Day 8 / 373
01-07-16
Day 7 / 372
01-06-16
Day 6 / 371 –
Back in the fields.
One of the things I have been thinking about is a Patreon account, and what I could offer. I don’t want everything to go exclusively to people who are patrons, but I also want to offer things to people who want to help support the art and photography. Some of those things include full days of shoots sent to patrons instead of one from a day, PDFs of shoot days and photo essays, and maybe prints sent out.
It’s hard to guess what people want, and while my audience is small right now, I feel like this is the year to expand what I’m doing. So the comments are open. What do you want to see? What would you be interested in becoming a subscriber to? What would you like to see “more” look like?
I’m also adding a PayPal donate button. If you want to help a little bit, you ca put a few dollars in there. Current expenses include gas to get to shoot locations and some much needed sensor cleaning. For the most part, I have all the camera equipment I need, other than a lens that has to be replaced.
Anything you can do to help is appreciated. Simply letting me know what you want to see more of is helpful.
Thanks for helping me to become a better photographer.
[paypal-donation]
01-05-16
Day 5 / 370 –
I was out shooting yesterday, and I wasn’t really happy with how the photos turned out. I was very happy with the subject matter. So I think I’m going to have to go back. This is from that shoot.
01-04-16
Day 4 / 369 –
More from Dixmoor.
01-03-16
Day 3 / 368 –
I don’t think I’ve ever seen as many boarded up houses next to lived in houses as I did in Dixmoor, IL. More of them to come.
01-02-16
Day 2 / 357
It does feel weird to post something I didn’t shoot today. Almost like the surprise of what is to come is ruined. Then again, I have plenty of things I liked but didn’t make the cut, so it’s nice to visit those.
This was from Dec. 5, 2015. The lake I passed was coated in fog. A covered bridge had fog warnings all over it. I’m sure it was a regular sight to the locals, but it was special and amazing to me. I tried to do some punching up to it, but nothing looked right. It turns out it didn’t need anything.
As ever, clicking the image makes a better version show up. I’ll work on getting that part of things fixed. WordPress does what it does sometimes.
12-31-15
Day 365 –
I wanted to finish off this project in the same place I found my voice: the fields. It seemed fitting.
What’s next?
Now that 365 is over for 2015, I have to be honest. I don’t want it to be done. Well, I do and I don’t. I want a day off from shooting every so often. I really need it. But I don’t want 365 to be completely over.
On the good days of shooting, it can take several hours or all day. When shooting in the fields, I can spend half a day driving around the dirt roads looking. Yesterday’s photo came from driving half an hour south of Chicago, then roaming the neighborhood for an hour, and a half hour drive back. Sort photos, work on a few that I really like (post processing, black and white conversation, editing), then post one. All told, it was probably close to four hours to post the one 365 photo.
That isn’t a complaint at all. I love doing it. If I could spend all my days doing that, I would. But right now, I can’t. 365 was a time consuming project. Often, it consumed my time in the best way, and for that, I’m sad it’s ending.
At times, I would have to interrupt the day to go take a photo. Those days, I would sometimes find something close, but often I wouldn’t find much at all. The rush job was never very good. Having the freedom and time to wander was essential to this process. I’m hoping to not quite have as much down time this coming year.
So what is next? Some of it, I’m still figuring out.
365 as a shooting project is done, but I don’t want to end it completely. Instead, 365 will become a posting project. I’ll be posting a new photo every day, new things I shoot as well as some photos that didn’t make the daily cut for 365. It turns out there are a lot of those.
Rather than going out and shooting every day, I’ll shoot one to three times a week, and dedicate longer days to shooting, rather than an hour a day. Those long days of shooting are when I tend to bring back the better photos.
And if it turns out I want or need to go out and shoot every day again, I will. Having the freedom to choose is a wonderful thing.
I have a few projects I want to do.
After reading James A. Reeves “The Road to Somewhere: An American Memoir,” I was inspired to do something similar. I’ve always wanted to do the Great American Road Trip / Finding America project. I’ve never had a medium that fit. Now I do. Since I travel all the time, the opportunity is right there. What a shame to waste it. There will be writing with most of those photos.
The working name is Some American Dream. It was originally Someone’s American Dream, but it sounded clunky, and had a few connotations I didn’t like. I’ll have a website for it soon.
There is also the Utah Project. Meg and I are talking about that, and hopefully I can do it this year. More on that in the future, when the possibility of it becomes more realistic.
I’ve been testing some printing lately. The results have been interesting and fascinating. Translating from the screen to paper is harder than I thought it would be. From this experience, I hope to finally have enough fine-tuned material to finally have a print sale.
