365 Days in Photos

While not all 365 photos uploaded to the grid you see, the majority did. It was an amazing adventure of a year, of love and loss, change, and navigating life as things continue to move forward. In complete honesty, I missed two days out of the year, but promptly made up for them when I realized my error. Overall though, it’s amazing to look back and think that I took a photo each day for 2021, through the good and bad days, feeling happy or terribly ill, traveling or having lazy days at home, or even working from sun up to sun down. It’s amazing what you find when you’re looking for it and how it shapes the way your time was spent.

There were many days when I went out to catch the sunrise or sunset to ensure I got a photo that day, or went out do an activity for a unique capture. There were days I had to seek inspiration before I could even pick up my camera because my well had run dry. Some days I faced a fear and took a shot when I felt insecure about what I was doing. Some days I wondered what on earth I was thinking, why would I do something so silly as take a photo every day. Sometimes I really wanted to share photos and other times I kept them all to myself.

In hindsight, I have no regrets, I am only filled with gratitude at the commitment I made to myself and to my craft. I’m not proud of every photo I took, but I’m proud of the entire collection and what each one taught me. I learned a lot. I learned how to use and control light, how to make a scene from nothing, to get in the frame once in awhile, to not use my kids as the main subject each and every day, to feed my creativity even if I didn’t feel like it.

I thought long and hard about continuing this daily photo challenge. I had romantic notions of continuing to take a photo a day for another year or maybe more. I thought, how hard could it be, I’m already doing it?! When 2022 rolled around, I did take photos for the first week without realizing the time rolled over and my commitment was fulfilled. Yet, it also felt complete. I didn’t need to continue a photo a day with the work load I had yet again made for myself. I didn’t need to continue a photo a day to pursue creativity. No. This year, I’ve decided that while I might shoot less, I will print more. I will hang my photos. I will send them to loved ones. I will make a photo album. I will edit my back log of RAW files. I will tell stories. I will practice video. I will create more still life art.

Have you ever done a daily photo challenge? I’d love to hear your thoughts and reflection if so.