Weekly Wrap-up #2

For some reason, this week feels like it took forever to end! The first week flew by and this one crawled along for me. I have several ideas for the rest of January, though, so onwards we go!


"day 5--your sins are like scarlet"


"day 6--looking glass"


"day 7--fly, Snow White


"day 8--Hero's dream"


"day 9--Snow White's demise"


"day 10--ice prison"


"day 11--playing cards"

Behind the scenes: thwarted plans

One of the outtakes from my photoshoot yesterday, SOOC.

The final image of "day 7--fly, Snow White"
Yesterday, I wanted to go to a woodsy area to take a photo of myself running away from the camera. Unfortunately, due to the warm spell Anchorage has had this past week (with temperatures around and above freezing!), the snow in our driveway became soft. All winter it has been frozen and compacted and easy to drive on. Unfortunately, my car doesn't have a very high clearance and while I have snow tires, it wasn't enough when I sank into the soft snow! I spent well over a half hour digging the snow out from around my car and attempting to back out of the driveway to the road. Eventually, I gave up and had to get myself back up the driveway and into the garage. By this time, I was losing light and had to make due with taking a photo in my backyard and compositing it into a background I had taken back in November. It wasn't exactly what I wanted to do, but thanks to Photoshop I was able to make an image that conformed with the vision I had in my head.

Ways to stay inspired: Flickr

My first 365 project was posted online for just my internet friends and my family. While they were all very encouraging and nice, it was ten times different posting my images to Flickr the second time around. I was able to connect with a completely new network of people!

Flickr is an online photography community where you can upload your images to share with the world or to keep private (there are settings to keep your images completely private or to share with just family and friends or to share with the whole internet). There are organizing features, such as tagging photos, putting images into sets and galleries, and other such things. As far as I know, it is one of the most popular photography communities online. It is free to make an account, but you will need to go through Yahoo, if I am not mistaken.

Putting my photos into different groups, especially the 365 Days group, helped me to stay motivated and find inspiration. There is a camaraderie that develops when you see new photos day after day from the same group of people that are going through the same struggles that you are. Posting a self-portrait every day is tiring, but when there is an entire community of strangers wanting you to succeed, you are that much more eager to press on.

A sort of sister-community to the 365 Days group is We're Here! Users sign up to pick themes for every day of the year (to "infiltrate" various Flickr groups), so if you are stuck with coming up with a new idea in your 365, you can easily find a prompt that others will be attempting, too! I love seeing how others have interpreted a theme and this is the perfect community for that.

Getting artistic feedback is another benefit of Flickr. While there are many novices, there are also many seasoned photographers that may leave helpful feedback for your photographic growth. There are several groups that you can submit your images to that are specifically for artists looking for critique, but if you are especially sensitive, I wouldn't recommend this. Remember to be polite, if you want someone to check out your stuff, ask nicely and don't expect anything. People have lives outside of Flickr and if they are an especially popular photographer they probably don't have time to respond to everyone that contacts them.

Posting on Flickr gives you the opportunity to have your work seen by an audience it wouldn't have had if you just posted it on your personal blog. Every day, Flickr selects the top 100 "interesting" photos of the day and these images get LOTS of attention through the "explore" feature. I've been explored a few times and have gotten a lot of positive feedback and exposure through it. It is a huge ego boost and big motivator to keep producing work that you are proud of. Not all amazing photos are explored, though. Flickr has a mysterious formula for calculating "interestingness", so don't be discouraged if you don't get explored.

Quick tips about Flickr:

• Read the rules of the group you want to submit your picture too.
  Often people, in their excitement to get comments on their images, submit their photos to every group they belong to. However, if your image doesn't fit with the guidelines of the group, you will just be annoying other group members.
  
• To get comments, you need to leave comments.
  Like most online communities, you need to be an active participant to get attention! If you want people to check out your work, browse other users' photostreams and give them feedback. This won't guarantee they will check out your work, but it raises the chances that they will be curious and click your icon.
  
• If you want a chance to be "explored"...
  I can't pretend to know how the "explore" system works, but this helpful info posted by a Flickr user has several tips. The ones I follow: don't upload more than five images a day, don't put any one image in more than five groups its first day of being uploaded, and TAG TAG TAG!
  

