Five is a nice even (well, odd) number to stop at.
Taking a photo every day has become engrained into my daily routine. It will defiantly be odd to not do it, but I think the time has come to stop. I’ve learnt loads through taking a photo every day for 5 years, but I think now I will get better by spending more time on shots. Photographically speaking whilst taking one a day, I’ve kind of plateaued. I’m not by an means saying that I’m great and I won’t get any better, but I think that I’ve pretty much honed the art of taking, editing and uploading in a day now.
When I’m doing big edits they still at most take me a couple of hours, but if I don’t like a photo I still have to upload it. This way, my image gallery will only be of shots I’m actually proud of.
I would 100% recommend a Project 365 to anyone. And I have learnt so much, and come so far doing it. But for now, it’s a Project 52 and a specific project that I’ve been planning for a while now. And probably still photos of flowers. Because I like flowers. And back lit leaves. Because.

What I’ve learnt about photography
Pretty much everything I know now, I’ve learnt over the last five years. I knew a bit about composition and framing when I started; but I bought my first SLR on 01/01/2011 and I learnt from there.

I had a couple of books, and I can remember when I took my first photo with a shallow depth of field (I was really excited by this, and I still love using a shallow depth of field now). I taught myself from day one everything in manual. I struggled, and still struggle, with manual focusing; but that might be something to do with my bad eyesight (Or so I read once on the internet).

I’ve learnt to get as much right as possible in camera to save me time later on when I’m editing. I’ve learnt how to use Lightroom, I know Photoshop pretty darn well.

As the years have gone on, I’ve had to get more and more creative. The weather in England is very hit and miss, and working a full time job doesn’t really allow for travelling loads to take shots to fulfil the photo a day brief; but all things considered I don’t think I’ve done too bad of a job.

Year 1 – 2011

I learnt how to use the camera. I bought a second hand manual focus macro lens. I snapped objects around the house.
I impressed myself with this swan shot
I was best at shooting flowers and landscapes. You can see the album here.

Year 2 – 2012

I wasn’t planning on doing a second year. I just kind of didn’t stop. I got better at editing, and put more thought into what I was shooting. My shots became less like snaps, and more like pictures.
I had my first back lit leaf experience
I was still best at shooting flowers and landscapes, but I got more creative and better at composing. You can see the album here.

Year 3 – 2013

I used Photoshop a lot more. I experimented for the whole of June with taking and heavily editing photos. There were some mega naff ones, but I learnt so much by doing it.
I started taking more portraits
I would, this year, add conceptual photography to what I was good at. Not all of the time, but I took and edited some half decent ideas. You can see the album here.

Year 4 – 2014

I spent the year getting better at what I had started in 2013. Nothing really changes from here on in. In terms of a whole year though, I think 2014 was my best.
You can see the album here.

Year 5 – 2015

I do feel that towards the end of the year I’ve started to tumble towards the finish line. There is some small part of me that wants to carry on, because I feel like taking a photo every day is part of who I am, but on the whole I want to spend more time and effort into taking shots. I don’t want to feel like I have to take a photo, I want to want to take a photo.

You can see the album here.

 

Final thoughts

I’ve enjoyed this experience and I’ve learnt loads.
Thank you to everyone who has followed me, or interacted with me throughout this experience. I’m terrible at responding to people, and I got worse as I got closer to the end of the project. Some days there just isn’t enough time to do my job, go to the gym, do normal things (like cook tea!), take a photo, edit a photo, post it online AND interact with people. I am grateful for every like and comment that has been made though.

Having said all of this, I’m looking forward to the weekend of the 2nd and 3rd of January so I can start my Project 52 and the other project. Hahah ❤