Thinking about, and talking about, your goals for the new year is pretty much inevitable. After my year of minimizing and saying no to so many things in order to put my full focus on my family it can be really hard to create goals for myself. I know what goals I have for my business; staying consistent with blog writing and social media posting, as well as growing the Art From Life Collective. But what about my personal goals for 2019?
Listen, when you create for others for a living it can be really hard to create for yourself. Every day I have a HUGE reminder on my basement walls of how I used to create for myself and my family, but in the past two or three years I’ve let that priority in my life fall away. And it honestly hurts my heart! I love the images I see on our walls, but it’s a constant reminder how much life has changed and what a poor job I’ve done at keeping up with those changes.
So for 2019 my personal goal is to photograph my family EVERY DAY this year. On January 1st I embarked on creating a family 365 photo project. Seems a little daunting, but the richness of images that you collect during one of these projects can bless you and your family for so many years to come. Trust me!
I would love if you would join me in this journey. Here are a few tips to help you get started.
Camera Choice
Honestly you can use any camera you’d like. Camera phones are always readily available so maybe that’s the best choice for you right now. However, in order to create the best quality images I recommend using a DSLR camera. I decided to leave my camera out in a very obvious place where it can’t be avoided and I can grab it quickly when opportunities present themselves. It currently lives in the fruit basket on my kitchen counter. Now, with it there staring at me all through the day, there really are no excuses.
Getting Organized
You’re going to be taking a lot of photos, so before you begin come up with a good organizational system. I use an external hard drive for all my photos because the files are large and they would take up too much space on my computer’s hard drive. I typically create a folder on the EHD for the year, then a folder for each month. Each time I download my photos they go into the corresponding monthly folder. I highly recommend downloading at least once a week. Be sure to go through your images each time you download and only keep your favorite ones. Otherwise it will be harder to find what you’re looking for. I even go a step further and use Adobe Lightroom to create keywords for each of my images so that I can recall them easier later.
Accountability
A lot of times when we decide to take on these types of projects and goals, we ultimately fizzle out after a few weeks. Don’t let this happen to you! Find some accountability. Tell someone close to you about your goal of completing this photo project. Start an Instagram specifically for your project or let those who follow you know what you’re doing. Trust me, if you start posting your images, someone will comment when you stop. You can also join the Art From Life Collective Facebook group for encouragement in your journey. It’s a safe place to share your progress and ask questions. I’m going to use it myself as a motivator to keep up with my goal. Join me there for Sharing Sundays to share your pictures from the week.
Having An End Goal
Taking pictures is great and your family will really thank you for it, but what is your ultimate end goal with this project? Are you planning to print your favorite images to display in your home? Will you make a cumulative album of your images at the end or your 365 days? Or will you simply let your pictures live in digital form on your computer? Please don’t do the latter. Print those images! The first few times I took on this project I created a family yearbook album at the end of the year. My kids love these and still pull them out regularly. Then I found out about a company called Chatbooks that would allow me to link the Instagram account I was using to post my project pictures and they would automatically send me beautifully printed books with every 60 pictures I posted. How easy is that? My kids adore these little albums too. They even have their own personal hashtags that I use to recall their specific photos which I can then use to make them special birthday albums.
One more thought. Don’t just focus on the good things. Come at this project from a place of vulnerability. Be real with yourself about you and your family. Maybe you’re in a tough place right now. How can you photographically express that so that later in life you can see the beauty from the ashes? Memories aren’t always good, but even the though and hard memories are a part of your story. And don’t forget to get yourself in there too. I’m also working on that this year too.
I’m looking forward to taking this journey with you. My hope for you, and for myself in all this, is that through your lens you might be able to slow down a bit so you can better “see” the people you’re photographing.
