Salvaging Project 365 - 2014

A friend of mine introduced me to the concept of Project 365 back in December of 2012.  Basically you take a picture a day and save your progress as a snapshot of memory from each day.  I wrote a blog about it and, by gum, it worked!  (see: http://evilchickenscratch.blogspot.com/2012/12/project-365.html.) 

I was quite happy with the way that 2013 came together (see: http://evilchickenscratch.blogspot.com/2013/12/project-365-this-was-2013.html) and high hopes for 2014.  Unfortunately, things fell apart when my laptop crashed and burned and I had to start saving my pictures to a guest identity shell on my new hard drive on my new laptop that has designs against me.  It took the process of posting pictures from simplicity to chore faster than my flash drive & camera could keep up.

 

{NOTE: if you want happier fodder, skip the following paragraph now.}

And then there’s the content.  For reasons that are my own let me simply say 2014 sucked.  It was a downer.  Unfortunately, this underlying current permeated all things that I touched during the year – including my Project 365.  I look back now at the highlights of the album and can see desperation instead of inspiration and that both saddens and emboldens me.  Case in point, my Pinterest page where I hosted 2014’s Project 365 ends on 9/10/14 with an abysmal photo of a collection of God forsaken office cubicles.  I look further back and find that many of the photos I took were at or performing some function at one of my jobs or going to or from one job to another.  There are not as many pictures of things I honestly wanted to see or do.  There is a lot less of my family & friends there, a lot less wonder, and heaps less of joy.  THIS, however, is what emboldens me.  You see, Gentle Reader, I understand that time is fleeting and for all the bad things that encroach upon us we simply can’t sacrifice our lives, our wonder, and our joy on unfit alters.  Anything less will make you desperate and that desperation is far too high a price to pay.  I will do my utmost in the coming years not to repeat the mistakes made in 2014.  Life is far too short.  There are too many things that truly matter to become bogged down in all the things that don't.  It is easy to trap oneself and to forget to live. 

{Ok, depressing paragraph is now over.} 

So here is my filtered and salvaged version of my Project 365 Twenty Fourteen.

 1/3/14 - Footprints in the snow

 1/6/14 - Color in the evening sky

4/25/14 - "Life will find a way." - Ian Malcolm

5/13/14 - Morning dew

7/17/14, Sunlight

7/19/14 - The Obon Festival in Seabrook, NJ 

8/13/14 - Weymouth Furnace & the Egg Harbor River

9/9/14 - Auditions for, "August Osage County" as seen through the doors to the theater

There are a couple of good ones that bring back interesting moments.  If you have the urge to do a Project 365 then I wish you well.  It is a journey and one that you will be the better for taking.  I’m opting out of a Project 365 for 2015.  In its place I’ll put a file on Pinterest to represent the good things of 2015. 

So, apart from the tone of this particular blog, I approach 2015 with boatloads of hope for the future.  I’m ready for the change.  Bring it on.  HAPPY NEW YEAR, Gentle Reader and during this next trip around the sun, never forget to live!

Project 365

A friend of mine, let’s call him Dirty Bird, met for a cup of coffee recently and he turned me on to something called, Project 365.

“Have you heard of Project 365?” he asked.  He had about 8 years ago asked a similar question about something called Geocaching.  Geocaching exploded into a great pastime for both of us.  I don’t get out as often as I would like these days but it is still well worth exploring.

“It sounds familiar but I don’t know what it is.” I said.

“It’s where you take a picture a day for 365 consecutive days.” He said. “You have a record of entire year.”  He went on to explain that there were several online sites that supported this project.

That sounded very interesting to yours truly so I took to my friend the internet to find more information.  Back in January of 2004, a student, George Taylor McKnight decided that taking a picture a day would not only improve his photography skills but it would also chronicle a year in his life.  The unexpected bonus and the true reason why I’m thinking about doing this is that it made him appreciate the journey and the people he met along the way more.  Here is Mr. McKnight’s site: http://gtmcknight.com/365/. 

While all that is well and good there is a certain amount of discipline that comes with participating in a photo essay activity like, Project 365; a certain amount of commitment.  So then I sought out people who had done it and what sort of tips they could offer and I found this: http://content.photojojo.com/tutorials/project-365-take-a-photo-a-day/.  Fortunately, taking a camera with you wherever you go has gotten a lot easier due to my favorite new companion (next to my Swiss Army knife), the smartphone.  I may utilize Flickr or Pinterest to make this happen – I honestly haven’t decided which yet but I can say that I am on board.

So there it is, inspiration in a cup of coffee, an old friend, and a smartphone camera.  Are you looking for a project that will not only make you take better pictures but may also change the way you look at the world?

I’m in.

What about YOU, Gentle Reader?  In the words of Ferris Bueller, “Life moves pretty fast.  If you don’t stop and look around every once in a while, you could miss it.”

Don’t miss.