I've appreciated having such an extensive photo record of my life, but there are situations where I don't want to take photos (I just want to enjoy the moment, or it's something boring and not worth photographing) or I can't take photos (such as work, which is where I'll be for the next two months). I will still take photos, of course, but not necessarily every day, and my posts will focus on particular outings/trips/explorations/photoshoots.
~~Hello to all readers and viewers.
This news might come as a shock for the new arrivals to my blog, who have only recently heard me bragging about my years-long photo-a-day project and decided to check it out, as well as to long-dedicated subscribers, who have steadfastly followed the page and come to expect weekly (for the most part) content. Despite the fact that I am the one making the decision, it shocks me a bit, too.
I started taking daily photographs on May 24, 2012, as a way to chronicle what I was doing over the summer through "candid" selfies. It was a fun experiment; as part of Summer Diaries, I was challenged to do interesting things or at least take somewhat diverse selfies. As the weeks went on, I was inspired by a blog that I followed at the time (whose name I will not share because I have many personal gripes with the creator and don't desire to call them out publicly) to try out a "photo a day" project myself and expand the scope of my lens beyond myself and what I was doing (or not doing) on a daily basis. The first "pic a day" post on this blog was uploaded the week of July 16, 2012, and the practice has continued for almost six years. (The only day for which I didn't upload a photo was May 12, 2015, when my friend accidentally locked me out of my phone and I had to do a factory reset; the photos I had taken that day were wiped before they had a chance to sync to Google Photos. The only day for which I uploaded more than one photo (within Pic a Day) was September 22, 2013, and I explained why I broke my "one photo per day" rule in the post.) Anyone who's looked at even one week's worth of pictures on the blog knows the variety of subjects I photograph: stuffed + real animals, landscapes, food, trees and flowers, buildings, school campuses, lines from and covers of books, various people I hang out with... The list really does go on. I've snapped pictures with a Samsung Galaxy player, my Fujifilm FinePix camera, an LG smartphone, the Olympus OM-2 (if you recall this post), and my Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ200, which many people compliment as a "fancy camera." Most of the photos on the blog were taken by myself, but others were taken by my dad (or my mom) at my request, or a friend if I wanted them to catch me doing something crazy, or my grandma when I was visiting her last summer.
Doing this has absolutely helped me to hone (if slowly) my skills. Every day, I am faced with the challenge of what to photograph and how to frame it, how to tell the story of that day's events or lack of excitement with an image. Every day for the past six years, I have been challenged to look at even the most mediocre and mundane things with a photographer's eye, which has led to some beautiful and unexpected pictures. I don't always need to go to an entirely new location for a photoshoot; I just need to look at what's around me with a different lens. Keeping up with Pic a Day for so long, that "different lens" has gradually become a part of how I appraise my surroundings and activities. By no means are all the pictures on here the caliber of a professional photographer: the vast majority are awkward shots on less-than-high-quality devices of not-that-interesting subjects, like Tamagotchis or computer screens or myself. Very rarely has my finger hit upon the shutter just at the right moment for a stunning photograph, though the frequency of that happening has increased a bit over the years. However, I have persisted with pic a day out of love for both. There is something charming and precious in the ordinary, and only after accumulating several years' worth of photos have I been able to appreciate the ability to look back on a week of pictures to see what I was up to back then. I love getting Google Photos' "rediscover this day" notifications to compare a few years ago to today: what I was doing, what sorts of pictures I took, etc. I also love the beautiful photos I've managed to capture, and I remain in awe at being in the right place with the lens of my camera pointed in the right direction at just the right moment. Though a lot of it is chance-based, my growing comfort with manual features has allowed me to take more control of my pictures and compose photographs to my liking, altering the shutter speed and focus to best capture the feeling of a scene, zooming or moving my body to best position a subject in the frame.
The self-imposed requirement of daily photos hasn't always been a joyful opportunity for discovery or a way to memorialize the cool things I've done and fun days I've had. A lot of the time, I take shitty photos just to satisfy a quota. This is partially because I'm lazy and partially because, sometimes, I spend a stretch of days doing hardly anything apart from drinking tea and reading with nothing interesting to photograph. Yes, I might force myself to snap a pic of a page from a book or a reflection on the surface of my tea, but, honestly, I have to ask myself why taking a photo on a day like that is so important. Why do I need a picture of what I was watching on Netflix or listening to on my Zune? I was watching to watch or listening to listen, doing whatever I was doing in that moment with no need to introduce my camera into the equation. Even if I'm in a place or situation where I could craft a decent photo, that doesn't necessitate the existence of such a photo. Sometimes I want to enjoy the moment without bringing the nosy lens of a camera into it. Whether it's a visit with friends or a lazy day around the house or an evening watching the sunset, there are circumstances where I want to immerse myself and forget about everything but the present. The nagging reminders to be sure to snap a photo and the constant have I gotten a photo for today? worrying are a pesky voice that I want to finally silence.
In addition to not wanting to take photos all the time, there's also an important element of not being able to take photos all the time. I know that I threatened the end of Pic a Day way back in August of 2012, only a few weeks after I'd started the posts, under the assumption that I'd be too busy with school to be able to take pictures every day. The fact that I've managed to do it all through high school and part of college proves that I'm never really too busy to snap a photo. However, for the next two months, I will be at a summer job working in the Rocky Mountains. I don't know much about the position to be honest, but I've heard a lot about how strenuous the work will be and how we'll be kept busy pretty much from sunrise to sunset. I could theoretically pull out my camera during a lunch break or between camp chores, but I don't think stepping away from whatever project we're doing if I see a cool flower or tree or want to sneak a pic of my crew mates is a responsible thing to do. I'm there to work, first and foremost. When I have little snatches of free time, I will definitely get out my camera, but I do not want to compromise my work to (I'll use the phrase again) satisfy a quota.
