Photo 150 - a yearlong photo challenge

It's been a challenge for me, fun but definitely a kick in the butt to clean stuff up, and to take photos.

Although we don't have a "real lockdown" here in Southern California, my wife and I just stay put, we don't mess around and we don't go out except for essentials. This year, luckily coinciding with this challenge, we'd started to go out on the weekends on off road 4x4 road trips which has been a welcome reprieve. We are very outdoor people so the staying in has sucked.

That being said, because I'm driving and focusing on the trail, my vehicle, safety, etc, it's been a challenge to take a keeper. My thought of using a prime was a focus to get more use of my lovely CZ 55mm but now I'm thinking I should have left that open and I could have shot the a700 with a tele while in the car to get some mobile shots.

Also, thanks to some discussion here, the challenge, and a gifted go pro, I've started to shoot some video. That was not intended :-)


Finally, getting back on dyxum and seeing everyone shoot and post, has been to say the least, amazingly inspiring!

Hope everyone keeps up and keeps going!

ADub128 wrote: 10% in. All good for me so far. I definitely decided to take the easy route -- pick a topic Sunday night, take shots the following week. I have "cheated" in the sense that I will see something I will want to shoot for the following week in the current week, in one case grabbing that pic in the current week, finishing up my shots in the following week. For me, that's all good. I get some fresh air, keep using my gear. Pic-a-day shooting is just too much pressure for me, so I'm glad I crafted my Photo 150 the way I did. Flexible, and can be a little challenging at times. One goal, do not make this project a big chore. For the archive shots, it feels like I have an infinite supply of these shots that have never seen the light of day on the Internet. I'm still trying to figure out the best way to organize, catalog and keyword all of my images though. We just wrapped the Super Bowl here and I am always amazed that they can pull up highlights from other years so quickly. A team of people have basically cataloged every player and play out there. It's pretty incredible, actually. Keep going guys ... my theme for next week, boats!

Day 7 of the CYC got into the chore zone for me ... I couldn't NOT take the photo as I'm a purist and commit to these projects (and had already done 6/7 of the days). I challenged myself with one/two ideas and both failed. I don't agree with posting to the outtakes (as that is what the trash can is for) but I very very nearly did post two of my failed efforts there. So, after reviewing my 7th day shot on my production machine, I then picked the camera up again and made a new photo. In the end the 7th day shot is far better than the best of my failed earlier efforts. I pushed myself.

- - - - - why am I posting about the CYC in here - - - - -

ADub's point about the chore factor. That is a classic '365 quirk'. And crossing the line from fun and enjoyment and hobby into the commitment of the project. It is that point that will make people quit, stop, fail their 365. It also shows how a mini 365 (a 7-day project) is a nice trial for a 365. A good test to see if you can do it. But also, a 365 isn't about making 365 images fit to grace an art gallery wall. It is about seeing those weak days in the project. And for some even seeing the missed days.

Once you go through multiple days like this you get a little embarrassed by how poor your images are and you step up your game. For me 365s have always been about ONE image per day. And that selection process is part of the 'art'. Part of the challenge.

I've seen people enjoy 365s even while missing 10-20 frames through the year.
Percentage wise they are still living it. Life does after all get in the way sometimes. Making it non-kit specific also means you can grab your smart phone and shoot anything to cover that one day. I'm comfortable with posting snaps from my new-to-me iPhone.

- - - - -

But Photo150 is a more rounded project than a 365. It isn't just about today (which a 365 is). I like the idea of a non-fixed theme. It pays to put some solid thinking into the topics to make up the 150.

- - - - -

As for the wonders of the archive. The dreaded archive. The massive archive. Tagging - however you do it. It could lock you into an app that will later seek a rental payment from you for the rest of your life without discussing and agreeing to the terms. Or you can go off-line and use a notebook or a spreadsheet. But I think tagging is key. Having been burned by 3 web design tools that have gone out of business and the obvious and well known devil of former market leading photo apps rental program, I've voted to take back control. Spreadsheet and filing and website will replace the programs and cost me next to nothing (per month). I'll spend the devil's $10/mo on something enjoyable instead, something I can stop at any time without losing access to my catalog.

