How to take a photo a day for 365 days, to document.

"It was an amazing, although at times tedious, journey."

How I did it: I carried my point and shoot camera with me everywhere.  There is a special pocket on the outside of my purse that holds it so it is always easily accessible for those shots that I would just happpen upon.  I would upload my pictures on a daily basis (most of the time), edit them, and then choose one as the shot of the day.  I uploaded all of the best shots to my flickr account and then would post the shot under my goal (as well as to my blog).

Because there were so many good shots that were my favorites, I created a quarterly "favorite shots" book on blurb.com.  I also created a book that features the "shot of the day"  They are really nice coffee table books and gives me an opportunity to look back over the year and recognize how much beauty I've encountered and to see how my "eye" has developed.

The best part-it made me slow down and look around me every day and see things that I normally would rush right past.  I "saw" so much this year.

Lessons & tips: ALWAYS keep your camera with you.  A smaller point and shoot is much easier to carry around than a dslr (which might have better quality but will become too big to always have with you).  Take as many shots as you want, you can always edit or delete.  And remember you get to make the rules, so it if you miss a day, choose more the next.  Just keep doing it.  Not every picture is a masterpiece.  At the end you will have a great documentary of the year.

And remember-slow down and look around.  It is amazing what you will see, even in the most mundane things in life.

Resources: Canon powershot SX110IS (a slightly more advanced point and shoot)
Canon Rebel T1i (for those few times I wanted shots that my point and shoot could not handle well)
Microsoft Office picture manager software (very simple photo editing software, although Photoshop would also work well if one know how to use it (which I don't)
 www.blurb.com book publishing software and service.  Probably one of the more cost effective services with a lot of flexibility in creating the book(s)

It took me 365 days.

It made me observant

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