On December 31, 2012, I concluded my 366 Days project, an attempt to force myself to think visually by committing to produce one new image every day. I missed two days in the first 19 days of January, but managed to miss only four more days the rest of the year. You can see the 360 images here on a Tumblr site. Some include a bit of commentary, most don’t.
Some days I spent hours trying to produce a great image, other days I pretty much iPhoned it in, taking a snapshot. Most of the snapshots I at least processed with an Instagram filter or the filters of SmugMug’s “CameraAwesome” app (which are much better than Instagram’s in my opinion). Some of the images were made with my good camera, on a tripod, while others I shot with my iPhone 4S – although every time, even if it was a quick snapshot, I did try to make it visually interesting.
One of the interesting parts of the project is, sometimes I didn’t post the best photograph I produced that day on the 366 Days site – sometimes because I didn’t realize what I had until later, other times because I hadn’t processed the best images yet and wanted to get something up on the daily photo site.
One example is this image I posted on Dec. 29 – two days before the end of the project. It’s an iPhone shot of an abandoned old house with snow falling around it and dusting the red tin roof.
I realized later that a different image of the same scene, made with my Canon 5D, was the better image of the day. It’s the one at the top of this post. Of all the images I made in 2012, it also is my favorite. Apparently, 360 days of deliberately thinking visually and working at my art paid off.