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10,000/365 Day 4: Free Shoot

Happy Saturday. I’m a bit late posting today’s assignment, having spent an evening shooting. That’s okay; today’s assignment is/was an easy one… you can photograph any old thing you want. Now enjoy your weekend (don’t forget to come back for tomorrow’s assignment) and get out there and shoot!

Keep up with the project, share your progress, feedback and questions:
Project page (where you’ll also find a FAQ and other goodies)
The entries day-by-day (the blog entries)
10,000/365 Flickr Group (to share and discuss your shots)

Nabisco

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10,000/365 Day 3: The View From Your Window Checkpoint

No matter how much you love photography — and I like it quite a bit — there are days when you really don’t want to leave the house. Maybe it’s snow, rain, 90-degree heat, or it’s just not a fit night out for man nor beast. The challenge on days like that can be finding something, anything, to shoot. So try the view from your window, and see where going nowhere takes you.

A Little Inspiration:

The inspiration behind this comes from Andrew Sullivan’s The View From Your Window, which has been an on-again/off again column-ish contest thingy that he’s done on and off since his time at The Atlantic. You can have a peek at the current incarnation here (there’s also a link to the book by the same name): http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2012/04/the-view-from-your-window-contest-2.html

Keep up with the project, share your progress, feedback and questions:
Project page (where you’ll also find a FAQ and other goodies)
The entries day-by-day (the blog entries)
10,000/365 Flickr Group (to share and discuss your shots)

Fire Escape
Day 3: The View From Your Window
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10,000/365: JANUARY: A Few Fundamentals

Today starts the first month of the First 10,000’s 2013 365 Day Project. Since that’s a bit of a mouthful, from now on I’ll be referring to it as 10,000/365.

Last year’s project was a bit of a mess. I had the bright idea of starting off mid-year, which didn’t work too well; the fact that the project itself had no logical order probably didn’t help matters much, either. So this time out, I’m starting on January 1, and also organizing things in a way that will hopefully be a bit easier to follow. The first month’s projects will be geared toward photographers who are just getting started, or toward photographers who’d like to brush up on their fundamentals. Each exercise will give you a fragment of your camera’s capabilities to work with, so that by the time the month is out, you should be pretty comfortable with it, and how it works. When next month starts, we’ll be delving into some fundamentals of composition and finding your own visual “voice” and style.

But for now, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Below this post, you’ll find the first day’s assignment. If you’d like to see what’s ahead, you can head to the project page. If you’d like to share with others who are doing the project, head to our Flickr group page. And if you have questions or suggestions, contact us. Meantime, let’s get shooting!

Keep up with the project, share your progress, feedback and questions:
Project page (where you’ll also find a FAQ and other goodies)
The entries day-by-day (the blog entries)
10,000/365 Flickr Group (to share and discuss your shots)

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10,000/365 Day One: Landmark Checkpoint

Let’s get started. On the first day of the project, I’d like you to choose a landmark and make its picture. Choose carefully, because you’re going to be shooting the same place on the first of each month for the next year. Sound intimidating? Don’t worry; see this — and each of the next 364 days’ projects — as a challenge, or better still as an invitation to stretch out. How many angles, times of day, and details might you be able to wring out of a single subject? Well, you’re about to find out.

A little inspiration:

Claude Monet painted a famous sequence of paintings of the Cathedral at Rouen, France. You can read more about that, and him, here. Photographers have also revisited the same landmark from time to time throughout their careers, as Lewis W. Hine did during the construction of the Empire State Building. The George Eastman House holds much of Hine’s work, and has made it accessible online here.

Keep up with the project, share your progress, feedback and questions:
Project page (where you’ll also find a FAQ and other goodies)
The entries day-by-day (the blog entries)
10,000/365 Flickr Group (to share and discuss your shots)

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2013 365 Day Photo Project: A Preview (Part 3)

Two days’ worth of options for photographic projects and you STILL can’t find something to shoot? Sheesh. Slackers. Here are some even shorter photo projects (which, incidentally, you can throw into your 365-day, 31-day or 52-week projects to break things up if you’d like).

7 Day Photo Project: Give yourself one week to find your theme, gather your gear, shoot, edit, and display/share your work. Document the process.

