Project 52/365's

Dunks said:
I think I'd run out of steam after around a week before I started taking pictures of my cat and stuff constantly
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Unfortunately that does seem to be the way many of these projects end up going. It strikes me that these things try to forcing creativity and could end up doing more harm than good in the long run.

Has anyone actually seen a 365/52/whatever through until the bitter end and found themselves richer for the experience?
 
I did a 52 and despite a couple of failed ideas, I actually quite enjoyed it. It also allowed me to have a look through the past 52 photos I did over the year and see where I am weakest and should practice more on. Richer for the experience, yes. The trick to doing these project is to have a theme or a line which you're sticking to, for me, it's based around music/lyric I either enjoy or felt that week. Keeping it too open will actually make it too hard, especially when the creativity well is dry from a hard week at work.
 
glitch said:
Unfortunately that does seem to be the way many of these projects end up going. It strikes me that these things try to forcing creativity and could end up doing more harm than good in the long run.

Has anyone actually seen a 365/52/whatever through until the bitter end and found themselves richer for the experience?
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My thoughts exactly.

That's why I'm doing a 52 rather than a 365, one photo a week is far more do-able than one a day imo.

I'm also going to follow the themes given each week on TalkPhotography to give me some inspiration :)
 
Mr Jones said:
...The trick to doing these project is to have a theme or a line which you're sticking to, for me, it's based around music/lyric I either enjoy or felt that week. Keeping it too open will actually make it too hard, especially when the creativity well is dry from a hard week at work.
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I agree about having a theme - which is why I will probably follow the TP themeset :)

Great idea about music/lyrics! That's right up my street :) I might choose to do that some weeks as an alternative - I think this could bring out more of a creative streak in me! :p
 
Mr Jones said:
I did a 52 and despite a couple of failed ideas, I actually quite enjoyed it. It also allowed me to have a look through the past 52 photos I did over the year and see where I am weakest and should practice more on. Richer for the experience, yes.
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I've just spent a very pleasurable few minutes flicking through your 52 over on flickr. Lovely stuff indeed.

What would you say you found out about your photography over the course of the year?
 
Namistai said:
I agree about having a theme - which is why I will probably follow the TP themeset :)

Great idea about music/lyrics! That's right up my street :) I might choose to do that some weeks as an alternative - I think this could bring out more of a creative streak in me! :p
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Accommodation is the first theme from TP. Urgh :p

That's me off to a brilliant start then :o
 
glitch said:
What would you say you found out about your photography over the course of the year?
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Thank you and I found that I actually quite enjoy the strobist part of photography. I started using it late in the project and will further explore it as I want to do more portrait work, I favour the more quark and fun expression than the more moody expressive work.

I've also learnt that my better work all comes from a lot of micro planning, tiny little details like what material to use for the spark shoot to a starkly coloured dice for my milk shot makes capturing it as envisioned a lot easier than trying to snap my way to how it could be, if you know what I mean.

Dunks said:
Accommodation is the first theme from TP. Urgh :p

That's me off to a brilliant start then :o
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What's wrong with that? Start it off with a HDR of your room, as it is if it's messy or totally minimal / Zen if you're that type of person. Might also be a good excuse to clean the room abit.
 
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I tried last year and ended up just doing a "month of photos". Was a bit more maybe 35 days.

It's fun at first, but for me it eventually felt like a chore and wasn't enjoying it at all. Especially if I spent a whole week indoors or something. Might try the 52 thing, as that's a bit more reasonable and far less of a chore.

If my life ever becomes interesting I might do a 365, or maybe just do a daily video blog like The Shaytards on Youtube.

I like the theme idea too. Maybe I'll keep all photos to being shot with a 50mm f/1.8 or something
 
Mr Jones said:
I've also learnt that my better work all comes from a lot of micro planning, tiny little details like what material to use for the spark shoot to a starkly coloured dice for my milk shot makes capturing it as envisioned a lot easier than trying to snap my way to how it could be, if you know what I mean.
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That's a very useful skill to have picked up along the way and certainly something I wish I'd learnt to do at a much earlier stage.
 
Mr Jones said:
I've also learnt that my better work all comes from a lot of micro planning, tiny little details like what material to use for the spark shoot to a starkly coloured dice for my milk shot makes capturing it as envisioned a lot easier than trying to snap my way to how it could be, if you know what I mean.
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This is something I really need to start doing, and I hope having set themes will help. Too often I plan to the extent of a rough idea and look at stimulus, but then just set up the shot and hope it goes well.


First image for me.

Ben - I like the photo merge of the light trails and sky you did, nice work :).
 
glitch said:
Has anyone actually seen a 365/52/whatever through until the bitter end and found themselves richer for the experience?
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Well, yes I did last year. Complete a 365, ok 362 to be exact. Missed 3 days; one day I totally forgot to take a photo :eek: early on when I wasn't getting into the routine then, another day I was just too busy even to take one, the third time I was travelling (plane) more or less all day!

Anyway less than 1% so I'm happy that I managed it in the end. For this year I'll try the Project 52 in TP.

Right now I'm busying pp last year's photos and will try to post up some soon.
 
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