Photo-A-Day personal rules and obervations

02/17/2005 06:11:19 PM · #1

There are many ways to do a photo-a-day project. Some people focus on TAKING a new picture each day, some people focus on PRESENTING a new image each day (but may have come from a prior day's shooting). In the former the focus is on taking more pictures. In the latter it's (it seems) more about consistency... Can you produce a steady stream that averages out.

My PAD site features a new image each day, but I don't take a picture just for the sake of it. I'll dip into my archives and post something a few days old instead, or try something different with editing, etc. I've surprised myself by being able to create an image I'm pleased with each day without having to dip deeper than 7 days for quality images. Looking at most photographer's ratios of keepers, I tend to think an image a day with a 7 day buffer is good.

It has also given me the excuse to try some shots and locations I had been keeping on the back burner. I've had many other positive observations, but I'm more interested in hearing what others think after working on similar projects.

o Has it helped you?
o Any specific improvements you've realized? (ie - HOW did it help?)
o Did you have goals going into it?
o What personal ground rules did you set?
o Any general philosophical insight you'd like to share as a reault?

Thanks!

nova

Canon EOS-6D

Canon EF 35mm f/1.4L USM

02/17/2005 06:27:59 PM · #2

cg- I have never done a PaD project, but can see the value in it when I browse yours... really inspiring. I agree with your comment on the Cedar Waxwing photo. Aren't they just awesome! Great website too.

sfboatright

Canon EOS-20D

02/17/2005 07:10:50 PM · #3

That's a great idea....thanks.

Canon EF 17-40mm f/4.0L USM

02/17/2005 09:09:58 PM · #4

Wow... Not too long ago this place was radiating PAD threads right after New Years. After seeing that zillion page discussion I thought for sure there were uncounted masses of PAD people here who were 30 days ahead of me :)

Well, if I guessed wrong I'd like to encourage folks to give it a try. You can use an image hosting service like tinypic.com and Google's blogger.com site, or any other combination. Set a reasonable goal if you have doubts. I set out to get through 30 days. I'd love to do more, but I have some other goals which I'll need to attend to after that so wanted to be realistic.

There are no rules or themes. Just try to produce an image each day. They don't have to be perfect. It's about the discipline, and about keeping your mind "in the game" to heighten your awareness of subjects around you. I'm 17 days into mine, and very glad I'm doing it.

rich

Canon EOS-40D

Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM

02/17/2005 09:24:22 PM · #5

o Has it helped you?

Yes.

o Any specific improvements you've realized? (ie - HOW did it help?)

In the sense that it has encouraged me to keep my eyes open, and to be even more diligent than usual in keeping my gear with me for opportunity shots.

o Did you have goals going into it?

A few - simply to have the discipline to take a photo every day, to not take it too seriously, and to have fun with it.

o What personal ground rules did you set?

Just to keep going, one day at a time.

o Any general philosophical insight you'd like to share as a reault?

I don't know about philosophical - I think it has been a terrific exercise though. I am more aware of my surroundings, and find myself looking at ordinary, general things more closely than I have in the past. I think it is a great mental exercise, and one I am glad to be taking part in.

My PAD Gallery

Message edited by author 2005-02-17 21:26:52.

Jacko

Canon EOS-20D

02/17/2005 09:29:25 PM · #6

I'm thinking a lot more about taking photos since I started my project. I was in a rut in 2004. Took a lot of baby pics, which is great, but not much to get the creative juices flowing. I'm amazed I've been able to shoot and upload a photo for 48 days in a row.

moodville

Nikon D100

02/17/2005 09:30:26 PM · #7

I finish my first PaD year tomorrow. I didnt manage to do one a day for the entire year but overall I think it was a fairly successful project. I personally tried to shoot an image a day instead of just posting one. I've taken enough images to last several years and that would defeat what I consider to be the purpose of PaD - ie to force me to make pictures. Some days I didnt have anything to shoot and no incentive to do so. Some days I forced myself to shoot something and used some pretty crappy images. Some days I forced myself to shoot something and ended up being inspired and taking a picture that I otherwise would never have. One of my more popular shots of 2004 that has around 72 favs here and won 1st place in the nature category and an honorable mention in the Kansas state fair was only taken because I was lacking an image for my PaD. My life is hardly interesting and some days I dont go farther than my front door so it can be tough coming up with something interesting to post. That's my only disappointment and frustation with the entire project.

gaurawa

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS

02/17/2005 09:31:53 PM · #8

So far I have been trying to shoot everyday.. that is a new picture everyday. Sometimes I go back and edit previous photos updating them or may be replacing them with the same day's shoot if I figure I had something more interesting, but thats rare :)

The quality of images is not as good as I would want but its difficult to spend 2hrs each day and ofcourse difficult to find subjects, so I have been shooting still life subjects from around the house.