I know, I know. You work five days a week, and you set aside your weekends for cooking, laundry, competitive Scrabble, or antisocial behavior. Set aside one day per month to get out there and shoot something. You may even find yourself liking this photography thing (again), and wanting to graduate to a more frequent shooting schedule. Here are some prompts for a once-a-month shooting schedule:

  • Once-a-Month Photo Project:
  • 12 Holidays
  • 12 Guys’/Girls’ Nights Out
  • 12 Group Shoots
  • 12 Buddy Shoots
  • 12 State or National Parks
  • 12 Landmarks/Historical Sites

Maybe the thought of even something as simple as shooting ONE DAY A MONTH has you curled up in the fetal position, sobbing quietly. Just for you, a special project:

One Day Photo Project:

SHOOT SOMETHING, GODDAMMIT! (Repeat daily)

If you have ideas, thoughts, or suggestions, feel free to comment below, or to email thefirst10000@gmail.com. More projects will be coming in the next couple of days, and the “Official” 10,000/365 will launch on January 1. Stay tuned!

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2013 365 Day Photo Project: A Preview (Part 2)

Yesterday, in addition to announcing the impending re-launch of the 10,000/365 project, I listed a series of prompts to create your own unique project. I understand that a 365-day-long project might not work for you, for one reason or another. Maybe you like a little structure, but you’ve got something going on in March or thereabouts. No long-term commitments for you! Okay, here are a few projects you can undertake on a month-long basis:

31-Day Photo Projects:

  • 31 Flowers
  • 31 Animals
  • 31 Nights
  • 31 Rainy Days
  • 31 Days of Awful Lighting
  • 31 Mundane Days
  • 31 Abstracts
  • 31 Characters
  • 31 Artists
  • 31 Signs
  • 31 Day Chance Project
  • 31 Crappy Weather Projects

On the other hand, maybe you’ve been shooting for a while — or maybe you’re still new at this — but you’d like to put your skills to a more in-depth test. Try these on for size.

52-Week Photo Projects:

  • 52 Photo Essays
  • 52 Neighborhoods
  • 52 Cities
  • 52 Photo Pub Crawl (drink — and shoot — responsibly)
  • 52 Color Studies
  • 52 Stations (h/t: Robyn Hitchcock)
  • 52 Friends

If you have ideas, thoughts, or suggestions, feel free to comment below, or to email thefirst10000@gmail.com. More projects will be coming in the next couple of days, and the “Official” 10,000/365 will launch on January 1. Stay tuned!

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2013 365 Day Photo Project: A Preview (Part 1)

The New Year is coming. You’re ready. You’ve just gotten, or are about to get, your first (or fifth, or sixteenth) camera, and you want to shoot one of everything (just not necessarily in that order). You can take on the challenge that is the upcoming The First 10,000 365-Day Project (aka. 10,000/365), but if that doesn’t send you/float your boat/butter your biscuits, here are a series of prompts to help make your next 365 Day Project a success:

  • 365 Movies: Use movie titles or scenes as prompts for your project.
  • 365 Quotes
  • 365 Books
  • 365 Foods
  • 365 Lyrics
  • 365 Poems
  • 365 Places
  • 365 Questions: Your photos can pose, or answer, the questions. It’s up to you.
  • 365 Things
  • 365 Windows
  • 365 Doors
  • 365 Strangers
  • 365 Cigarettes
  • 365 Prop Project: I came across someone at El Morro in Puerto Rico who was carrying a stuffed hedgehog, and getting his (it was a he; I asked) photo at various places she visited. Try something similar.
  • 365 Vehicles
  • 365 Feet: Shoes, boots, pumps, pumped up kicks, bare feet, you name it.
  • 365 Abstracts
  • 365 Flat: Similar to Flat Stanley, print someone out — even yourself, if you’d like — and put them in your photos.
  • 365 Revisited: Go back to things shot on a previous 365 and see how you’d do them differently this time around.

If you have ideas, thoughts, or suggestions, feel free to comment below, or to email thefirst10000@gmail.com. More projects will be coming in the next couple of days, and the “Official” 10,000/365 will launch on January 1. Stay tuned!