A Photo a Day

More than 200 days ago, on my 25^th birthday I took a photo of the new TARDIS apron my parents had bought me. I had known for a few days that I wanted to start a daily social media ‘project’ but it wasn’t until I took that photo that I knew for sure it would be a photo a day.

srsly though, great present. 

By the third day I was already struggling for ideas of what to photograph. I didn’t want to take boring pictures of my dinner, and I didn’t want to only take selfies, and I was already on struggle street. On days like today, when I haven’t left the house, I will often have to contrive a reason for a photo. Many times this means taking a photo of something I’m eating, or of my face, but more often than not it makes me do something. I’ll go for a walk, bake something or find something nice to photograph.

Initially, I felt weird about this, and some of the photos don’t seem completely genuine, it’s clear to me at least that I am guilty of glorifying the mundane in order to make my life seem more interesting for facebook. But as the days (all 208 of them) have passed, I’ve come to appreciate the impetus to do something worth documenting. Plus I’ve become more relaxed. I don’t try to force a photo as often anymore, and I’ve stopped caring if some of the photos are boring to others. Because while I have made the choice to share them publicly, I have also come to realise that the photos are more for me than for anyone else.

Since starting my weird facebook album I have had a few people ask me why I’m doing it. My answers usually vary between the rather flippant ‘I dunno, just for something to do’ and the comparatively deep, ‘because I wanted to document my life this year’. The truth probably lies somewhere in-between. I knew, on my birthday, that the next 365 days were going to be big. I was going back to full-time study, doing teaching prac and going on an overseas holiday. I also knew that I was struggling to find creative things to do with myself even when I had plenty of free time, so a ‘simple’ photo each day seemed like a nice project to do while very busy.

One of the most surprising things to me is that I’ve managed to keep up with it. While I admit that I have missed a few days here and there, I have been pretty consistent. 

Though I have created this image for emergencies.

Like the imposed regularity of a Sunday blog, making myself document a snapshot of each day has produced both not-so-great and really-quite-good results. I'm pleased I'm doing it, and I feel confident that I will always be glad that I documented this year like this. 

Graffiti on the toilet walls in the cafe where JK Rowling wrote Harry Potter

I haven't yet taken a photo for today, day 209, I think I might do one of my dinner maybe, or one of my pretty face.

what a cutie

Help! I need somebody!

Readers, bloggeroos, lovers. Whatever it is you’re called… I need your help.

not just anybody...

You may have noticed (you probably haven’t, I’m probably being paranoid) that my blog has been coming to you later and later every week. Sometimes it doesn’t reach you until Mondays. Also, and I know I probably am just being paranoid now, but you may have noticed the quality is getting shittier too. The truth is, my friends, that blogging is getting harder and harder for me. It’s not that I don’t have the time, it’s not even that I don’t like it (I love it), it’s that it feels like there is some inspiration box of ideas in my head, and at the moment we’re down to a paperclip, two bits of fluff and the last bit of scrunched up paper that says, “write a blog about how you’ve run out of ideas”.

I know, in my heart, that this isn’t true. Inspiration doesn’t work like that, there aren’t a finite number of ideas and I haven’t used all mine up already. If I had, I’d probably be dead. But I do think that writing once a week means that good ideas, great blog posts seem to be few and far between. They swim in a sea of posts about my own, little life. My most popular posts are ones that aren’t about me. You guys love reading about Disney, Translink, Harry Potter and growing up. Obviously, I always write from my own perspective, and my own experience, but I understand why the more relatable posts aren’t ones exclusively about my life. My life just isn’t that interesting. On the other hand, I’m sure you guys can understand why I do often write about myself. When casting around for inspiration, it’s much easier to stop in my own living room, or in my own head.

I am a big believer in quantity. Obviously, quality is very important (and it’s why I’m having this freak out), but I really do believe that making myself write a blog every week has made me a better writer. If I were to just write whenever the fancy took me, I would never write at all. You can’t just sit around waiting for inspiration to hit, because it won’t. That’s a fallacy. For me, anyway, there’s no creativity phone and you can’t just sit around waiting for it to ring. You’ve got to pick it up, punch in numbers randomly until you find something worth talking to. Maybe inspiration just comes for some people, but I have to push for it, and more often than not I write without it. And making myself write regularly has made me *find* inspiration, and that’s great. But even still, I feel like I’ve been pushing too hard lately, like I’ve damaged the part of my brain that comes up with ideas.

So I’m completely conflicted. A part of me wants to stop blogging for a while. Give my brain a rest and try to let ideas come to me later. Another part of me thinks that’s stupid; I should keep at it, because keeping at it for the last year or so is what has made me better. I think maybe the answer is that I need to switch it up. I need to get a new style, a new project, maybe even a new blog. My big idea at the moment is to pursue an “overanalysing” theme. I really enjoy doing those kinds of blogs, and people seem to like them. So I’m wondering if I should just throw myself in to *only* doing those kinds of things for a while. You know, watching and ripping apart Disney films, other kids movies, TV shows, stuff I haven’t seen before… etc.

And this is where you come in. I write for you guys, so I want to know what you think. I’ve made up a very quick survey and it would be amazing if you could do it. I estimate it will take you no more than a couple of minutes, and it just covers a few questions about who you are, why you read this blog and what you’d like to see in the future. If you could please take a few moments to do this for me, I will love you all 5eva. 

This is the link to the survey, please help!