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05/03/2007 11:30:19 AM · #1
So I do this thing every once in awhile in which I take a photo a day for fifty days. It's intended to be a sort of slice of life photo essay more than anything else, but the quality of the photos has definitely shot up dramatically since I started doing it about two years ago. One day it's art, the next is so achingly dull that you might get a photo of a pile of shoes or the contents on the refrigerator - and that's the beauty of the whole thing. A few shots are set up, if I happen to be setting it up for something else, but most are just whatever I happen across in the course of my day. The "home" of this project is here: //www.highdesertarts.com/50days

I'm planning another season in July, roughly July through mid-August. Anyone want to do it with me? Figured I would ask early.

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EDIT 6/17/07 - The challenge begins July 1st! I don't expect everyone participating to do the full fifty days, of course. There are, however, some "rules".

(1) Take a new photo every day. This is not something where you can raid your archives or shoot several days in advance. The point is not continuity of subject matter, technique, or even the pursuit of quality. The point is to take and post a photo, any photo, period. I've posted everything from mountain landscapes to the contents of my refrigerator. There are no limits on the sort of photo to post. It should be noted, however, that while posting the photo each day is recommended, it's not a big deal if you are gone for a few days and post those days photos a bit late - just so long as each photo was taken on the right day.

(2) Make a brief "blog" entry about it. This project generally ends up being a visual blog of sorts. It is a very personal project, taking photos of "nothing special" moments of your day, and the photographer's notes about what the photo represents, what was going on, etc. are a big part of the process.

(3) Square crop. Always square crop A-ha, the one and only editing constraint! There is no logical explanation for the square cropping, except that I like it and it helps the layout look more like a traditional calendar.

(4) No fantasy-ish digital art stuff. This project borders on photojournalism, so let's keep it in the realm of the real. Real-ish, anyway. Experimenting with double exposures, long ghostly exposures, etc. is okay, because then you get to explain what you were doing all day. This doesn't actually exclude Expert Editing - things like multiple selves would be cool. Unicorns and fairies, though, notsomuch.

(5) Let go of the idea of that every photo has to be good or meaningful. It doesn't, and it doesn't. It just has to be from your day. This may be difficult to accept, but force yourself to do it anyway. It's freeing. Trust me. This isn't about quality or technique.

(6) This project gets personal! The photos are of your life. The "blog entries" that accompany them are about your life too. There will be days when you take a photo of the contents of your fridge or the pile of shoes by your door, and these moments have a strange way of getting you to open up about some details of your life that you might not be comfortable admitting to. Like, say, why the shoes aren't put away and the carpet needs vaccuuming (because I'm a horrible slob!) If this makes you uncomfortable, then this might not be the project for you. Or, conversely, maybe that's precisely why you should do it!

That's it! My 50 Days sites are down at the moment, so I'll work on getting them up and running again today.

UPDATE: First, I forgot to mention that most of the rules can be broken as it suits you, but 1 and 5 are important. Second, Fall 2006 is partially restored at the moment and will give you an idea of what I'm babbling on about in all these silly rules. The rest are forthcoming, but it's slow work.
//www.highdesertarts.com/50days/Fall2006

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Confirmed players so far:
Rebecca
dcnfarrell
Redjulep
Germaine
fixedintime
shalrath
JerseyGenie
Beautiful-Joe
Rooster
karmat
daboardergirl
shawntay07
nsoroma79
behindthescenes
Blue Moon
bs-photos
bdenny
DefyTime
HaikuSailor
emily212
cgino
shannylee13
BAMartin
jonfrommk
Jelena73
Pug-H
abranton
Krystle
hajeka
Marc923
equatic
jaded_youth
aguapreta
whiterook
maxaz1
wronp
jaysonmc
suiteness
ivale28

Message edited by author 2007-06-27 21:11:51.
05/03/2007 11:45:15 AM · #2
(unfortunately, i cant even manage to finish the usual 30 day stuff around here! LOL)

very refreshing rebecca! i've perused your work (here AND there), and its nicely done... thank you for sharing it with us - can't wait to follow your work this summer!

Message edited by author 2007-05-03 11:45:29.
05/03/2007 12:12:40 PM · #3
I might try to keep up, after the 30 day portrait challenge I liked having something each day to post up... no guarantees tho! :)
05/03/2007 12:15:22 PM · #4
It sounds like a great idea, but I would suggest making it 30 days in the life of, for those of us suffering mild burn-out. :)
05/03/2007 02:12:21 PM · #5
LOL - y'all can do 30, but I'll be doing 50. It's part of my gimmick, y'see.
05/03/2007 02:23:40 PM · #6
That actually sounds very interesting.
It sounds fun to me.
=)
05/03/2007 08:06:33 PM · #7
I'd love to do it! I'm glad that you're planning to wait a little while to start though since I'm still in wind-down mode from the 30 Day Portrait Challenge. :)
05/03/2007 11:52:51 PM · #8
"in the life of" sounds so less constricting than the usual. more simple& personal. i think it would be super enjoyable to try.
05/03/2007 11:56:04 PM · #9
I think I would like to try this. I already do a photo a day, so it fits with that, but this would give me a bit more structure.
05/04/2007 06:40:23 AM · #10
I would like to try... it's good discipline and the journey itself is probably worth more than the pictures. It reminds me a bit of "Chased by the Light" a National Geographic bood by photographer Jim Brandenberg. He took one (and only one) photo every day for 90 days (using film) and apparently the editor liked them enough to publish the book. He's an incredible photographer and many of the pictures are incredible, some are not as great, but he felt the effort really had an impact on him. Anyway, I think it sounds like fun and a good challenge.

