Three

Three things to share today:

1. December 21st layout for my "25 Days Until Christmas" album.

Do you have a family get-together during the holidays with extended family?

2. I'm planning on doing the 365 day photo challenge in 2008.

I'm always complaining that I don't have any photos.  Well, this should fix that.  The assignment is to take one photo every day for a year.

From Photojojo:

People will often say that their whole lives flashed before their eyes after they experienced a traumatic event. Perhaps it’s a bit morbid, but we think that sounds pretty incredible.

When Taylor McKnight started taking a photo a day on January 1st, 2004, he never imagined the project would not only serve as a way to remember a year, but also help him understand what was important to him in his life.

Whether it was his relationships, his career, or his fashion sense, recording a photo a day for a whole year left him with a rich visual history of his life. And it made him a better photographer to boot!

Now that he’s in the middle of doing it for a second time, we asked Taylor to write about it for us. Read on for our tutorial on how and why to create your own daily photographic history.

Why do it?

Taking a photo a day is a big undertaking with big payoffs. Here are just a few reasons why you should consider doing it:

• Imagine being able to look back at any day of your year and recall what you did, who you met, what you learned… (Often we find it hard to remember what we did just yesterday or even last night, let alone a whole year ago!)
• Your year-long photo album will be an amazing way to document your travels and accomplishments, your haircuts and relationships. Time moves surprisingly fast.
• Taking a photo a day will make you a better photographer. Using your camera every day will help you learn its limits. You will get better at composing your shots, you’ll start to care about lighting, and you’ll become more creative with your photography when you’re forced to come up with something new every single day.

Tips on How to Do It

Here are six tips on how to create your own Project 365:

1. Bring Your Camera Everywhere
   Yes, everywhere. Get in the habit. Grocery stores, restaurants, parties, work, and school. Going to a movie theatre? Snap a pic of the flick with your phone–there are photo-ops everywhere. If you have one of those tiny tiny cameras, you have no excuse not to have it in your pocket all the time. And if you don’t? Camera phones are a great substitute.
2. Make Posting Easy
   You can install blog software like Movable Type or Wordpress on your own site and create an entry for each photo, but for true ease of use, try a photo sharing site. Flickr will let you post a week’s worth of photos in 2 minutes flat, and fotolog and Photoblog.com are geared toward a photo-a-day workflow. Making it fast and easy means you’re much more likely to do it.
3. Vary Your Themes
   Try to capture the day’s events in a single photo. Perform photographic experiments. Take a photo of someone new you meet, something you ate for the first time, or something you just learned how to do. Take a photo of something that made you smile. And don’t forget to take a photo of yourself at least once a month so you can remember how you’ve changed, too.
4. Tell a Story
   Use your blog entry, or your photo description, to explain what’s going on in each day’s photograph. How good did that dinner taste? What made you want to take a photo of that stranger? It’ll help you remember down the road, and it gives friends following along a better appreciation of why you took the photo you did. You don’t need to write a lot, just enough to add some color.
5. Don’t Stop, No Matter What
   This is perhaps the most important tip of all. You will get tired of taking a photo every single day. Some days, you will consider giving up. Don’t. The end result is worth the effort. Remind yourself why you wanted to do it in first place.

   There will be times you’ll think there’s nothing interesting left to take a photo of, and times you’ll think you didn’t do anything exciting enough to take a photo of. There’s always a great photo to be made.

   Get out of the house and take a walk. Or stay inside and look around. Take a photo of something important to you. Take a photo of the inside of your house so you can see how your taste has changed over the years. Take a photo of anything, just don’t stop.

   N.B. It helps if you’ve told your friends about the project and asked them to follow along. Their encouragement will keep you going!

6. Post early, post often
   Plan on going through and posting your photos at least once a week so you don’t get backlogged and feel overwhelmed. Ideally, post every day or two. Again, spend the time up front to make sure it’s quick and easy to post. It’ll make all the difference.

I'm excited about this project! I'm going to do it a little bit differently then is suggested. I plan to print my photo each day and I've got an album ready and waiting with a tiny bit of scratch space to write any comments I want to. I also plan to post most of my photos to an album on this blog. I just don't have the brain power to run a separate photo blog, plus who knows, I may not want to share every single photo.

3. Class at Heart in Hands Scraps You can download instructions for this adorable mini (3" square) transparent album here. Thanks for stopping by!

Comments

[nat]

yes it is hard to celebrate christmas when parents are not together anymore! I wish you a wonderful christmas!!! Huge hugs from your German friend ;-)

[Jill]

2008...I'm going to do it! I've considered the PAD thing for the last couple of years and just kept well...not doing it. I'm committing to it for 2008. Now, I'm off to check out Movable Type and Word Press for posting.

TFS the info!

[angela]

those are interesting reasons to do tat 365 indeed! I might join! Not sure if I will keep up but love the idea
merry christmas!!!
xoxo

[Jan Connair]

Good luck with the photo-a-day resolution in 2008!

[jennifer davis]

I think that I'm going to try the 365 thing too. I really like looking at everyone else's photos that have done it this year, and I agree that it's such a great way to capture a piece of history and grow through your photography.

Totally can relate with you on that lo too, with my family it's the same - only it's my mum with the new family!

Have a wonderful Christmas Julie!

[Colleen]

Thanks for the PAD info! I might just have to try this! Off to explore this!

[Cindy Lee]

hey! I saw your layout in the latest CK mag's Fresh Faces. Congrats! I'm so psyched for you. I love the layout too. =)

[marie]

I should totally do that 365 pics. Im lazy and I know ill forget lol!

[Penny]

I really like the idea of the picture a day. I have such a nice camera, and I only bust it out for 'special' photos when we go somewhere!

[ellen]

that is a cool post, TFS and i like that challenge...i can't see how i can keep up with it since i have a hard time brushing my teeth everyday, LOL!

[Scrapfairy]

that little album is so cute. I have thought of the PAD also I just don''t stop at one pic though,lol. Might have to give it a try anyway.
Have a great Christmas!

[Gillian]

I feel your pain on celebrating twice with seperated parents :( It's just not as much fun! But at least they're both still around to celebrate with!

I'm doing the 365 challenge too! Let's keep eachother motivated :)

[Ann(i)e]

that book looks gorgeous!!! love your layout....how fun!!!!
can't wait to see your 365 days!!
xo

[Toni Armstrong]

Great post :) Thanks for all the awesome ideas! And I love the layout in the first photo...very honest and open. TFS!

[Pearl Maple]

Congrats on deciding to photo journal a full year. It will be exciting to see what creative things you get up to.

Happy holidays to you and yours.

[Rachael]

I always try to do the photo a day, but then it fades!! It is such a neat thing to do!!

What a gorgeous book!!

Merry Christmas!

[It's Not Easy Being Green]

Julie--

Thanks for the inspiration. I didn't even know I was interested in PAD until reading your post. I have set up a flickr account and joined the PAD group there as well. I am so excited to start on January 1st. Thanks again!