Another issue I've come across, on the opposite end of the spectrum from the struggle to get even one photo, is when I have more than one photo from the day that I want to share. It happens when, for example, I see two of my friends separately on the same day, and I don't want to discount my visit with one person by only posting a picture of the other person; on one occasion, I've posted a picture unrelated to my visit with either of them, which then erases the time I spent with both of them. It happens when I go exploring, and maybe I go to a few different places, and posting a picture of only one of those places discredits any of the other places I may have discovered that day; or maybe I see more than one cool thing on a hike, and only showcasing one of the cool things neglects all the other interesting sights from my journey. My travel blog posts are one way that I circumvent this issue: I post all the photos that I want to share from an adventure. I'd like to do more of that, uploading whatever images capture the exploring (or friend-visiting) that I did in a given day rather than trying to condense it down to one picture that may or not be representative of that entire day and most certainly excludes other images that show what else I did or encountered or who else I hung out with.
Ultimately, this decision comes down to the fact that not all days of my life have equal photographic merit. Some days I do a lot, and I want to share all of that; other days, I don't do much of anything, and I shouldn't have to figure out something to take a picture of that captures the mundane monotony of such a day. I realize that the latter undermines my love of photography, in some ways. Yes, I did mention that there is charm and beauty in the everyday, and there absolutely can be, but some of the things I've photographed just so I'll have a picture for that day aren't photograph-worthy, for a variety of reasons. I want to take pictures because I want to, not because I feel like I have to. Photography is, for me, a hobby and something I love to do, and as such it should be enjoyable.
I want to thank everyone who's ever looked at even one week's worth of Pic a Day. I had fun keeping up with it for so long and am glad I took on the challenge. It was an experience I'll always be grateful for having.
So, last week's "pic a day" is the last photo post you'll see on here for a while. As I said before, I am heading up to Colorado for a two-month-long summer position (and it will be an off-grid living situation, as in camping in the mountains). I will definitely do a post in August when I return with pictures of my adventures.
To anyone who made it all the way to the end of this post: thank you for reading.
In addition to not wanting to take photos all the time, there's also an important element of not being able to take photos all the time. I know that I threatened the end of Pic a Day way back in August of 2012, only a few weeks after I'd started the posts, under the assumption that I'd be too busy with school to be able to take pictures every day. The fact that I've managed to do it all through high school and part of college proves that I'm never really too busy to snap a photo. However, for the next two months, I will be at a summer job working in the Rocky Mountains. I don't know much about the position to be honest, but I've heard a lot about how strenuous the work will be and how we'll be kept busy pretty much from sunrise to sunset. I could theoretically pull out my camera during a lunch break or between camp chores, but I don't think stepping away from whatever project we're doing if I see a cool flower or tree or want to sneak a pic of my crew mates is a responsible thing to do. I'm there to work, first and foremost. When I have little snatches of free time, I will definitely get out my camera, but I do not want to compromise my work to (I'll use the phrase again) satisfy a quota.
Another issue I've come across, on the opposite end of the spectrum from the struggle to get even one photo, is when I have more than one photo from the day that I want to share. It happens when, for example, I see two of my friends separately on the same day, and I don't want to discount my visit with one person by only posting a picture of the other person; on one occasion, I've posted a picture unrelated to my visit with either of them, which then erases the time I spent with both of them. It happens when I go exploring, and maybe I go to a few different places, and posting a picture of only one of those places discredits any of the other places I may have discovered that day; or maybe I see more than one cool thing on a hike, and only showcasing one of the cool things neglects all the other interesting sights from my journey. My travel blog posts are one way that I circumvent this issue: I post all the photos that I want to share from an adventure. I'd like to do more of that, uploading whatever images capture the exploring (or friend-visiting) that I did in a given day rather than trying to condense it down to one picture that may or not be representative of that entire day and most certainly excludes other images that show what else I did or encountered or who else I hung out with.
Ultimately, this decision comes down to the fact that not all days of my life have equal photographic merit. Some days I do a lot, and I want to share all of that; other days, I don't do much of anything, and I shouldn't have to figure out something to take a picture of that captures the mundane monotony of such a day. I realize that the latter undermines my love of photography, in some ways. Yes, I did mention that there is charm and beauty in the everyday, and there absolutely can be, but some of the things I've photographed just so I'll have a picture for that day aren't photograph-worthy, for a variety of reasons. I want to take pictures because I want to, not because I feel like I have to. Photography is, for me, a hobby and something I love to do, and as such it should be enjoyable.
I want to thank everyone who's ever looked at even one week's worth of Pic a Day. I had fun keeping up with it for so long and am glad I took on the challenge. It was an experience I'll always be grateful for having.
So, last week's "pic a day" is the last photo post you'll see on here for a while. As I said before, I am heading up to Colorado for a two-month-long summer position (and it will be an off-grid living situation, as in camping in the mountains). I will definitely do a post in August when I return with pictures of my adventures.
To anyone who made it all the way to the end of this post: thank you for reading.