Jack

PS - as I though about this more, I think the value is that this ironically gives you a lot of freedom to take pictures. Knowing that you are on a deadline, it doesn't have to be perfect, and it's about the whole effort rahter than a single shot really gives you freedom to take the picture.

Message edited by author 2007-05-04 06:43:48.
05/25/2007 01:58:46 PM · #11
This does sound nice I like taking pictures that relate more to my life and this looks like something that is closer to that.
05/25/2007 02:30:17 PM · #12
Today marks Day 243 of my ongoing self portrait series. Project31232.comFeel free to visit and stuff. I do have a few images in a folder here on DPC but you have to visit the site to see them all. It is a very difficult discipline.
05/25/2007 09:22:32 PM · #13
I'd love to make a go for this. It's nice to wait until July or so, after DPL is over, at least for me, probably ;) Sounds like fun! Thanks!
05/25/2007 09:48:35 PM · #14
I like the sound of this. I feel with the Black & White challenge I should find something great to take a picture of & do a lot of processing. With taking a picture of something I am doing in my day, sounds like a lot of fun! Easy to b/c I carry my camera everywhere. I may not get to great, interesting spots everyday but I normally do something every day! It would be fun to do this..
05/31/2007 03:43:06 PM · #15
Please count me in. Sounds like a good challenge.
06/02/2007 09:39:25 AM · #16
Rebecca ~

I couldn't get your link to work this am, I'll try again later to see your pics. The challenge sounds perfect for me! I also friend requested you on MySpace :o)

06/17/2007 04:24:47 PM · #17
BUMP! Updated details in the first post!
06/17/2007 04:37:40 PM · #18
Alright. I'll try my best. Seems like a very raw and intense challenge. So why not? Count me in :)
06/17/2007 05:49:23 PM · #19
I would have done it, but rule 1 and 5 are too strict for me. :) As far as photography goes, me and structure kinda clash. Nice idea though, and I look foward to how it turns out for everyone else.
06/17/2007 06:01:21 PM · #20
From where I'm sitting, this sounds perfect. So I'll say I'm in. If my life should get crazier, then I might have to bow out, like I did out of Ordinary Objects. What really appeals to me is the bloggish concept.
06/17/2007 06:05:00 PM · #21
Okay - I've done as must restoration as I can. Unfortunately, when I made CD backups of the first two seasons, they were only partially archived and I didn't know about the CD-writer's software's omissions until I sought to upload them today. I abandoned ship on my old webhost, iPowerweb, several weeks ago when a server migration turned into an absolute nightmare of my site being down, then up, and never restoring the ability to log in, and tech support's idea of being helpful was "yeah, we know about that". So fix it, dammit! Anyway, I bailed and went to Lunar Pages, which has been great so far, except that now it turns out that my archiving process was deeply flawed and I had no idea. I've sent a nasty note to iPowerweb again demanding archive copies of my site from before the server migration and pointing out that I still can't even get a login screen - if I could, then who knows whether or not anything is still intact there, given their issues and the fact that I've already switched what I can over to LP. In the meantime, I feel like someone has taken my teddy bear and baby books and thrown them on a bonfire.

Anyway... everything that could be restored has been. Fall 2006 is luckily intact since it was still on my harddrive. Spring 2006 has a bunch of holes. Winter 2005 starts nineteen days later than it should. But there you go. //www.highdesertarts.com/50days

EDIT: Well, for once iPowerweb did something right! I have access to my account there and I'm downloading my files like a madwoman. Rawr and phew and whatnot!

Message edited by author 2007-06-17 18:51:09.
06/17/2007 06:06:09 PM · #22
Sounds like fun. Can I play, too?

I've already got a Photo a Week thingy going over here: My PAW Project
06/17/2007 06:19:37 PM · #23
I'll join in - it will get me back into the regular picture taking now that I have a monitor that does not darken everything I look at.
06/17/2007 07:20:39 PM · #24
All of my previous 50 Days have now been restored - phew!!! Crisis averted, time to get back to planning and plotting for THIS one!

Any more takers? I know it sounds like a lot of rules, but really it's as simple as "take a shot of something and post it every day".
06/17/2007 07:46:58 PM · #25
Count me in. These side challenges are such a lot of fun. Thanks for heading this one up.
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