I did it! After years of this being on my bucket list of things to do, I finally completed a 365 photography challenge. 

Click on the images throughout the blog to see them larger and in more detail.

On the 1st of Jan 2023, I got myself ready to take some self-portraits because I wanted to take some photos for socials but I enjoyed it so much that I just decided on a whim to try to take a photo every day for the first two weeks of January. The second day didn’t go so well as Jack and I traveled all the way to Broadstairs for a day out, I asked him to stand at the end of the seawater lido. Once he was in position and I turned my camera on, I discovered I forgot to bring my SD card! An annoying error for any photographer but I could only laugh, shrug my shoulders, and take some photos on my phone instead. Just a minor setback, right?! Sure, my plan to shoot on my camera for two weeks wasn’t getting off to the best start but it didn’t stop me from carrying on- in fact, I think it helped me, I’m so glad that I had that blunder at the start of my project rather than halfway through when I was perhaps, taking it more seriously. 

On the 3rd day, I realised I had a new on-camera flash to try! I had so much fun playing around with the flash and movement that I remembered there were so many techniques and photography practices I wanted to try out for the first time or improve on. It was really the first time I thought, ‘Hold on, maybe this could be a year-round project!’ 

At first glance, taking 1 photo a day seems like an easy thing to do. The reality is, you end up taking 50+ photos a day (usually way more than that if I’m being completely honest!) just to get that perfect shot along with editing which takes up a lot of time (especially if you’re like me and struggle to pick just 1 photo to edit so end up with about 25 edits!)

Finding time to organise, take and edit imagery alongside a full time job, spending time with Jack, friends and family, going to the gym/taking care of myself, cleaning and house chores along with any unexpected things that come along with life has been a real challenge. One of many things I’ve learnt over the course of 2023 is that I am very resilient and capable of making a lot happen all at once!

At times, it was keeping the motivation going which was the struggle. Somedays I would just have absolutely no idea what to shoot and it can feel like you’ve hit a literal wall. Yes, I have many shoot ideas that are big and wonderful productions that I’d like to carry out but making that happen every day? Not going to happen. For the day-to-day image, there were days I struggled to find something that made my creativity spark. There was no way I was going to give up though and honestly, sometimes, those were the days I  managed to find a better idea compared to a day when I had one already planned out!

Spontaneity and creativity were very key skills in this project and for a lot of my images, I just used what I already had around me. Living in a flat with my fiance, I don’t have an amazing amount of room to play with but I made it work. Setting up and creating a studio for product or portraits. Using anything and everything we had lying around for props either in the images or to create an effect around the lens. It’s surprising what you can do with what you already have and it’s almost a science! Figuring out what works and what falls flat.

I really wanted to celebrate this as it was such a massive project that completely took over my mind and my days by the end. I’m honestly so so proud of myself for being able to carry on with this project for a full YEAR and let’s be honest, I created way more than 365 photos. 

There were sooo many times I thought about quitting and thought ‘who cares?!’ but I am proudly stubborn and determined so I somehow listened to the tiny part of my brain that said ‘keep going!’ 

Of course, every day was not 100% what I wanted to capture. A lot of the days I just did not have the idea or the motivation to take photos and so I’m soooo glad that we ended up taking in Elsa, our fluffy cat, as being able to photograph her as my subject, took a lot of pressure off some days 😅 

I’ve really had to let go of the idea of having perfect photos 100% of the time and have been forced to embrace the normal, uninteresting at times.

Perfectionism and imposter syndrome are best friends that live in my mind almost constantly. I can honestly say this has been a great project for me to let go of some of those feelings and embrace the saying that ‘done is better than perfect’. 

The true nature of taking a photo a day, you’re going to have some days where you literally can’t do anything good- life is a lot sometimes and so accepting that every day will not be a masterpiece is just something that comes with the territory! 

So cheers to meeee!