to post a shot daily (love that I can simply email when I’m rushed or browse other photos when I have a bit of time, do challenges on occasion, etc). There is an embed code that lets me include them on the blog in a basic HTML widget and periodically I will get them into this album. If anyone else is active on the 365project.org site, give me a shout as it appears easy to share albums, etc.   #365project   #365project2013

January 1, 2013 — New Year’s Tradition 1/365

A New Year’s tradition for those of us in the Southern US is to eat black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day for good luck in the coming year. I decided to make mine in a salsa this year with tomatoes, cilantro, etc. The olive oil that helps get all the spices really caught my flash. I used a simple diffuser on it to keep the colors accurate. Now, it is time to eat!

January 2, 2013 — late evening at the office 2/365

As I left my office this evening, the shape and light of the connecting hallway between buildings grabbed my eye. I walked over & took several photos and this is the one I liked most…. love the lines as it moves and the fact that trees break the architecture slightly. The colors were largely sepia tones on the building and gravel so I decided to set it as a sepia-tone.

January 3, 2013 — Meeting Season is Coming! 3/365

Winter means the off-season for most farmers and that results in lots of meetings for those of us in agriculture. The shirt for a meeting arrived today and the cellophane bag and the pin at the collar caught my eye. Ready to get to meetings so I can take photos of some of the awesome farmers I get to meet!

What I Have Learned So Far

There are lots of little things I’ve already started thinking about. Things I didn’t necessarily think about as I decided to take on the challenge of doing this.

• I take photos so often that I see the world through a camera’s lens fairly frequently. I love that the communities where I’m sharing these are not camera snobs. Sure, I have cameras that will pass most people’s screens for decent equipment, but I also take a lot of mobile photos with my iPhone or point and shoot. That is all good with me and it seems I’ve found folks who agree.
• While I loved the focus Kerry did, her’s was for work and I want mine to be flexible. I’m already glad I put that “colorful adventures” label on mine as I think the discipline of doing this daily will be enough for me, much less staying that focused! LOL.
• Rather than just snapping a photo, I think differently about them from the standpoint that I get one photo a day. And I’m thinking of how all those photos reflect my year. That’s different than snapping pics as you go along and sharing them on Facebook or Twitter. This means I want them to be interesting to me and others as well as tell the story of my year. Lots of flexibility and opportunity there, and it is mine to take full advantage of!
• The project has some neat connectivity to other folks who love photography. I’m meeting folks who share one of my passions. Whether we share subject matter interests or not, we share an interest in capturing light, movement, the obvious and exotic, etc. This is proving pretty cool and I’m only three days in!
• I’m wondering if there is a pool running on how long it takes til I miss a day.

What do you enjoy enough to commit to making it a daily habit for a full year?

 

Related articles

• Are You Doing a 365 Photo Project?
• Day 365 #Project365
• on starting your own #photo365 project