How Shooting 2 Consecutive 365 Projects Is Changing my Photography
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit." - Aristotle
If you can believe it, we are already a third of the way through 2016! Because this is my second consecutive year of shooting daily, getting "The Shot" has finally become an ingrained habit and a natural part of my everyday life. Would you believe me if I told you it took me about one full year to really make that habit feel easy and unforced? It has!
I absolutely love how this project takes on a life of its own if you just trust the process and stick to it. This year, I haven't poured as much of myself into my daily shooting as I did last year, but even without thinking about getting the image every day, I'm still seeing growth!
Here's why I'm happy I embarked on this encore year of daily photos....
I set a goal, signed up for a class, followed through, and learned how to bounce my on-camera flash to create beautiful natural looking light that really got me through the dark, winter months.
I've honed my storytelling skills even more in 2016. Last year, I was slower to get the right setting before the moment passed me by. This year, I enter into situations thinking in advance about what might happen, where I'll have to be standing, and what settings would be optimal to capture it in the way I want.
The perfect example of this growth is the polar bear shot. The reason I was able to execute the above encounter was because I took almost the SAME picture last year in my first 365 and kicked myself for a whole year over using the wrong settings. In other words, I tell better stories this year because of the mistakes I made last year. Sometimes, it takes one whole, painful year to pass before the opportunity comes back around to fix those mistakes!
Last year, Erin Hensley's wonderful Finding the Light group taught me to see many different types of light. I SAW it last year, but this year I am acting on it and capturing it more proficiently. (Above: reflected light)
I'm working on getting in the frame this year. It's not happening as much as it should, but I now have a nice little collection of me with my boys. In a whole year of shooting in 2015, I was so wrapped up in getting my white balance, composition, and exposure perfect that I neglected to get in the frame.
With my ClickPro acceptance behind me, this year is all about following my artistic instincts and not about perfection. I'm clicking till my heart's content, and it feels good!
