We also want to wish her a happy birthday and best of luck as she starts another 365! Anna's project Anna kindly answered our finisher interview questions and shared three of her favorite photos with us. Below are also an admin fave and a photo from one of her memorable (and scary) 365 days.
What inspired me to begin my 365: I'd seen 365 projects around on Flickr, but most of the one's I'd seen had been self portrait 365s & I knew that this was something I just couldn't do. I have issues about photos of myself, something I'm working on getting over, but a selfie 365 is just a step too far for me still. Maybe sometime I'll feel up to it. But then I got a copy of the book Photojojo, and reading that inspired me to begin a general 365 on my birthday in 2009. I have included a few selfies in my 365, but mostly they are pictures of the world about me. I usually take about 50 photos a day, and I either select the one I like the best or I select the one that seems to best represent that day. Sometimes it's really hard to choose, and I have a set of 365 alternates for days when I pretty much had to flip a coin to pick that day's photo!
How I would describe my photography in just a few words: Slowly improving :-) I think I have quite a good eye when it comes to framing a shot, but my technical knowledge is still patchy. As a result of my 365 I got a DSLR last Christmas, a Nikon D40, and I have been learning more by using it, but I still find myself sometimes with a clear photo idea in mind, but without the skill to get there. I'd like to work on that.
What surprised me most about doing the 365 project: How rewarding it is - my 365 has been such a valuable part of my life. Here I am a year later and I've got a record of the past year, something that stops the year from just melting into the past mush of all the other years. I can look over it & see where I've been, read about what I was doing. I've never managed to keep a journal or a blog before, whenever I've tried it's always petered out because I've psyched myself out thinking "why bother? who cares? what's the point?". But my 365 never went down that path because it feeds into so many different areas of my life. My family & friends live all over the world, and by seeing my daily photos they can keep up with how I'm doing. My father has been known to ring me on the phone if I haven't uploaded any photos for a while! And I've met so many cool people here on Flickr as a result of my 365, that has been so important to me and my one regret is that I haven't been participating online much recently.
What did I learn during the course of the project: So much! I learned how to stop overexposing all my photos. I learned that although I can't keep a blog to save my life I can write pretty well given a nice blank picture description field to fill. And I've learned that I really miss participating in the 365 community - there have been times during this 365 when I've participated & times when I haven't and I've found the times when I have participated far more rewarding. So my goal for my next 365 is to be far more participatory.
Do I have an interesting story about taking one of the 365 photos: I'll say! There was a day when my 365 directly caused me meet a charming pizza eating dachshund and to hurt my shoulder rather badly (I ended up needing rotator cuff surgery). It's a long story so I'll just post the link to the picture, it's all there in the description & the first comment:
What are my future photography plans: Well, tomorrow is my birthday & the first day on my second 365. It's going to be a general 365 again, but this time I'm going to try to participate more, both in the community and with my contacts. Also I am fairly certain that I will get to unwrap a telephoto lens for my D40 tomorrow morning, so I'm hoping I can learn to use a variety of lenses - most of the time I just have my trusty prime lens with me, but it would be good to get used to changing lenses more often. And I want to continue working on the self-portrait thing, I would like to become more comfortable with them.
