WARREN CONNECTICUT – This is the one thousandth day in my one photo-a-day journey, which started on October 16, 2012. Actually I’ve made 1012 posts because on our trip to the Serengeti there were so many images that i put up more than one post a day.
I’ve learned a lot in a thousand days. Actually quite a bit about the innards of a blog because I maintain this site myself. I’ve had to learn about servers, WordPress, HTML and a lot of search engine optimization. The design is my own. It hasn’t changed much since I started – the original concept of a white background and dark gray and Leica red text has proven to be robust.
I hadn’t intended this as a diary but it inevitably is. Looking back brings floods of memories of the Serengeti, the Masai, the Swiss alps, Lyme disease, dinners with friends, grown children, family holidays, quiet moments at home, Italy and more Italy. And of course the icons of New York. Sometimes the accidents were the best, sometime carefully worked out compositions are. There are may themes – threads for real shows. The solo figure. The Chrysler Building. Litchfield County churches. Change on the street. The evolution of family members and close friends. Alexander is flecked with gray now, there was no gray when I started.
When I started this project in October 2009 I didn’t have a clear vision of its purpose or where it’s going. I still don’t steer it but in terms of purpose it seems to me that it simply is what it is. The important thing it to get out there and do it every day. I plan on continuing indefinitely. The work is the ensemble. I don’t have to print it or commercialize it. It will get interesting as I start to decline (a point not actually in sight but inevitable). I hope that I have the courage to continue it.
It’s clear that I’m a better photographer than when I started. The constant pressure to shoot and self-edit over a three-year period amounts to a graduate degree. My work feels more purposeful and muscular. A vision is emerging. With my previous experience I’m probably approaching the 10,000 hours level of experience – a level that Malcolm Gladwell believes brings competence.
Changing technology will make this obsolete in a few more years and unintelligible (except to specialists with legacy equipment and software) in a decade or two. So enjoy in now. This is like chalk painting on a sidewalk.
For today here are some trees captured with my Leica M9 and an 18mm Leica lens.
[Editorial Note: It turns out, on the basis of more careful calculation, that this was actually day 1,004.)
On this day last year: Chain link,
