The Photo a Day Challenge

[Heroique]

The “Field work vs. LF forum” thread triggered my memory of Rob’s “Photo-a-Day” challenge – so I thought I’d look into this…

Wow, seems the year-long challenge went Dark after just 40 days . Here we are, it’s several months later, we’re into autumn … any Marathoners still on the run?

Jim, Paul, Marco, Greg, and – especially – Rob, are you still active? You and all the brave ones who accepted this challenge have our support, of course. Please update us! And if anyone had to break-off from the challenge – or is making use of an occasional “rest period” – your updates & lessons would be interesting, too...

[Robert Skeoch]

I think for the most part the challenge has ended. I certainly wasn't able to keep it up. For a number of us the darkroom work just got farther and farther behind. I still have shots I would like to print but can't get the time in the darkroom.

I for one learned a lot. I found working in the studio with the 8x10 very enjoyable and plan to do a number of still life's in the future. I also enjoyed the daily practise this challenge gave.... it's just that darn darkroom work that I couldn't keep it up.

Needless to say if a person did this with a digital solution it would be much easier.

Also I think it helps if you travel a bit. When shooting every day the same area gets a little stale.

-Rob

[Brian C. Miller]

"Needless to say if a person did this with a digital solution it would be much easier."

Polaroid! Polaroid! er, Fuji! Fuji! Fuji!

Or maybe a digi of the ground glass.

[Alan Butcher]

At 12:46pm today, I completed the photo a day project. All photos were large format, 509 4x5 and 56 8x10 negatives. It was an interesting project, but at times was a challenge. If I had not been retired, this would have involved a lot of either night or studio photographs. The only incident was my Wisner 4x5 going over a waterfall (8-15ft) on 25 June, by 7 July repaired and back in use.

Things I may have learned.

My composition is better.
Camera weight does not make much difference.

This year maybe at least a photo a week project, I do not rule out doing this again but it will not be 2011, need time for therapy.

[Monty McCutchen]

At 12:46pm today, I completed the photo a day project. All photos were large format, 509 4x5 and 56 8x10 negatives. It was an interesting project, but at times was a challenge. If I had not been retired, this would have involved a lot of either night or studio photographs. The only incident was my Wisner 4x5 going over a waterfall (8-15ft) on 25 June, by 7 July repaired and back in use.

Things I may have learned.

My composition is better.
Camera weight does not make much difference.

This year maybe at least a photo a week project, I do not rule out doing this again but it will not be 2011, need time for therapy.

Outstanding. That is quite an accomplishment! Congrats on persevering!

Monty

[Heroique]

At 12:46pm today, I completed the photo a day project.

[Sound of wild cheers & thunderous applause.]

...I need time for therapy.

I would too, after watching my Wisner 4x5 float over a waterfall!

[hmf]

At 12:46pm today, I completed the photo a day project. All photos were large format, 509 4x5 and 56 8x10 negatives. It was an interesting project, but at times was a challenge. If I had not been retired, this would have involved a lot of either night or studio photographs. The only incident was my Wisner 4x5 going over a waterfall (8-15ft) on 25 June, by 7 July repaired and back in use.

Things I may have learned.

My composition is better.
Camera weight does not make much difference.

This year maybe at least a photo a week project, I do not rule out doing this again but it will not be 2011, need time for therapy.

Wow, I'm impressed. And, this makes me pause for some soul searching; I've been thinking of doing a variation of this for years but never seem to get started. I suppose tomorrow morning would be it, if I don't put it off yet another year ....

[Jay DeFehr]

I make a photo a day, except on the days I don't, but there aren't many of those. I think the value in an exercise like this one, if there is any, likely lies in the values of discipline, regimentation, and habituation. I'm very skeptical of any artistic value, beyond those indirectly related to the more practical ones already noted, and the value of those is heavily personality dependent. It might be a good exercise for someone who has a hard time getting motivated to make photos, or someone who procrastinates, or otherwise lacks discipline. The value for someone who obsesses is not as clear. There was a time when I felt photography interfered with my life, and others in my life agreed. For me, taking a year off from making any photos was more beneficial to my photography than any rigid regimen could possibly have been. The idea that something like making a photo a day, as an exercise, is universally beneficial, is as preposterous as the cellist practicing scales analogy offered earlier in the thread. Photography, unlike playing the cello, does not rely on manual dexterity, unless one is a photojournalist, war correspondent, or perhaps, street photographer. Muscle memory, limberness and dexterity play incidental roles for most photographers, not the central roles they play for an orchestra musician. Julia is a classically trained concert pianist, and I marvel at her abilities, but having them doesn't confer any important advantages to a photographer. The attitudes expressed in this thread that thinking isn't important, or even real, according to one poster, and that we, as photographers are better off making lots of photos than thinking about a few, reduces photography to a skill to be learned by repetition, like playing a chromatic scale, or typing, as opposed to creating music, or literature.

[mdm]

Congratulations.

I saw your post and was tempted myself, but I think I might wait untill I retire to follow your example.

[Alan Butcher]

The attitudes expressed in this thread that thinking isn't important, or even real, according to one poster, and that we, as photographers are better off making lots of photos than thinking about a few, reduces photography to a skill to be learned by repetition, like playing a chromatic scale, or typing, as opposed to creating music, or literature.

I agree that any value in repetition was quickly achieved. Some of the best pictures taken during the year were from seeing a scene one day, thinking about the possibilities and then returning another day to take the picture. Most of the pictures I took during the year were on my farm, about 1/2 mile square, so many of the scenes were looked at multiple times.

A photo a day is either OCD behavior or insanity (Doing the same thing over and over expecting a difference result) I got only pictures while expecting masterpieces.

I did get some fine pictures.