The 6,697 project, or How I got started
mentalfloss.com/article/18692/...
I read this story a week ago. It went:
"He Took a Polaroid Every Day, Until the Day He Died"
I wanted to share the link on Facebook. Not to my Timeline, but to a photography group I follow. I wrote by way of introducing the link:
"If you are doing a now-cliche "365 project", don't give in, don't give up. Maybe turn it into a "6,697 project". Maybe more, maybe less. Take good ones, take okay ones. If there is not enough interesting stuff happening around you to photograph, start living a more interesting life. Go places, meet people, notice things, create situations. Maybe they'll make a post about you in the end. Hope you live long and prosper and make the post yourself. Maybe you make many posts. But do take that photo and don't ask me why I do."
And then I kept going. I didn't mean to, but it kind of came out.
"Don't take one photo a day, take 25 with your phone, like some smartass in the comments says*, but do post one every day. If you miss a day, get over it. Post two the next day, cheat, what do I care? Print them, pin them up. Shutterfly prints your photos for free now, just pay shipping. Print them as a batch once a month or once a week. Put them in an album, put them in a shoebox.
But do not not take photos. Don't sit on your hands. Don't sit and wait for inspiration. Don't bemoan thousands you have taken that are languishing unprocessed in your Lightroom. There was a reason you took them and that reason will be revealed in time.
Take photos every day and share them with the world. You'll be glad you did.
Too many options to present your photo a day? Do you do Flickr? Do you do Tumblr? Do you do Facebook? Will your photos get any eyes them? Excuses, excuses. How about 365project.org as the default choice? If it doesn't work out, move on. Do not not take photos because you are not sure. Just don't. Take photos every day.
Maybe Polaroid does make it more special, more instant, more in-the-moment. Invest in a Fuji Instax and some film. Not the mini, the bigger one, called "wide". It's like 80 cents a photo, and no need to pay for shipping. And you get to write the date on it. Maybe the small yet tangible cost makes you think harder about your subject and framing. Maybe you take fewer good photos because you get fewer tries. Maybe other way around. Maybe you get better at this thing we call photography. Try things.
Maybe I follow my own advice."
My post did not get any reaction. TL/DR, as they say.
The next day I joined Tookapic. And, yes, 365project.org :)
'* in the comments to the original Mental Floss' post on Facebook, someone wrote, callously, "I can take 25 photos a day with my phone". As if to say that taking one photo a day is for 17+ years is no big deal. I say: if you can, do it.
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vidalcohen posted
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Grace posted
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Paweł Kadysz posted
Phillip Flores Thanks for this. Followed the link to the Polaroid photographer, very inspiring.