Why you should take a picture everyday. I’m sure there are more, but here are a couple reasons:
Chronicle your days:
I’ve tried but have never been a great journal writer. I really have tried several times. I start strong for a few days or maybe even a couple weeks, but after awhile, I tire of it and slowly fade back to not writing in my journal again. But I found something that I CAN do. I can take a picture. It takes less time. I can set a reminder to take a picture everyday after lunch, and so I do. Taking a picture everyday takes WAY less planning and committed time than sitting down to write. And with my photos, I never make a grammar or spelling mistake. Besides, what do they say about a picture being worth a thousand words? Therefore … I’m like writing a thousand journals! Groovy! I keep a Flickr set, just for me called Project 365. Here I will post the pictures I’ve collected as the weeks go by. Sometimes I label them, sometimes I don’t. You’ll see the real impact after several months or after a full year when you look at the set and realize “Wow, I can see a glimpse of what I did on this day and that day!” Super cool!
BUT! Here is, perhaps, the MOST important reason why you should take a picture everyday.
I’m going to share with you a secret 3 step process that will ENSURE, absolutely GUARANTEE you will end up taking better pictures:
Step 1. Practice
Step 2. Practice
Step 3. Practice
Get to know your equipment:
“The fact is that relatively few photographers ever master their medium. Instead they allow the medium to master them and go on an endless squirrel cage chase from new lens to new paper to new developer to new gadget, never staying with one piece of equipment long enough to learn its full capacities, becoming lost in a maze of technical information that is of little or no use since they don’t know what to do with it.”
– Edward Weston
Musicians know this secret. Athletes know. Actors know. They practice every day, not just the important “big game” days. They don’t go into a recital, performance or big game and hope that they’ll remember what they need to when the time comes. They practice so that they know when the time comes, they’ll be able to perform and do something astonishing. The great ones and those aspiring to be great practice relentlessly so that it becomes muscle memory.
So here’s what you do:
- Learn something new about your camera or related photo equipment on a Saturday, hammer it in for a week. Rinse and repeat. Examples: A shooting mode, off camera flash, long exposures, using a tripod, using a reflector, etc.
- Put into practice something that has NOTHING to do with equipment and apply that for a week. Rinse and repeat. Composition exercises, rule of thirds, leading lines, use of color, use of contrast, foreground elements, candid shooting, low angles, portraits, pets, flowers, etc.
- Get used to having your camera in your hand. Get over being self conscious of what other people think. Don’t miss grand photo opportunities because your camera was snuggled in a camera case which was inside your backpack. Keep it out and ready to shoot.
- Shoot a lot, delete the “practice” shots, edit your keepers, show them off and learn from the experience.
I can really see the benefit of doing this. I just need to be more active in getting it done and remembering what it was I took the picture of. I have years of pictures that I can’t even figure out where we were.
🙂 Barbara, been there and oh have I done that! I’m planning to write an article on some tips on how you can keep your hundreds / thousands of pictures organized.
Ever since my son was born five and a half years ago, I have tried to take a picture every day. I love being able to step back in time 4 years, or even 4 days. the photos might be of him, or the view from my office window, but they all tell a story. I look forward to learning how to make these daily shots even better.
When I’m on the job, I tend to take at least a dozen pictures a day. It helps to keep track of the construction progress. Unfortunately it’s with the camera phone. Which is what I use to take the majority of my pics. I like the idea of working on a certain feature for a week and then moving on to another. Looking at the options on the camera phone now, I can see there’s a lot more to it than pushing a button. Will, definitely start trying out those options.
Misspelling on “Groovy”.
Ah! Good catch! Thanks
It’s such a cool idea to take a picture every day! I may have to start doing that 🙂
The tips about photography equipment etc. are great too.
I’ve done this about once every other year for the past few years, but after a year, I’m ready for a break. I work from home, and sometimes don’t get out of the house for days at a time, and after I’ve taken photos of everything in the house, I don’t want to start duplicating things. And especially in the winter, I tend to work during all the daylight hours, and photo options are much more limited in the dark–again, things start to repeat after a while. But developing the discipline of making sure you capture that image before midnight is another reason to take a photo every day!
For those of you who do this, and who post the photos publicly, do you find that having a following is a helpful incentive to go on or a source of unneeded pressure?
Great advice I’m going to do the 365 challenge! Nothing worse than this time of year when I want to start making a calendar as a holiday gift and realize there’s no family photos for the past few months!
I love the idea of taking a pic every day for a year. Especially when I think of looking back over a year of captured moments. You’ve inspired me!
I agree, with the availability of always having a camera (smartphone) with you, you’re always able to capture moments or things that would otherwise just come and go.
I’m the guy who forgot to take his camera on a trip. I guess I’ll start at the bottom and work up toward daily!
When I was about 8 years old I remember sitting on Santa’s lap and telling him that I wanted to get a Polaroid camera for Christmas and enough film to take a picture every day. I remember thinking that there were so many good things in life and that it is good to remember those good things.
Now it’s so easy to take a picture each day and they don’t even ever have to be printed.
Thanks for a reminder of my childhood wish.