Reflecting on 1000 consecutive days.

When I started this project on December 31, 2010 I had only intended to see if I could follow through on a photo a day for a year.  Now I find myself reaching my 1000 consecutive day with today's post and feel it is a good chance to look back at what I have learned.

Lesson 1.  No matter what don't throw in the towel.  There were nights as the clock ticked down where I was tired and not feeling creative.  Still I reached deep down and found some item, some knickknack laying around the house and found some creative way to photograph it.  It surprised me that some of these images were my most popular shots.

Lesson 2.  Use the project to try new things.  In 2012 I concentrated on learning what the camera in the iPhone can do and what apps worked best for my vision.  All but two of the 366 photo's of the day were created with the iPhone and I learned when it works well and has an advantage as well as it's shortcomings and when it was not reliable.  I found Snapseed to be my favorite app with iPhoto, Hipstamatic, Jazz and RealCamera+ to be useful.  I tried many others and use a few of them, but many have been removed from my phone as they did not suit my taste.

Lesson 3.  Keep your eyes open and observe the light.  Many times during a busy day I found it challenging to think about taking photo's.  However this did not mean I stopped seeing scenes around me.  This has helped me be ready to capture a shot, even if the moment was fleeting.

Lesson 4.  Don't worry if other's look at you strangely.  Many times I would pull out my camera (iPhone or DSLR) at times and places where others might have walked past.  Often people would look at me with quizzical looks as I shot in places like Safeway and Walmart or found me contorting myself or at odd angels trying to frame a shot.  It does not matter what they were thinking, I was able to get the shot I wanted.

Lesson 5.  Share over and over.  Whether it was through this blog, on Facebook, Twitter, Goggle+ and LinkedIn or the photo social sites like Instagram, Pheed, Tadaa, Mobli, EyeEm Tuding, Streamzoo and now Pressgram it was good to get my daily images out to the world.  One does not need to have a lot of follower nor to be following a lot,  just be active in that community.  You can get feedback from all over the planet and gain inspiration from them.

These are just a few of my thoughts and now as I continue to move forward I hope to continue to grow as a photographer and as a person.  I look forward to sharing more photo of the day with you as well as incorporating some projects in to it as well.  Here are my photo's from the past few days.

October 2.  Walking through Safeway I noticed this basket with mini pumpkins in it.  I quickly took out my iPhone and snapped a couple of frames.  I used Snapseed for most of the port work but removed one white label using iPhoto.

October 3.  Finishing the night after teaching at SAIT I found these two objects.  The first was a bottle of Windex siting on a shelf in the darkroom (they still have a B&W lab and a strong continuing ed class in the school).  A quick shot and a bot of Snapseed created this photo.

Walking out to my car I passed the bins for garbage and recycling and the symmetry of this shot caught my eye.  I positioned my camera to get this lovely perspective as well as the reflection of the lights off the silver.  Again a little work in Snapseed achieved what I was looking for.

October 4.  A day with my boy's as it was a PD day from school. Cool had to go and collect some leaves for a school project.  While crossing the bridge at Edworthy Park I saw this shadow and asked hime to lay down in the sun.  I shot this with the iPhone but did a bit of post work in both Snapseed and in Photoshop on the computer.

Later that afternoon we went to see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2.  After words Cool and Luke wanted a photo with the snowman from Frozen which is the next movie they want to see.

October 5.  While Cool and I were out collecting bottles for his choir fundraiser I found today's images.  The first was a boat sitting in a driveway waiting to be winterized.  I held the camera high and angled it to get the view I wanted.

We latter came across this huge metal butterfly on the side of one of the houses.  I asked the owner if I could snap a shot as I found it interesting.  A little work in Snapseed with the drama filter made it pop.