I used to 2-3-4-5 star my images. For example:
2 = a reminder, a note, something to re-try, to re-shoot
3 = might be good enough for a non-photo blog post
4 = edit it see if I like it
5 = publish it
After a shoot maybe a few images got to 4 star ... then one would get to 5 star and I'd delete the other 4-stars once done. So I'd end up with a bunch of 2/3/5 starred images. This is of course just one way to manage this.

My archive project is now about something else. It is publish or delete.

I found this colliding with the CYC challenge, well, challenging. I'll be glad to have the daily thing out of the way.

The archive holiday photos theme is fine and is easy when cooped up in lockdown. I think the ultra-wide aspect ratios might be more difficult, and using what I might call a vintage camera is normally straightforward, at least until I reacquainted myself with the RD-175.

@dCap and @pegelli

I think it is going fine. I've been liking the creative efforts people are coming up with. And it has motivated me to take more pics more regularly.

Unfortunately Week 5 for me will have to count as one of my 2 missed weeks. I've actually spent a lot of time with camera, taking video and learning FinalCut Pro but there's not really anything to show for it.

Weekend also is my birthday so abandoning family to take photos is not prudent...

Today is the end of week 5 ... so we are 10% through this project.
Any thoughts on progress so far?

- - -

The current UK covid situation (full national lockdown until at least 22-Feb) means I have a little more time than I'd like to mess with my archive. But at the same time my archive needs a really really good go through.

Having my 'main' external drive fail was a worry and I'm still re-building the other dupes I have to get back to three copies. It was annoying but also timely and part of the driver for my focus on my archive. Gosh, driver and focus in one sentence with no pun! I'm also now changing my filing system a little so that I swap main drive every month. That I run 6x drives instead of 3x due to the number of files is part of my 'must delete more' process. I have plans for those 'spare' 3x drives that cannot start until cleared (2022?)

Looking forward to things hopefully being different in April with a potential change in my 3x topics but I might just retain my: Archive567 (2005-2007), Archive8 (2008), and 2021 iPhone shots theme.

Sort of wishing this was 'just' an archive project for me though as I could certainly pick three archive themes and not run out of images by year end. I would probably add 2019+2020 flush as my third theme.

The trick now will be to keep going until year end (with the archives) ... and then continue until resolved. And being smarter with my 2021 shots.

Learning Affinity Photo and having a different workflow is also interesting. I'm liking it but haven't re-edited many of the older shots. That is the next part as I'm wanting to tinker with a few colors and maybe even re-crop some of the shots a little.

Overall - I'm really enjoying it. The 'this week on iPhone' is a novel almost bonus part. Next up will be building a website to put these image on.

I was searching high and low for that 'last 10 topics' list, thanks for referring to its location.

My experience of Dyxum (through habit) is mostly through email alerts for topics or forums I have already visited. The drawback is that I don't always see new things as they happen!

When Firefox had a handy RSS reader built in it was a good way to follow new posts on Dyxum, but since they took that away I haven't found anything that suits my needs. The RSS subscription options presented on Dyxum are mostly dead now. Perhaps one day I'll train myself to visit the Forum more efficiently in future.

eddyizm wrote: I would say it boils down to this. Maybe the forum software could just filter those posts out or ?

I wouldn't worry too much, it's only a problem on the Dyxum home page where it might flood the "last 10 forum topics", but as soon as you move one level down to the Forum homepage there's 4 categories of "latest posts", two long ones (Latest photographs topics and Latest equipment/community topics) and two short ones (Latest challenges topics and Latest sales topics) which is probably where most people go first anyway and members not interested in the Challenges find two separate lists of latest other topics there.