Project 365 (one more time, with feeling)

Many of you remember how I recorded Donovan's first 365 days as a photo project.  I then tried to do a more general (meaning with anything open to be a subject as opposed to just D) 365 project for this past year, but quit midway through February.  I think I was kind of burned out on taking pictures every day, and had laid out a workflow that was not very sustainable to keep up with.

Now I'm seeing posts pop up around the interweb about this photo challenge, which can technically be begun at any point but seems most natural to do for a full calendar year, and am considering trying it again for 2010.  I've been seriously neglecting my camera that past couple of months, and this would be a good way to get back in the habit of wielding it a lot and hopefully also keep on getting better at it.

Most of you can probably stop reading this post right about here, as I'm about to start talking about my planned workflow and will probably be very boring for anyone not thinking about attempting the same thing.  It's ok, you won't hurt my feelings.  ; )

When I did Donovan's 365, I based it all off flickr.  I simply went back every so often and viewed my photos by date taken, picked my favorite one of him, and then labeled and tagged it and placed it in the set.  I often went a good week or longer between sittings, so days would pile up, but otherwise this was manageable enough.

When I tried my 365 for 2009 project, I decided to be more rigid about it all.  I would upload each day's photos that evening, then choose my "365" shot, place it in its own folder, then upload/tag/organize/etc the photo for each day.  I look back on this, and a lot of what I was trying to do was very silly.  For one, I had Lightroom and there was no reason for me to complicate things by trying to rename the photo or put it in a separate folder just for this project.  Also, it was fun to try to be artistic in editing a photo each day, but it was also unrealistic.  I love many of those photos I took in those 6 weeks of trying, but there was no way I could keep that up for a year.

So here's my plan for this year:

• Take pictures every day.
• Transfer pics from my camera to sort,etc, at least once a week, hopefully more often, but not necessarily every day.
• Use keywords and a collection in Lightroom to organize the 365 photos (otherwise keep filenames/folder location intact).
• Type the day (eg "X or 365") as a photo caption in Lightroom, which will then automatically show up as a caption when uploaded to flickr.  
• Post photos to 365 groups on flickr (so far have joined two, not sure I'll keep up with both or choose one I like best) when I have a chance, but no need to do it every day.

So that's the plan.  We shall see how it goes.  I'll likely use a combination of SLR, point--and-shoot, and cell phone camera for taking these pictures.  The idea is to make a record of our year, as a photo journal of sorts.  I'm thinking of including little rules/challenges to myself, like only including one photo of D per week, or shooting a self-portrait once a week or month.  If anyone else has ideas/suggestions/recommendations I'd love to hear them.  I'd also love for you to join me.  ; )