Sunday, January 1, 2012

I'm not really one for resolutions

2011 was the year of the 365 Project. A group of friends all decided we were game for taking at least one photo a day for the entire year, with a record of our progress posted on the 365 website.
"Hark, a Photo Squirrel!"
 What I learned over the course of that exercise:

1) I enjoy photography a great deal.

2) I dislike editing photos, and would much rather just post photographs without making any changes. Because I felt that I should size my photos smaller out of consideration to the website, I wasn't very consistent with uploading my images every day.

3) I'm crap at finishing a lot of the projects I've started.

4) I strengthened existing friendships and was fortunate enough to start some new ones because of the Project.

Some of my fellow Photo Squirrels (as we christened ourselves) were recently discussing whether or not to continue their projects in 2012. I don't know the final vote; suffice it to say, some of the group will be going back for more and some of us... won't. A thread of the conversation spun the idea of working on one art or craft project each week. As I read this idea, it resonated with me.

In all honesty, I lost steam in 365 sometime around October. Granted, there were other things happening in my life, but I still take responsibility in making the decision to shove photography to the back burner. I have a good feeling about working on one thing each week-- it will encourage me to nurture my creativity, and I already have ideas tossing and turning in my head-- and I think it will keep me from feeling too overwhelmed if I don't work on something for a couple of days.

I think our culture's fixation on resolutions is a bunch of crap. It's much more effective to work toward behaviors and activities that make us better people instead of creating laundry lists of our perceived faults. This is why I dusted off the old blog today; I'm going to attempt to work on my creativity and my ability to see projects through to completion. All manner of projects and photos will be forthcoming.


2 comments:

  1. I'm right there with you... 52 weeks of whatever strikes my fancy instead of 365 photos.

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  2. I think it is cool that a lot of us used what we learned from the 365 project as a springboard to more individualized creativity. All I know is that I hope that the squirrels' friendships strengthen and grow over 2012. :) - MissyB

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