10 Tips to Get Your Started with a 365 | December Educational Blog with Anna Hurley
We are so excited that Anna Hurley is kicking off the New Year in the Academy with her lesson, The Power of Daily Shooting: The Benefits and Growth in a Project 365. If you are not already a member of the community, now is the time to join and make 2020 your best year yet! To get you excited for the lesson, Anna decided to share her top 10 tips for getting your started with a 365!
About the Author:
I'm a wife to a wonderful husband of 15 years and mother of two beautiful full of life kids. They are my reason for documenting our every day, to capture all the moments I can before they grow up too quickly on me. My photography journey began with them and being inspired to capture their lives beautifully.
I am a creative soul, making art makes me happy. I love a good pair of leggings, delicious green tea or chai tea lattes, and sitting curled up under a blanket watching a good show or movie.
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Thinking about starting a Project 365 with the coming New Year? Are you looking for some pointers on getting started? I’ve been doing these big projects for the past 5 years, so I’m going to share my top 10 tips with you today so that you can get started and proudly get through and complete a full year of daily photos.
Tip One:
Just go ahead and start. If you’re feeling inspired to try one, then do just that. Sometimes there’s no perfect time to begin. Be it the first day of the year, or somewhere in the middle, just take that first photo and start.
Tip Two:
Keep it simple. Don’t complicate your 365 with perfectionism. Observe, focus and start shooting. Some days you will nail it in one shot, others you won’t.
TIP THREE:
Write it down. What inspired you to attempt such a big project? Write it down and keep it somewhere so you can read it when you need a push to keep going. What do you want to get from starting this project? If you have goals for it, write them down so you don’t forget what you are working towards.
This image did not work out the way I had it envisioned in my head. The light I found at the end of the day, after dance class, wasn’t what I wanted, and it was freezing out, but I tried it anyway.
Tip Four:
Some days will suck. Embrace those days where your image wasn’t so great or what you were looking to capture. You were still able to create and you kept shooting, be proud, you didn’t start the process of giving up.
This is one of my favourite images from a couple of years ago, my daughter was having a hangry moment after school, she didn’t eat her lunch and started having a meltdown as soon as we got home. There was so much stuff around her but I couldn’t pass up capturing the moment. Life isn’t always full of smiles.
Tip Five:
Embrace the chaos. Let’s face it, life can be chaotic, don’t hide the mess, capture it too. It’s part of your life right?
In this image, I moved a few things around and set up the kids’ advent calendars before I woke them up to get ready for school. I got my settings dialed in and was ready for the moment when it happened
Tip Six:
You can plan ahead. If you know your day will be busy, don’t be afraid to set up a shot you are looking to capture ahead of time.
In this image I totally bribed my kids to get this close to each other and sit still for a shot, but look at them, this image is printed huge and hanging up on my wall.
Tip Seven:
Don’t be afraid to bribe. I will admit, sometimes to get one or both of my kids in the frame, I compensate them with candy or screen time. I’m not above bribery to get the shot I need.
In this image, my daughter had a vision of becoming a Warrior Cat from a series of books she was reading, so we came up with an idea together and made it happen.
In this shot, my son wanted a picture together with our puppy, and when he asks, I quickly take the opportunity to capture him.
Tip Eight:
Get the kids involved. If they ask to do something silly, let them. Or maybe they have an idea that they’d like to try. Sometimes kids can be more cooperative if they feel like they are in control.
Walking home from school drop off I found a bush with these cool looking leaves, almost transparent, I took a small branch, brought it home and snapped a photo.
We had a frosty morning, I used my macro filters and attempted to capture it, even though I didn’t get the frost I wanted, I can’t stop staring at this image that I did get.
Tip Nine:
Don’t forget about the world around you. Look around you, what else can you capture for that day. Our 365’s don’t have to solely be photos of our kids. Nature is a beautiful thing.
Tip Ten:
Have fun with it. If you keep things stress free, it will become a fun daily habit. So let go, have fun, and don’t forget to try new things or to fail, sometimes the best images will come because we allow ourselves to learn from the shots we deemed as failures.
BONUS TIP:
Stay organized and share your year!! I keep my 365 images organized in LR with keywords, each photo I use for my day is tagged with “Project 365”, which makes it easy to select just those shots for any future printing. Not everyone will want to share their Project 365 publicly, but if you do, some of my favourite places to share my projects on are Flickr and Facebook Albums and then my not so chronological sharing on Instagram. Also, don’t forget to PRINT!! Hang those images on your walls, or make photo books, you won’t regret it!