As my photography and film business begins to grow I feel so very conscious of the need to keep a personal connection with this thing I love and feel passionate about.
As someone who already grew a business out of doing something I loved, I am very aware of the danger of making that thing you love seem to too much like work and waking up one day to find you lost the creative and personal connection with that very thing.
So with no real intent to do so, I find myself embarking on a photographic Project 365. It’s not the first time. I’ve begun a good few of these over the years. Back in those early days of sharing images on blogs and Flickr, the Project 365 was such a popular shared experience. For me, it was the start of a regular photography habit and I learned and grew so much along the way. Perhaps even more importantly, it was the point when I realised that there is always – and I mean truly always – something worth recording every day.
And sometimes that moment won’t be staring you in the face.
Sometimes you have to purposely look for it.
But it will be there. If you seek it, you will find it. Even on the darkest (metaphorical or actual) of days.
The practice of picking up my camera every day with this small purpose is very much like a gratitude journal of sorts. In the same way that many people record three small, happy moments or things to be grateful for, the Project 365 can provide a similar sort of therapy.
The images themselves do not have to be perfect or beautiful, it’s that act of pausing to press a button that matters perhaps. A memory recorded, a moment observed. The act of stopping to catch breath and frame a thought.
I’m not going to post these images daily on Instagram but I will try to gather them here on my blog every week. I won’t beat myself up if I miss a day, maybe I’ll just look for an extra moment on another day.