I took a picture every day for a year

 

I’ve loved photography for a long time. The emotion and story that pictures can convey in a single image is incredible.


I worked in a photography studio for a time, three years ago, mostly taking portraits for families and graduates. I loved it.


Being able to capture people in the middle of these life transitions, and giving them a physical manifestation of that memory was great.


Since the studio I’ve kept up with photography, mostly as a hobby with some freelancing. At least I did freelance photography before 2020 happened to the world.

One year ago I discovered Beeple. If you’re unfamiliar, Beeple is a Graphic Designer and Filmmaker who has been creating an image everyday for over 13 years now.


His images range from beautiful to downright disturbing.


Learning about him and his regiment really inspired me.


I started thinking about how much I could improve my photography skills if I started doing it every day.


I had just started journaling every day and I was really enjoying that. I figured I’d try to take on another daily practice.


I started taking at least one picture a day, and posting it.

Posting them keeps me accountable, and makes me want to take good pictures. If there’s a day when I’m not really thrilled with the picture I’m posting, I still have to post it, and there’s a certain resolve I feel to make the next day’s picture as good as I can.


Over this last year I’ve loved taking this little creative action every day. There have been days where I’ve been busy, tired, had something going on or some combination of everything.


But I make myself do it, and I’m always glad that I did.


This year has also taught me what pictures I enjoy taking. It turns out: plants... I take a lot of pictures of plants.

I feel like I’ve grown as a photographer. I’m still hardly ever completely happy with my day’s picture, but as I scroll back through the year, I can see the quality improving (at least slightly) the further I get.


I also happen to take one that I really like every once in a while.

On April 8th I took a picture of a couple sitting on a bench. This was a month after lock-down began in Portland and Spring was beginning. 

Most of the fear from the beginning of quarantine had worn off and the fatigue hadn’t quite set in yet. As Spring was beginning to bloom, it felt like there was a strange comradery in my neighborhood against the uncertainty ahead of us.


This picture captures that for me. It’s my favorite picture I’ve ever taken. The reason I was out with my camera that day was because of this daily practice.


After a year of doing this I still enjoy it. However I think it’s time for me to start exploring other kinds of images. Perhaps distorting and stylizing the pictures I take. We’ll see how that experiment goes for year two.


I’m excited.

I will say here that if this is something you want to start doing, don’t let equipment hold you back.


If you have a smartphone, use that. You’ll learn a lot and it’ll be a good time. They’re catching up to cameras anyway.


I also don’t have the nicest camera, it’s definitely not as nice as the equipment I had access to at the studio. But it’s what I have, and it serves my needs.


Also as a side benefit, because it’s not worth thousands of dollars. I don’t mind just throwing it loosely into a bag to take around with me.


My advice is to start with whatever you’ve got and have fun.

It’s often hard to take time to do things we value and ultimately enjoy doing. By building it into my routine I’ve been able to spend a part of every day this last year, doing something I love.


If you want to follow this daily practice you can find me on Instagram @davidlmooney


Next time I’ll be Talking more generally about Daily Practices, and why you should start one… or seven.


Alright, I’m going to go take today’s picture. It’s probably going to be a plant.