My PhotoADay

Moose101

Canon EOS-350D Rebel XT

Sigma 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 DC OS for Canon

02/17/2005 09:38:39 PM · #9

I try to dab a little in both of the methods you have mentioned. What I mean is I try to get out each and everyday and take a few pictures of whatever, I mean it could be anything. I have a 30 min drive to work each way and the camera is sitting next to me all the time.

I do come back to my photos from the last few days just to see if I missed something in one of them. Often enough you see new things in those photos, if that happens I might use that to post.

About the excuse to shot and try new location, well that certainly has been happening all the time now. I experiment more and try new things more often now than I used to.

I have not missed a day in my photos and I really enjoy posting new ones, sometime Iâ��m almost tempted to post two per day, one for the morning and one for the afternoon!

Has it helped my? Oh Yeah, as you can probably see in my scores this year! Iâ��ve personally think I improved quite a bit. Iâ��ve also noticed that Iâ��m slowly developing a better understanding of the photo while taking the picture, especially composition, rules of 3rds, framing and just a better understand of what Iâ��m trying to get out of the picture.

I went into this with one goal, to take more pictures! That has worked out alright.

It has been great doing my PaD. When Iâ��m more comfortable maybe Iâ��ll post the whole thing, but not yet. Itâ��s kind of my thing right now.

I have uploaded a few pictures to my profile under Photo A Day

Oh yeah, maybe I'll make a 2006 Calendar from all these shots, hmmm!?

That's all from here.

thatcloudthere

Canon EOS-1D

Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L USM

02/17/2005 09:50:44 PM · #10

I have taken a photo every day so far in 2005 for my photo-a-day project.

It has helped me to keep my eyes open constantly.
However, I'm finding that I'm busier than I realized and there are more "taken-at-11pm-just-to-say-I-did-it" photos than I would like.

I fully intend to keep taking a photo every day for the rest of this year to keep developing my photographic eye. I have found this project to be incredibly valuable so far.

Edit: I didn't address the ground rules. My rules were to take 1 photo every day, with the day officially starting at midnight as it does on the calendar.

Message edited by author 2005-02-17 21:54:45.

jenesis

Canon EOS-300D Rebel

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II

02/17/2005 10:36:32 PM · #11

I've found that it's helped me tremedously, although my PAD isn't quite a PAD anymore in that I've missed several days. But it does really help motivate me to keep my eyes open, to go out and specifically make trips to try to find a decent image and I've come out of it with some shots that I just love that I would've never gotten had I not started my project.

I typically try to take a photo each day, but like I said earlier I've missed several. A couple of them were photos taken earlier that I processed. Either way, it gets me creatively thinking about photography in general which is my whole goal to starting this. Now to just keep it up, that's the hard part. :-)

jmsetzler

Sony Alpha a6000

Sony 16-50mm f/3.5-5.6 E-mount

02/17/2005 10:55:25 PM · #12

Originally posted by cghubbell:

o Has it helped you?
o Any specific improvements you've realized? (ie - HOW did it help?)
o Did you have goals going into it?
o What personal ground rules did you set?
o Any general philosophical insight you'd like to share as a reault?

Thanks!

My rules:

I shoot a photo every day. I don't post from my archives. My objective is not to produce something 'great' every day. My object is to shoot every day. This is the only 'rule' I have. The only 'flex' in the rule is that when I shoot a photo after midnight, I may use it for the previous day if I want to. Sometimes I'm out late photographing a band or something and I'll use a shot that happened after midnight.

How has it helped me:

It mainly keeps me looking for things to shoot. It keeps me thinking about things I want to do with the camera. This causes me to see things and gain inspirations that I would have otherwise missed.

