One Month Down

Or is it eleven months to go?  It doesn't seem like it has been a full month since I started my first "Project 365", but it's true.  On February 8th I embarked on a mission to take a photo every day for the course of a year.  Furthermore, those photos had to be taken through a 50mm lens (considered "normal") and processed/presented in black and white.  

Day21.  Canon EOS 5D with EF 50mm f/1.4 USM lens.
Taken wide open for 1/80th second, ISO 1250, partial metering, hand-held.

A couple of things have occurred in the first month, at least that I have consciously taken notice of.  The physical process of taking at least one photo per day (and I alway took many more) has quickly become habitual.  Maybe that is simply because I love to take photos: the physical motions of drawing the lens before me, searching for light, metering, composing, feeling the cold magnesium body in my hands, listening as the shutter cycles at my commanding finger.  However, it takes more than that.  I have to feel like taking a photo.  Honestly there were some days that were pure struggle to make a photograph.  Hopefully you wont be able to tell by looking at the set on flickr, but early on I had a hard time just remembering before falling asleep for the night that a photo needed to be produced.  Other days, I felt contrived and wielded the camera around for a while until I found something "worthy" of my lens.  But that is precisely what I feel changing.  I'm no longer obligated, but inspired, to make photographs.  During the events of my day I would be struck by an image, a scene, a moment and go running for the camera - often while internally or verbally shouting "holditrighthere!" and come back ready to capture it "on film."

Day12.

Another aspect that became clear was that I need to do more with these photographs than just take them, post onto a website, then forget about 'em.  Instead, I found that I had a real desire to see these images come to full life in print.  And this feeling was not limited to photos from this project, but from a lot of other recent works as well.  I decided to get a bunch of prints (mostly 8x12 and a few 12x18 inch) made from a trusted photo lab so that I could make tangible the images captured.  This was one of the best things I've done in recent memory.  I've had many prints made in days past, but much of my work in the last year or so has ended in digital form, either on my hard drives, publicly on the web, or on a clients server.  What I needed was to confirm the quality of the prints, to feel how my work could be implemented and, more importantly, presented to a customer.  I found out how "true" and image would look; colors, balance, composition, lighting, focus - all aspects of the photograph seem more concrete in print.  Flaws are easily exposed in a print, but what I found was how incredible a great photograph, on the right paper, presented well, could look. 

I'm proud, but learning. 

I'm struggling, but inspired.  

Peace,

Jeff