Weekly Wrap-up

How is everyone's first week going? We are four days in to the new year and I'm already having a blast. Having a guided vision for my project has definitely improved the quality of my photos and the fun I have making them.

My work this week:


day 1--beginning again


day 2--in the snow


day 3--the queen dreams



day 4--my kitten is knittin'

-14 days: Equipment

As you prepare for your 365, you may be wondering what sort of equipment you will need. Here are what I consider the basics and helpful extras to have:

A camera. You can get creative with any sort of camera, whether it be on a phone, a point and shoot, or a fancy DSLR. Your skill level, finances, and commitment to photography will probably determine what sort of camera you enter the project with. I'm not here to tell you what camera to use, just to say that your camera is only a piece of equipment, you are the brain and you have the creativity!

Self-timer. Now that I have said what kind of camera you have doesn't matter, I am going to recommend you have one with a self-timer :P A self-timer gives you the option of not having to hold your camera at arm's length for every photo.

Remote. If your camera has the option to be remotely trigger, I highly recommend it! You can get into weird poses and not have to run back and forth to the camera to trigger the timer if you can just point a little remote. Having a remote totally changed my style of photography!

Tripod. You can stack books or DVD cases to get your camera at different heights, but a tripod is not only more portable than a stack of books, it can get much more diverse angles and is more stable.

Editing software. For my kind of work, this is essential. For others, this might not even be necessary.  There are lots of free editing programs if you don't have the money to spare on software. If you aren't sure you will like a paid program, look into a free trial to see if it fits well with you. Also, there are cheaper versions of some programs that strip away the super fancy features of the full program that might be a more pocket-book friendly alternative (Adobe Photoshop, for instance offers the "Elements" version of Photoshop for much cheaper than regular Photoshop).

And now for the extras!

Fun lenses. Having a fun lens or lens extension can add some spice to your photos if you are getting stuck in a rut, just make sure not to over use it!

 

Kaleidoscope-esque extension.

 Fish-eye extension

A stand in. I didn't really have a stand in my first two 365s (sometimes I would take pictures with other people and they would stand in for me, but this was rare), but it would have been very helpful to have when I was setting up my shots all alone. This time around my husband helped me make a portable stand that I can take places and I don't have to waste time doing the "trial and error" method of composing my images.

Props and costumes. Props can give you purpose in a photo. An image of a person sitting at a table doing nothing versus an image of a person sitting at a table with a cup have two different messages. The cup may be a special hand crafted item or it may be the fluid inside the cup that is important (like if the cup has tea versus egg nog). A prop can make an image say more than just "hi, this is another portrait of me," it tells a story, like "this is a portrait of me drinking egg nog from the cup my grandma made me for Christmas when I was 7"

What other things do you think you will need for your 365?

-21 days: Why self-portraits?

"I paint self-portraits because I am so often alone, because I am the person I know best." -Frida Kahlo, painter.

Why take self-portraits?

Learn to put your best face forward. Many people hate being in front of the camera, I know several that made the specific choice to be behind the camera so they could avoid being in front of the lens. When you take a self-portrait everyday for a year, you will learn your angles, you learn how to position yourself in front of a camera, and you usually pick up some editing techniques along the way to minimize your flaws.

My skin is an issue for me. I have learned many techniques for how to edit the photo to make my skin look nice. Sometimes I don't care, but other times it is a detail I feel needs to be addressed with Photoshop ;)

You are your most convenient model. You are never without a model if you are willing to do self-portraits! Asking someone to pose for you can be a challenge, especially if you don't feel like leaving the house, and models can sometimes be unreliable. Your model won't ever show up to a photoshoot late if it is yourself ;) 

Explore and share your interests. You have complete control over your self-portrait, it is the perfect opportunity to analyze what your favorite things are and then share them! During my second 365 I did "Oz-month" for the month of May. I now have 31 days of Oz-themed photos because the books by L. Frank Baum have been very influential in my life. While planning that month I got to dig deeper into the books and learn even more about them.

Dressed up as Ozma of Oz during my second project.

See progress in yourself. A year can make a big difference in your appearance. By doing a portrait a day you will be creating a time capsule of yourself for that year. Because of my first 365 I have my entire 20th year of life to look back on. I know what I wore every day that year! With my second 365 I have most of my 24th year on record as well. The is going to be a tiny bit silly, but I can look back on my hair growth progess through my 365s, which is important to me! It may be something else for you, maybe weight loss or growing a beard, whatever it is, you can look back on it and see the changes.