Have I seen improvements?

Well, it depends on how you gauge improvement. I am happier with what I'm doing than I have been in the past and I'm shooting things that I enjoy, so the improvements have come in that area.

The Goals:

The goal is primarily to complete a long term commitment. The secondary goal is to find inspirations that I would have otherwise missed as stated above.

Insight:

I have chosen to turn mine into a type of photo diary. I write something about each photo I shoot. Sometimes its long and sometimes not, but it usually says why I made the photo and how it related to my day.

Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS

02/18/2005 08:26:43 AM · #13

Now that's more like the thread I was hoping for :) Thanks to all for their comments. It sounds like we're all in similar boats with our experiences. I'm sure we all groaned when we read Cloud's line about the taken-at-11pm-just-to-say-I-did-it images. Done that!

I had to pause at John's statement: "I am happier with what I'm doing than I have been in the past." That might just be a key to the apeal of this project's value. If we presume a love of photography, then add in normal life, we end up with something we'd like to do more of when reality doesn't get in the way. PAD is an excuse to break through that barrier and give us more time doing what we enjoy. The more we enjoy it, the more we do it. What a great cycle that is!

I was interested to see that I seem to have a different take on the project than most people. I'm trying to establish a consistent rate of images in a given time span, thus the 7 day queue (luckily I've only tapped it once!). Seems that most people are literally shooting an image every day. That's great!

Thanks again for all the insight!

Konador

Canon EOS-500D Rebel T1i

02/18/2005 08:28:47 AM · #14

Originally posted by thatcloudthere:

However, I'm finding that I'm busier than I realized and there are more "taken-at-11pm-just-to-say-I-did-it" photos than I would like.

I'm right there with ya on that one! lol

Chiqui

Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II

Olympus 12-40mm f/2.8 Pro

02/18/2005 08:32:41 AM · #15

I must admit that I cheated once. My intent if to take a photo every day but so far a few days ago I used a photo I had taken the previous day BUT i did shoot other things that day, they just didnt fit the theme. Obviously I'm not producing master pieces ANY day much less every day. I thought it was gonna be very hard and although it's become almost second nature to me, it's not easy finding something to shoot everyday. As you can see from my pictures, food is my favorite subject :)

June

hopper

Canon EOS-80D

Canon EF 35mm f/2 IS USM

02/18/2005 08:36:59 AM · #16

For me, the whole project so far has been annoying as hell. I take a new (and usually bad) photo every day. I only continue because at the end of the month I make an 8x10 of that months pics and it looks cool.

:)

jmsetzler

Sony Alpha a6000

Sony 16-50mm f/3.5-5.6 E-mount

02/18/2005 08:42:18 AM · #17

Originally posted by hopper:

I have lots of bad pics in mine.

thatcloudthere

Canon EOS-1D

Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L USM

02/18/2005 08:45:24 AM · #18

Originally posted by jmsetzler:

Originally posted by hopper:
For me, the whole project so far has been annoying as hell. I take a new (and usually bad) photo every day. I only continue because at the end of the month I make an 8x10 of that months pics and it looks cool.

:)

I have lots of bad pics in mine.

Me too...I also have a bunch of photos that I know I would not have taken if I wasn't actively committed to take a photo every day. I'm also learning about why some of my photos suck, and what I can do to improve.

pawdrix

Nikon D700

Nikon AF Nikkor 85mm f/1.4D IF

02/18/2005 08:54:01 AM · #19

//pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/pawdrix/album?.dir=8031&.src=ph

Please give these to shots a look and let me know what you think.
Both taken with a Fuji Finepix1.3 meg at low rez...whata shame IMHO.
I've had three upgrades since and with each camera I try to recreate these shots.

I'm not sure if this is on topic because I have no idea what PAD is but revisiting these themes is part of my daily regimen. Or, always on the back burner in my "photo a day" mix.

BTW, I'm thinking of joing dpc as a full member but since I've been selling a few photos, here and there lately I was curious if I need to worry about theft.

I really like the site and enjoy the competetive push and the inspirational work of others.

pawdrix

Nikon D700

Nikon AF Nikkor 85mm f/1.4D IF

02/18/2005 08:55:37 AM · #20

Oops...got it...PAD=photo a day. Never mind.