Photo challenge - one photo a day for 365 days
A day or two before the end of the year, my wife and I were doing a little summary of the past year and talking about our plans for the future. I said something like I wanted to have enough time to take photos.
Right after that, I thought I would have enough time if I make time myself.
Because let's be honest, there is enough time, especially if you work 4 days in a week, don’t have kids any any other big obligations. It's just a matter of a proper planning.
That's where the idea came from to post at least one photo on Instagram every day. But most importantly, to take photos every day. It doesn't matter what, where or how. It doesn't matter if the photos are great, average or completely hopeless.
Edit: to see the results of this experiment, keep on reading.
A muscle that isn't used shrinks
And I want to train that muscle.
I believe that when it comes to any skill, the most important thing is to show up everyday. There’s no shortcut. To master anything, you have to push, polish the skill. Every-single-day.
So I decided to take up the challenge and get down to work right away.
It turns out that organizing time during the day (which are super short at the moment) is not easy.
Sometimes it requires juggling with responsibilities and obligations. And a bit of discipline and creativity, to find time to go out and shoot. Well, but that was part of the deal actually. To work on my time management, to implement the habit of carrying my camera everywhere, regardless of whether it's walking my dog, shopping or my daily work.
The biggest challenge is finding light, because currently when I leave for work it's dark, and when I come back it's dark. Four days a week I'm forced to either leave the office during my lunch break (I managed to do it twice or so) or take photos at night.
Most likely soon my laziness or bad weather will push me to, instead of going out at night, experiment with artificial light at home. Ideas and solutions are slowly starting to come to my mind.
Has this challenge changed anything so far?
Maybe it's too early to draw such conclusions, but I can slowly feel my senses sharpening a bit. Knowing that I am obliged to take a photo of some sort (the quality doesn't matter, but of course I have some standards) made me start thinking in frames, searching for subjects and paying more attention to details. Looking for possible sources and kinds of light. Being more present and aware of the surroundings.
Edit (August 2025):
What did I learn from one photo a day challenge?
I learned to see in frames.
I built a solid foundation for my style.
I built the habit of daily practice.
I stopped looking for excuses.
I refined and sped up my workflow.
I created a free guide (well, a mini-course is a better word), which will help you make more compelling, clean pictures.
It includes a little bit of theory, example images and practical tips/exercises.
Do you want to start making minimalistic, clean images that stand out? That guide is for you.
