[box title=”NOTE:” style=”soft”]I began writing this post yesterday but was interrupted by the power supply going down – more of which, later[/box]
It’s that time of the year again – the one when folks like to review and to plan. I am considering giving it a skip – if I face reviewing the lack of progress on the Great UFO Reduction Plan I might just break down into helpless gibbering. No, it has not gone well, why do you ask?
My antipathy to New Year’s Resolutions is well enough known, I am no great believer in setting oneself up for a fall. Like everybody else, I would certainly like to see myself lighter and fitter by this time next year. Once again I would like to see fewer items in my UFO heap, less yarn in my stash… more completed garments. My hands do not wish to play that game. I begin to wonder if I shall ever again do much more knitting than the odd row here and there.
No promises, then.
All the same I have been pondering the lack of use that my cameras are seeing. I was leaning yesterday towards a 365 project and then, lo, a missive from Blipfoto:
[pullquote]
Challenge your friends to a 365 project for 2014!
Everyone likes a challenge, right? Well, a 365 Project is one of the most fun challenges that you can set yourself. After all, you’re creating a fantastic way to look back at your year, remembering each day – from the little moments to the biggest events. But you probably know this already – so why not challenge your friends to a New Year resolution, to start their own photo-a-day 365 Project?
This year, we’ve created our Definitive Guide to a 365, with Top Tips from those that have successfully completed the challenge right here on Blip. You and your friends can also download a handy PDF version of the Top Tips too.[/pullquote]
Let me state clearly at this point: I have never yet managed to complete a 365 challenge of any form whatsoever. I cannot even manage a daily Blip, which is the easy way to achieve it.
It may be that all I lack is one or more running partners. So, anybody want to join me in learning more about their camera and becoming a better photographer by actual practice? I would be very interested in receiving suggestions for 365 topics. All that I can think of at present, other than saying “yeah, OK, I WILL Blip daily” is to challenge myself to include the image count in the image somehow. So Day 1 is a photograph of a single thing or a photograph of a representation of 1 and Day 365 has 365 things in it, or an image of a 365 on something or… something. It’s a woolly idea and hard to see how it can be achieved. Some limitations of island living can hamper artistic vision 🙂
There is always the “photograph the same thing every day and see how it looks in different lights”… but, lets us face it, that’s destined to fail on Sanday – there are days here when going outside is impossible and others where it is simply challenging but nobody but a fool would expose their camera to the elements. It’s a great shame because that is a project that has always appealed to me. Perhaps I could run it alongside, acknowledging that it will fail to produce 365 images, and logging the days when an image may not be taken. The trick then is to find a sufficiently interesting subject within close walking distance… though I would at least get a daily walk into my routine. Lady Kirk? Daily 2 pm appointment? Lady Kirk as my subject would rule out taking the dogs on my walk. I have no idea why, or where it comes from, but I have a deep-seated feeling that one should not take dogs into graveyards. It feels to be to be “bad form” – what do you think?
The cairn attracts me as a daily light study but is too far away for me to get to it daily unless I get the LR out and that would be an expensive option, even with petrol on the island now down to a more economic £1.50 a litre.
How about the harbour?
I’d like to spare us the daily cat exercise, really I would.
Want to join me in a 365 project of your choice and help gee each other along? Please get in touch. Like the idea of daily shooting but want less of a commitment? Why not sign up at Blipfoto? It’s free and it’s British – better still, it’s SCOTTISH! I am not the only Blipper on Sanday – it would be good to see more Sanday Blips, though!