Scrivenings

Scrivener December 31st, 2007

A Year in a Month, originally uploaded by Scrivenings.

31 of my favorites from the year–2 from each month with seven wild cards.

1. A Self-Evolving Circle from a Ring Imperceptibly Small, 2. Sounds of Silence, 3. Forty Winks, 4. Happy Birthday, Ella!, 5. The 0s make a smiley face when they come floating down from the heavens, 6. Balloon Shadow, 7. Squaring the Triangle, 8. Abstract Blue, Red, White, 9. The Old Red Door She Ain’t What She Used to Be, 10. Wonder Woman, 11. Colors, 12. Magnolia seed pod, 13. Do you realize – we’re floating in space, 14. hydrant, 15. Tell me, hey, what’s the news from your bed?, 16. Take off!, 17. My brother, 18. Everything has its plan, 19. Vault, 20. What Light, 21. One Square Foot, 22. Stars that clear have been dead for years but the idea just lives on, 23. You wanna piece of me?, 24. If it’s ever gonna get any better it’s gotta get worse for a day, 25. Pure bug beauty, 26. Sneak attack, 27. it’s easy to forget how we were, 28. I’m gonna let my own bad self take over, 29. Shoulders Up, Nose Down alternate, 30. negative space, 31. Since you left, nothing is missing.

Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.

I decided to join Project 365 for one reason: to become a better photographer. When I went to the site describing the project and read the lines saying that if I committed to taking a picture every single day and posting it, that I simply would become better seemed to me obvious and true. And I’d already had experience along those lines, because having been in Whiskerino 2005 improved my photoghraphy skills immensely, in part because of the challenge of taking that self-portrait every day and in part because of looking at and commenting on all the self-portraits by all the gifted, creative other guys in the contest. Even then, I hadn’t quite expected the powerful 365 community that has developed–I know that I am a much better photographer now in large part because pretty much every day for the last year I have looked carefully at photos by Jayfish, Billie, Ianqui, and B*, while discovering lots of other talented others in the project over the course of the year.

And my photography really has improved remarkably, though I think I still have a long way to go, especially on the more technical side of the art. When I think about the fact that only 9 months ago, I didn’t even know how to remove dust spots from a photo with editing software, and now I’m doing some relatively complex things with layers on my self-portraits, it blows my mind.

It also blows my mind that my photos in the project led a friend who reads my blog to ask me to take portraits, and then to refer another person to me for Christmas card portraits too. So now I’ve been paid to take photographs! I’m a professional photographer, albeit in a fairly limited capacity, at least for now.

So I started the project opt become a better photographer and found a wonderful, supportive community, but I also found that the discipline and art of taking these photos over the year was a godsend in all of the crises that 2007 brought. This year, while a period of enormous growth and opportunity, has also been the worst, most painful, most confusing year of my life. Being able to take all of that pain and difficulty and to apply it to making art, using the art to work through what I was dealing with, has been crucial. Also, taking photographs is always about calling your own attention to the world around you–to the beauty that is present but too often unnoticed. (My next to last picture of the year is just a macro of a cookie’s fortune, but it speaks exactly to this idea.) There have been days this year when I have not felt like looking for beauty, but because I had to take a picture, I did it nonetheless. So my photography has helped me to practice appreciation and gratitude, thankfully.

So, what’s next? As I’ve said in a few 365ers comment boxes, I plan to continue on with Project 365, the 2008 version. In 2007, I committed to simply taking some sort of picture every day. Some of my Flickr contacts are engaged in a more specific 365 project, where they rake a self-portrait every day for a year. Since I’m committed to taking a self-portrait every day through February anyway for Whiskerino, I am going to take a crack at it myself. It’s a daunting task, really, but you know, since I’ve also committed to spend 2008 more focused on myself emotionally and spiritually, it makes sense to focus on myself in this manner too. I expect that I might still use this space to post other photos along the way, so this [age might become slightly less focused on the single task of being my 365 blog and might become more like a general photoblog, including my 365 shots. We’ll see what happens as the year goes on.

• Project 365
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