stripethree

Most of the time I write about all the fun, wonderful, productive things going on. Today, I write about a failure. With the arrival of a new digital SLR camera over Christmas, I thought it would be wonderful to hone my skills all 2008 long with a photo a day project. The fruits of this labor may or my not have been noticed here.

Well, I made it to the first week in March, then I slipped up, forgetting to snap something after a long day at work and a trip to the gym afterwards. Last week I started my new project and my hour fifteen minute one way commute. Makes it hard to find time to take pictures. I considered bringing the camera on my drives, but that would prove a bad distraction, and additionally, I did not want to leave the camera in the car all day or bring it into work. It is a military base so even if it is technically allowed, it would probably be looked upon oddly and with suspicion. Not worth the trouble. So with my time window closing I forgot one day, then two, now three. Even before I missed the days, the subject matter was getting predictable. Working at home left me ample chances to catch the cats doing something photo worthy, but also left me with more pictures of my cats than any man should have. My car, and my friends cars from the Friday night gatherings also began to dominate the subject matter, and one can only have so many pictures of cars. I have more than I need.

So it is now that I officially declare this little pet project a failure and I’m pulling the plug. No excuses: it was simply getting overly forced, and I need to find another way to motivate myself to practice and find new subject matter. While I didn’t expect the photo a day to always yield my best frames, it was becoming too much of a ‘snap a quick one before bed just to keep it going’. Not what I wanted, at all, and not what was going to be conducive to sharpening my skills. Perhaps some of the monthly ‘assignments’ and contents on some of the forums I participate on will suffice. I won’t stop shooting, and perhaps it will even spark more creativity when I do have the time to dedicate to it.