26 Things (July 2003)

When I first decided to participate in the 26 Things project in June 2003, like most people I thought it would be a piece of cake. I mean, twenty-six photographs over a month with thirty-one days? That's less than one photo per day! Easy! It wasn't until I started, however, that I realised just how wrong I was.

Anyone can just go around snapping this and that, but where's the creativity? And what happens when your creative muse abandons you? This was my dilemma. Things may have started off well enough, but the engine of creation soon stalled. My lack of interest in my environment was like sugar in the gas tank.

I didn't want to take just any old photos, yet as the days went by and my inspiration came to nought, well, as they say, desperate times called for desperate measures. Whereas at the start of the month I was an auteur with visions of perfection, by the end I was a hack, snapping away feversihly just to beat the deadline.

As a result, I am happy with only about half of the photographs I have taken for this project over the last four weeks. Some were the victims of lost opportunity, or bad timing. Most are affected by an unwanted dullness -- a frustrating symptom of the grey, overcast skies we're so well-known for here. And a few are the result of sheer lack of imagination on my part, beyond salvation -- even with all the Photoshopping in the world. (You'll know it to look at them.)

But don't let that put you off too much, for there's more than a handful of diamonds in this rough. I might even go so far as to say that photographs such as this one, or this one, could well be some of the best I've ever taken. Not bad for a novice, eh?

26 photos | 417 views

items are from 22 Mar 2005.