During my first 365 project, I cut off over a foot of hair. I regret it now, but have the photos of the big cut to remind myself not to do it again.

Become humble. Some people might think that taking a self-portrait of yourself every day for a year is vain, but I would challenge anyone who said that to try it out! I have never been so humbled in my looks and in my photography skills as when I was doing my first 365. I felt ugly on many days and that I was foolish to ever think I was "good" at photography. Looking at your own face with all of its flaws blown up on a computer screen makes you the opposite of vain. You become aware of your flaws and will hopefully develop a realistic attitude about them. I eventually got tired of editing my bad skin during my 365 and now I am much more accepting of the skin I live in. It was a humbling process, not one that made me love my looks more.

-28 days: Why 365 days

Why do a year long photography project?

Several reasons!


Develop your photography skills. Any sort of skill takes time and dedication to develop. Committing to a 365 day project is hard work, but by exercising your photography skills every day you will be virtually guaranteed to see a difference at the end of the year. The time you invest in being creative and thoughtful will reward you with a keen eye and better pictures.

Photos from the beginning and the end of my first 365 project. Definitely a difference in creativity, composition, and technique.
Practice self-discipline and commitment. When was the last time you began and finished such a big project that was just for yourself? You may have others keeping you accountable for your 365, but when it comes down to it, the only person you let down if you fail is yourself. You can take a huge amount of pride in yourself for being disciplined enough to persist in this endeavor.


Record your life. Doing a photo project for a whole year is basically like keeping a visual diary. You will be able to look back at your year and see the challenges that you faced and how you overcame them. Also, your 365 may have been something you started for yourself, but 10 years down the line, it may be a collection of photos your children will enjoy looking through to see what their parent's life was like in 2014.

I was sick on New Year's Eve of my second 365. I probably wouldn't remember that if I hadn't taken a photo and written it down.
Learn more about yourself. During my first 365 I first realized that I was almost a hermit when I wasn't in classes. I had to make a big effort to get outside and step outside my comfort zone. I knew that I was a homebody, but didn't realize how much of one I was until my photos revealed it to me!

-31 days: 365 project #3

Hello! I'm Xenia, most reading this probably know me already, but I wanted to do an introduction post for those that don't. I'm 25, currently living in Anchorage, Alaska, married to an Army soldier, and this will be my third 365 self-portrait project. By the time I *start* the project on January 01st, 2014, I will have finished my Bachelor's degree in Art, emphasis in photography.

I got my first digital camera for Christmas 2003--when I was fifteen--and started taking self-portraits right away. I had NO idea what I was doing, but I liked learning and enjoyed the bonding that occurred by sharing pictures with my online friends. It was a 1.3 megapixel camera with no viewing screen, but it had a self-timer, so I began experimenting. I did have friends who occasionally modeled for me, but I was somewhat embarrassed to ask to take pictures of them, so I stuck with self-portraits.

My first 365 project began on my 20th birthday (September 20, 2008), I wanted to capture my "golden" year (when you turn the age of the day of the month you were born it is known as your "golden birthday") in photo form. I began the year with a picture of myself with my parents, because without them I wouldn't be who I am.

My second 365 began on the day my husband deployed for the 3rd time (November 28, 2011). It was my first winter in Alaska (and my first time living by myself), I didn't have many friends, and I knew I was going to need motivation to get dressed every day to prevent myself from slipping into a depression, so I resolved to keep myself accountable to my internet friends.

Now that I'm on my third 365 project, I sort of feel like a ~pro at this sort of thing, so I wanted to create this blog to encourage others to begin and finish their own 365s. I have seen many people begin these projects, but lose steam and quit part way through. 365s are a BIG commitment, but I feel like I have learned SO much through them (both about photography and about myself) that I recommend them to everyone.

I'm looking forward to this challenge and I am hoping that those reading this will be inspired to begin their own projects! Leave a comment if you are planning to do a 365 this January (or any time soon, really), or if you have any questions. Looking forward to hearing from you!

-Xenia

P.S. Happy Hanukkah!