365 Day challenge 2013

Justman1020 · Jan 29, 2013

Im leaving the hard rock and this is on the elevator roof. I thought it looked cool.

Justman1020 · Jan 29, 2013

Justman1020 · Jan 30, 2013

Only In south florida...

Justman1020 · Feb 1, 2013

Justman1020 · Feb 1, 2013

The only argument I ever need against uv filters. A friend called me up and told me he dropped his lens....I see that.

Justman1020 · Feb 2, 2013

Building a light box.

mishele · Feb 2, 2013

Where's the creativity?!!!
CaptureYour365 | Idea List

manaheim · Feb 2, 2013

And here we see why 365 day photo challenges are an utter waste of time, almost every time.

There are two common results...

1. Pointless crappy shots that were forced because "I gotta take a picture today! It's part of my challenge!"
2. People give up and drop off.

I'd like to say creativity can't be forced, but I don't think that's correct. What I can probably say is that if creativity exists exclusively because it was forced, then you are going to get poor creativity... and if you persist, it only gets worse. And as you produce worse results, you're likely to get frustrated and think you suck. If you think you suck, you're likely to give up entirely and sell your camera gear cheap on ebay.

Actually... I think everyone should do them. I need a new lens.

Justman1020 · Feb 3, 2013

Beautiful car

TCampbell · Feb 4, 2013

Justman1020 said:
Beautiful car

MUCH better! The point is to stretch both your ability to notice good subjects and your technique. You're not really gaining in experience to shoot something that we all know is beneath your skill level just so you can check off the day.

This thread started out with some creative shots, but I can see in some of your recent shots that it looks like you're struggling for ideas but you haven't given up.

If your having difficulty finding subjects, considering searching for subjects with a specific goal. Sometimes I look for subjects with strong "leading" lines and direction. Sometimes I look for subjects with specific color balance combinations (e.g. blue/gold, green/pink, etc.). This sort of puts your brain in the mode where it gets used to noticing when something around you "works".

You can make a list of things such as:

color balance
leading lines
rhythm
texture
high contrast
low contrast
strength
softness
...
then start adding emotions & moods such as
solitude
abandonment
happiness
dispair
wonder
anger
surprise
...

Then you need to decide if you want to shoot with a documentary style (not staged shots... you're just identifying these things and shooting them as they happen) OR whether staging & creating the shot is the way you want to go. Both are good goals and having experience doing both are good skills.

amolitor · Feb 4, 2013

The point of a Project365 is whatever the person doing it makes it about.

Sometimes it's just about using the camera every day, not about creativity. Maybe they just want to develop the habit is Having The Camera With Them, and this is a way to do that. Maybe it's about learning to see the world as a series of rectangular slices, and you gotta take a lot of bad ones to sort out what the good ones are. Maybe it's about deliberately taking bad ones, so you can study them and ask yourself why they're bad.