an afterword
what was the point of this all?
originally this project was a way for me to continuously take photos and document something interesting per day of the year. as time progressed, this project became more of an experimentation of techniques in both shooting and post-production, as well as kind of a photo-documentary of my year.
why was there a shift in the purpose?
short answer: my life is average.
long answer: i was a student for the majority of the year, and while some days i could find great things to shoot, other days proved to have nothing going on. there were too many occasions where i frantically took something in my room, make it as ambiguous as possible, and skew it even more in post-production at 11:50pm.
isn’t the challenge, then, to make photography interesting for the year?
yeah i suppose. that’s where i failed. multiple MULTIPLE times, as some of you have been keeping count. there were many days where i would shoot something trying to make it pop, and 20 photos plus a half hour in photoshop later i would still have nothing that interests me. it’s not to say that every photo in this project is worthy of being noticed; you can definitely see the failed photos that i posted anyway out of frustration and an “ahh screw it” mentality. looking back, there are plenty of photos that i would toss out as terrible, but it is all a learning phase.
yeah, you definitely posted crap photos/nothing for weeks at a time.
i know (though, i will say working on a daily deadline is tough when i may be far from my laptop as midnight approaches!). but what it taught me is to further experiment in all aspects of photography. when people ask me for advice on their new dslr, i just say to shoot anything and everything with multiple settings and compositions. the reason why is so you will see what works and what fails. and though i have been shooting for (only) 4 years, this is a continual lesson that pushes the idea that i have not nor will i ever try everything in the book. there is always going to be a technique or method that is fresh and exciting, and it might take hundreds of mediocre and average shots before something sticks out. everything has that potential. the trick is how you choose to show it.
wow. inspiring. any last comments?
there has been a lot of support from friends and friends of friends and the tumblr community, so i thank you for your critiques and positive reinforcements. i noticed i am being followed by some doing their own project365 for 2010, and i’d like to say to have fun with it. i may create a new tumblr as a photoblog, which i will edit into this post when/if that happens. otherwise, you can check out my wedding photography here (and hire me!): www.kamarola.com. thanks again for checking this all out, it’s been fun. :]
