of late I seem to spend a lot of time talking about the 366! How much I'm hating it, or loving it am demotivated, or..... so i thought I would raise the idea in a post of its own.
it is fair to say that it isn't easy, taking a picture everyday is easy, but we don't want to just take a picture, everyone counts, everyone deserves to be a learning experience or a chance to play with ideas. its this design for lifelong learning which is the ultimate flaw, how do you stay keen to learn when each day your driven to push yourself, no matter how tired or demotivated. Ok its true that not every pic is a work of art, or even the result of much effort.. but behind every pic is a mind thinking, looking, dreaming the next oppertunity.
the more the idea of the 366 brings fear in to the shutter button fingers across the land, the more it excites, the better the challenge becomes, its harder each day and yet the mind becomes full of ideas, of a quest to see, to day dream and to think in colour.
so im loving to hate it right? yea pretty much, but i am aware of one thing, each day I get better, each idea becomes harder to work out, and yet solutions become simpler, less complex in there mannerisms. each picture offers a greater sense of learning and achievement, and yet the simplest of these become as valid as the most complex. Take the apple a simple shot, sat there looking at me, shiny and smooth, bright red and lost in a dark backdrop, as symbolic as it can be, yet so so simple and easy to look at. and then the clown or Jens eye, deeply edited pics with hours spent crafting each bubble or blossom leaf, scales and splashes added to eyeliner removed, dusty mess that macro joys bring with it! and yet these pics, as triumphant they might stand will be forgotten for another claim soon. if its not for competition or challenge then I might still be out walking the waters edge each night hopping for the sky to fire up so I can go home happy and easy to bed with no worries or nightmares. I would not have had the 2nd place and Jen her win, and as much as art is about its purpose and creation than recognition or praise, it is nice to know your going down the right track.
so 366, bring it on, lets have another week of your menacing, and another week of your daydreaming, I cant quit, quitting would be like sawing an arm of at the moment and thats would simply not work!
Steve
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