A Day, A Photo: 365 2011 Completed

I've completed my photo a day project, and I can barely believe that I actually did it. It started out strong. I wanted to work on improving some of my skills as a still photographer. I wanted to try new out new techniques. Somewhere along the way, I just wanted to finish the damn project.

As the project is now over, it is time to look back at what I have accomplished. I must have shot over thousands of photos this year. Posting 366. (more on that later) Now I am going to take you on a journey throughout the year, through each month. Discussing what I was thinking as the year passed along. Let's begin.

January

I started this project as a suggestion from a friend to help me build on my ever growing photography skills. I had dreams of practicing depth of field, portraits, lighting, colors, time value, yada, yada, yada. In January, you can see how I much I really tried to accomplished this.





February 

I soon discovered that coming up with ideas for photographs was a lot harder than first thought, and it was only month two. I also had a problem with my work schedule. I was on the nightside shift, not giving me a lot of time with daylight. So I tried my best to take advantage of nighttime photography





March

I think I really found my stride in March. I was cruising along with low light photos, and Las Vegas provides a lot of neon lighted opportunities. Also I started to attempting a simple photography trick, levitation. The trick is in deed very simple, but lighting needs to be nearly perfect for it to work.





April

As Spring approached, I was able to take advantage of the increasing daylight. Hence I also was participating in more outdoor (non work related) events, including to a trip to Atlanta, Georgia.





May

I had a lot of great ideas to do still life or product shots this month. Most days it didn't work out so I had to scramble to make the photo a day deadline. This month had a lot of of days devoted to the Sahara Hotel Casino closing.





June

I think as June came along, I was struggling to find anything interesting to photograph. Pretty much all of these photos are just something I saw that day. It is a good thing I own cats. You may have noticed there are a few cat photos throughout the year.





July

Summer arrived so one would think there would be tons of photos ideas. Not here. The first part of the month was rough. I tried to capture lightning, and fireworks with poor execution. In the middle of the month, I started looking for light art opportunities, and I was looking forward to a vacation back home. There would definitely be photos to take in Montana.





August

Montana was spectacular! No problems finding photographs for that week. It was harder to decide which one would make the cut. I also wanted to document the extreme heat Las Vegans had to experience.







September

I think a got a second wind after I purchased my new Mac Book Pro this month. I started to really work on textures and lighting.



October

This month seemed to flyby. Good photos were everywhere I went. Monsoon season provided great weather with flooding, clouds and lighting. Then there was football games, flag football season, fighter jets, holidays.... it was a plethora of photography.





November

Even though there are some good photos in this month, I think I was getting to the point were I just wanted this project to be finished. I believe there was a lot of "fauxtography" within this month.



December

I got one final burst of endurance as I saw the finish line ahead. I was excited for the holiday season because I could rely on holiday photos being great ideas. As the final week approached, it got increasing more clear that I would finish this project. Shooting those last few photos was very easy.





Conclusion

I am glad I attempted this project. I am definitely proud of myself that I actually completed it. There are so many things that I will start and despite my best efforts I never finish them.

Friends suggested that I continue going, but I remember the mid year frustration and I think I will take a year off. Maybe I will make another attempt in 2013. If you want to check out all the photos from 2011 go to my Flickr site.

I would like to thank all my cats for always being there when I needed a photo idea. Maybe I will start a Cat Photo of the Day website. I am now more obsessed with taking my camera everywhere I go, that is for sure. I may not take a photo every day, but at least I will be ready.

Oh yeah... I almost forgot. I have a total of 366 photos for 365 days in the past year. Way back in January, I had an idea that for special events throughout the year I would occasionally post more than one photo a day. I did it only one time. Ooops!

Happy 2012!!!!