About a year ago, I took on Project 365: Document a year in my life by taking a photo a day. If it sounds easy, it isn’t. And if it sounds trite, it’s not that either. I found the project, the brainchild of Taylor McKnight, on the photography website Photojojo (photojojo.com). The idea: Corral time by capturing a year’s worth of memories. My pictorial year is an amazing, jolly collage of big and not-so-big moments. It can be for you too. Here’s what I’ve learned:
Get a great, lightweight digital camera. It needs to fit in a pocket or purse and be easy to download. (I used a Canon PowerShot.)
Be disciplined. Downloading and labeling the photos is tedious work; try to do it weekly. Also, I’d recommend finding a website that will store your photos online, such as Google’s Picasa or Yahoo’s Flickr.
Troubleshooting: Take extra photos on your way to work or at regular haunts to plug in for days you forget. (Yes. That’s cheating.)
Hang in there: Some days you’ll think there’s nothing to shoot. Sometimes you will be right; I have way too many photos of my dinners. However, the seemingly innocuous pictures you wouldn’t have shot otherwise — a buddy at work, your favorite barista handing you a latte — may well be the ones you love best.
Be flexible. There was a death in the family, and the project took a break. I decided to insert a picture of our loved one for the missing days — and what’s more, recent photos were easy to find. She was in a lot of the pictures I shot this year because I had a camera in my purse.
If I’ve learned anything from Project 365, it’s this: The camera stays in the purse. You can’t have too many good memories.