September 30th saw me complete my 366. The thought of taking a picture a day for a year (a leap year, hence the 366 not 365 days) didn’t seem too daunting when I embarked on it, but as the year wore on my attitude changed. Some days I found myself not wanting to pick up the camera as there was just too little time or too much going on. That this last year has seen a lot of changes to my life didn’t help, but the sad fact was that as the end of the year approached a sense of relief was the overwhelming emotion I felt 🙁
I suspect that most people’s picture taking patterns are similar to my own – brief spurts of taking large numbers of pictures punctuating the normal routine of taking a few now and then. Changing this pattern isn’t as easy as it sounds and at times (usually when there was a lot going on and the days were getting too long) the act of picking up the camera became a chore – hardly the intended result of a 366.
Now that a few days have elapsed without the need to take pictures I’m finding that the sense of relief is starting to fade. Numerically speaking, I’ve had my D300 for less than 10 months and have taken over 12,000 pictures with it. The 366 probably contributed to this number, but did it contribute to the quality? Has the year long adventure improved my photography? I have no idea, and as such measures are subjective there isn’t a definitive answer.
I’m in the process of finding my favourite 30 images to create a mosiac. If you have suggestions for pictures to include (my 366 set is here) drop me a line!