It is that time of year when resolutions are made and maybe you have one to take a photo-a-day. In October, 4 years ago I started a 365 project. One day I noticed that I had taken a photo a day for a week. I decided to see if I could last 30 days. After 30 days I decided to try for a year. At the end I loved having a visual documentation of our year and continued the project. Before 2017 ended I thought about stopping but after seeing the compilation I decided to give it another go.

At the beginning of 2018 I started to incorporate more self-portraits and I challenged myself to be in the frame more with my kids. For the first quarter of the year I did a pretty decent job of including myself. I would say a number of things happened that led to me not “finishing” the project. First, I started having some severe back issues that I believe came from carrying my camera around all the time. Specifically, I think it was the bag since I loaded it up with what I needed for the day. Secondly, I started to get a little bored. And, then in September our life became chaotic I don’t think I took a single photo of the kids until the end of November, and only a few time in December. We sold our house, bought another house and moved all within 6 weeks. Plus I had my busiest work season since I opened and didn’t have the energy or space to focus on anything else in my life.

Over the last two weeks I spent some time reviewing the images that I did take and it has pushed me to give it another go. What I love about looking back is seeing everything that we did. So often it feels like the year is a blur and it feels like weekends just evaporate. It is a nice reminder to see some of the moments that I forgot about.

So, if you just started a 365 project give yourself some grace if you miss a day and remember why you are doing the project. Whether it is for yourself or to learn a new technique or to document your year just pick the camera up again.