Self Assignment - Picture of The Day
I'm sure that photographers have been using Picture of The Day as a self assignment for many, many years. Through digital photography and online photo sharing sites, it's become a popular theme for many people. If you haven't tried a Picture of The Day project yet perhaps it's time to start.
How will you do a POTD?
It seems to be a simple enough premise: take one picture every day. You could just start tomorrow. If you've read my initial article Why Self Assignments you'll remember the SMART principle. You need to apply that methodology to your POTD project. Here's a few guidelines you may want to consider when writing your POTD goals.
- Limit yourself to taking just one picture each day. Instead of shooting a bunch and then picking the best one you'll be much more selective in what you shoot.
Jim Brandenburg did this for 90 days and produced a beautiful book called Chased By The Light. It's well worth adding this to your photo book library.
- Give yourself a theme for the project. What's your favorite subject matter? Landscapes, flowers, cloud patterns, your kids, your spouse. If you're committing to a year long project you could change your subject every month or two.
- If your free time is limited, or you're overwhelmed by the thought of one picture every day, consider doing a Picture of The Week (POTW). That should be manageable for just about everyone.
- Share your photos online and tell your friends and family about what you are doing. That will give you more incentive to shoot each day, knowing that people will be looking for every new image. Set up a free account on Flickr or pay for year long storage on dotPhoto or Pbase. Either of these is less than $25 for the whole year.
Start your Picture of The Day project
However you approach your POTD or POTW project, remember that you're not creating a fine art image each and every day. Shoot whatever strikes your fancy and just enjoy the process. Whether it's a nice sunset, the local farmers market, or just your kids making goofy faces you should be having fun and trying new things.
Good Luck!