I’m also considering setting up a Patreon account. Patreon allows people to support creators by buying works as they come out, or with monthly contributions. I’ve been thinking of how to do this in a way that doesn’t exclude the stuff I put out on the website, and still provide something unique and special to those who want it. Getting out in the field and shooting costs money, or time when I could or should be making a living. It doesn’t cost a ton, but it does cost. I’d like to make it sustain itself, and make something more special for people who want to support that.
I also have to replace one lens and probably buy one more. I don’t want to, but I need to. But that can wait for a little bit.
This coming year, I want to work with the square aspect ratio some. Learn what it can do.
I might even start taking pictures with people in them. But let’s not get carried away.
365 is done for 2015, but it’s just the end of the chapter. The next chapter is going to look a little different. Hopefully, even better.
A huge thanks goes to Meg, my girlfriend. I could not have done this without her. I’m not understating to say that without her, this would never have happened. Throughout the project, she took it more seriously than I did, and treated me like a professional and artist, whether I deserved it or not.
Thank you to all of you who have come along for the ride. It’s been a fun, frustrating and amazing journey. This month of photos is completely different than the first month. They hardly look like they were taken by the same person. The support and encouragement of all of you helped push me to keep going and to get better. I’m glad I did, and I’m glad you were here.
Let’s see what 2016 has to offer.
But tomorrow, I’m going to take a day off shooting.
12-30-15
Day 364 – Dixmoor, IL
There are a few reasons to do a 365 project. One is to learn the craft. Another is to build up a body of work. The one that I got the most out of was finding my voice.
One of my favorite Merlin Mann quotes is “content is king, but voice is queen.” I think he said it on the Back To Work podcast. The point is that you can put out a ton of stuff online, but if you aren’t saying anything, then what is the point? Having a voice, actually saying something, that makes the content valuable.
Through this project, I started to find my voice. I started figuring out what I wanted to say. When I started to develop a style, I wasn’t sure why I was shooting what I was shooting. I knew I liked what I was shooting, but the reasons behind it hadn’t taken yet. Why did I care about falling-down barns or burned out buildings, alleys and graffiti, homes that were falling down? Why was I interested in places boarded up with plywood? Was it nothing more than ruin porn?
It turns out that there is actually a reason behind it. There is something to it that makes me want to seek out more, that puts some emotion and interest behind it. Some of that is going to be collected in a new project, some of it will be a continuation of what I’ve been doing.
I’ve had cameras for years. I had a 35mm film camera when digital was just becoming a market. I’ve almost always had a digital camera of some sort (aside from the one on my phone) since 1998. But this was the first year I’ve ever shot with intention. And from that intention, I finally figured out what I wanted to say with it.
For the most part, I think it’s come though. I have more to go, so I’m not ready to write an “artist’s statement” here. I’m not ready to explicitly state it. But it’s coming.
Tomorrow is the last 365 photo for 2015. I’ll talk about what is next then.
12-29-15
Day 363 –
When I started this project, I wasn’t really being a photographer. I was taking pictures, sure, but it wasn’t really being a photographer. I was doing things I thought might look neat. I was getting pictures that were fine. There were things I was proud of, things I thought were nice photos, but I had so much to learn. The first month of this site looks nothing like the last month.
What I really learned was what my job is as a photographer. My job is to take the feeling about something I see or am around and create a photo that expresses that. Sometimes it’s sadness, sometimes it’s wonder, occasionally it’s a story that’s interesting. The best photos I’ve made are the ones where I felt something about what I was shooting, and then tried to refine that feeling into that image.
Sometimes I succeeded. Sometimes I did not. Sometimes I didn’t even try. Those are the worst photos on this site, the ones where I felt rushed, where I didn’t have time, where I didn’t go looking with any feeling involved. I can tell those photos from the rest. I bet you can too. Anyone can be a photographer, if they tune in to what they are feeling and work to translate that to the image. To me, that’s the difference between a photographer and someone who just takes pictures. It isn’t the gear, it’s what you do with it.
What have I learned. I learned things like composition. I learned about light and contrast. I learned what the settings on the camera do, and what will happen to the image when I change those settings. I learned how to apply that knowledge to the image. I learned how to manipulate the photo in software. And I’m still learning more about all those things.
But what I really learned was to go with what I feel. If I feel anything about what I’m shooting, I am going to have a better shot at getting a good picture. Even a bad picture driven by feeling is better than a decent picture that isn’t. When I think and feel about what I’m shooting, the results simply are better. I had to learn to trust that.
I learned how to be a photographer. I wasn’t really comfortable calling myself a photographer until this week. A few things I made and posted recently made me finally flip that switch. It took a year, but I’m a photographer.
I didn’t always do a good job, but I learned how to do a better job, and that was part of the point.