A Picture A Day
In 2011 I started a blog with a picture a day and that was the biggest photography commitment I had made at the time. I did follow through for about 10 months and then put it off.
Fast forward about 10 years, I came across the very educational book “The Artist’s Way” by Julia Cameron, a book for people who want to reignite the flame of creativity and get in touch with their more creative selves.
Exactly the book I needed when I was feeling stuck and had no interest in things that used to excite me. I was like a baby who would not eat his favorite food. I was not being creative anymore.
Julia Camron recommends the “Morning pages” technique, where first thing in the morning you start writing whatever comes to mind, at least 3 pages. Every day, 3 pages, even if you repeat the same thing, just with the purpose of letting go of censorship, of loosening up some squeaky wheels and allowing the intuitive self to step forward in a safe space.
I did the morning pages for a while and I return to this exercise periodically, but the biggest gift for me, was retuning to the “picture a day” technique.
This is similar to “Morning Pages” only it can be done at any time during the day, every day, for as long as needed.
In my case, I would not mind doing it for the rest of my life.
The benefits of “A picture a day” for me:
- Creates a habit of taking pictures every day.
- Helps have the gear ready to go at any time.
- Provides a visual journal for myself and documents my life (and my son’s life) in pictures.
- Keeps the creative juices flowing.
- Gives me an opportunity to look back and better understand my life, in an archived structure.
- I do something that I love and gives me joy.
After doing it in 2011, in 2020 I started again the “Picture a day”, in October. I will keep going and loving it more and more. It’s one of those little things that is self-gratifying and also builds up to a bigger creative journey.
Here are a few random pictures from the "Picture A Day" project, one for each month since I started (October 2020 to May 2021).
