See July 3, 2005 post)
I was helping out at a friend’s workshop earlier today, and he mentioned to the group that I have been posting a new photograph every day for a long time. He turned to me and asked, “How long?”
I’m actually not quite certain. The first photograph posted at this blog was on July 3, 2005, when I shared a black and white photograph of the Golden Gate Bridge. Look back through those early posts I can see that at first there were gaps between posts, sometimes of a day or two, and perhaps a bit longer on a few occasions. But shortly after that I decided to try to produce work (not always “great” work) at a rate such that I could post a new photograph every day — so it seems like it must be getting close to eight years now.
I’m occasionally asked a few other questions about this project:
Why?: The main idea comes, I think, from my background in music, a field in which it is simply accepted that you must make work (e.g. – “practice”) continuously, both to develop your skills and to make them become instinctive.
Do you think you can produce a great photograph every day? No! Making a handful of excellent photographs (at least in the genres I focus on) every year is a worthy goal. Essentially, I’m exposing my “practice” work to the world, partly to encourage myself to take the work seriously and partly to share the process with others.
Do you actually go out and make a new photograph every day? Again, no. I produce work at an overall rate that lets me post something every day, but there are many days when I make no photographs… and other days when I make quite a few.
Questions or comments? You can leave them here on this post.
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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