So I'm five days into my 365 project at the moment and already it has proved an eye opener. My first photo which was obviously fairly easy to come by as I happened to be out somewhere on a walk with my camera.  However it's the day's that you're stuck inside on an evening after work which are going to be the toughest one's to capture.  Inspiration has be be instantaneous which I guess is the whole point of doing this sort of project.

I've started noting down any tiny bit of inspiration whenever I get it because you never know when inspiration will desert you and desert you it will.  By having a little note of anything I've spotted throughout the day that could make a good photo it allows me to have a backlog of things to photograph.  Just this morning, whilst brushing my teeth after a shower, I noticed the condensation streaming down the bathroom window and thought with some backlight and creative use of my fingers I could frame the plant on the window ledge using fingermarks *into the notebook it goes*.  My most recent photo to the left was one that I only literally thought of afew minutes before I went and did it, hopefully saving some of my notebook ideas for later days, 365 is a biiig number!

This post by Ken Rockwell, also echoed here by Kirk Tuck, essentially boils down to "more gear = less good photos"  It's not something I really have had a problem with (as much as my girlfriend tells me otherwise) although wanting better gear was the driving factor behind my purchase of the D90.  Hopefully I have now finally settled with my D90 and nifty fifty I can test Ken's theory out with this 365 project (nothing to do with the fact that I actually only have two lenses)  Mike Johnston goes as far as telling people to specifically purchase a Leica and use that for a year but I'm perhaps not going to quite go that far.  I think for this I will vary the photo taking between months, a couple of ideas would be no post-processing (an idea that terrifies me) or as Mike suggests only in black and white, for now, I will complete January as normal however the whole project will only ever be with my 50mm lens attached.  I won't even contemplate buying new gear for the rest of the year (the flash I received for Christmas has more than enough options and settings to keep me occupied well into next year!)

The main reason I'm taking this challenge on, and probably the reason I would recommend it to most, is that I would sometimes go weeks without taking a photo.  I'd still be post-processing and writing/twittering etc, but not enough time was spent behind the lens.  I put it to everyone out there to attempt a project like this, it keeps the mind creative and makes you get your camera out every day.  I imagine that your current mood will begin to seep into your photography and come across more than you would ever imagine, it'll be extremely satisfying to look back over them all after a year.  Here's hoping I can keep it up!  If you're starting or are in the middle of a 365 project please let me know how you are finding it, and give me a link to your Flickr account so I can watch how you get on!

Title photo Flickr credit : Caro's Lines