The Photo A Day Challenge

David William White · May 2, 2010

One third the way home!

mike c · May 2, 2010

Even at one third, Thats a lot ,what a marathoner .

mopar_guy · May 2, 2010

There's still plenty of time for something to go wrong.

mike c · May 2, 2010

Have faith and persevere.

David William White · Jun 1, 2010

Five months! How's everyone doing?

I've run out of film. I started with a 400ft. roll of Eastman Plus-X, thinking it would last a year, what with shooting MF and LF occasionally, but it's all gone. Well, not 'gone', but hanging on pegs -- still unsleeved. I've vowed to shoot more LF just to bring the pile of film under control. I'll also begin to use up all the miscellaneous crap film that I've got lying around. My darkroom is a friggen mess, but everything is still getting processed on time.

I miss spending time printing. I'm sure I can make a few nice things out of all this raw material I've been amassing, so I'm sort of thinking about switching gears at the end of June and work on my printing skills. Actually, spend July and August cleaning up, sorting & filing (and going on vacation), then get back in September and work on prints.

That's what I'm thinking, anyway.

mike c · Jun 1, 2010

Dave,did you load the 35mm cartridges each day with 36 frames or something like 10 or 15 frames.

David William White · Jun 1, 2010

Well, Mike, I started out sensibly, about once a week loading a dozen cartridges with 8-10 frames, but then I'd be shooting 3 or 4 of those a day, so I started loading them for 24. Then shoot two rolls a day. Two rolls has always normally an outing for me, but instead of one outing a week, I was doing 7, so it added up. I broke it up by only taking out the 4x5 on some days, but then again, other times if I was downtown and lots of things were going on, I'd be running into the local camera store to pick up more film. So I went through a brick of Kentmere 400 (and found that pretty easy to work with).

It's all good. One reason I wanted to do this challenge was to do reconnaissance for large format, finding interesting things, finding the vantage points, etc. I've managed to do a couple of LF reshoots of things I've scouted with the 35mm. But at this rate, I've already got enough raw material and ideas to coast on for quite some time.

Thanks for asking. How's it going with you?

mike c · Jun 1, 2010

Thats very interesting Dave,really enjoyed looking at the photo's you have taken.I can understand the situation with film use.I'm doing pretty good as I started doing a little of Portraiture with my 5x7 camera,it is a lot slower than compared with the medium format camera.Joined the monthly photo assignment which is portraiture and having a little fun as haven't done any before with large format.Really enjoying the different stuff that is offered here in Apug .

Mike

lorirfrommontana · Jun 20, 2010

Well, I have missed quite a few days this month and have not been in the darkroom for over a month so don't know wich photos are for wich day anymore! I nearly made it half a year. It was a good exercise and I think I learned that I really shouldn't take photos when I'm not in the mood but should try to shoot every day. I always try to have a camera with me now and feel very out of sorts when I don't have one with me. I will continue with my blog when I ever get another working scanner/computer combo, but will change the focus a bit!

mopar_guy · Jun 20, 2010

Sorry to hear that Lori. I might as well confess now too. I missed about ten days in a row when my mother-in-law passed away recently. Going into this, I tried to think of all of the things that could go wrong, but this was not anything that I imagined in my worst nightmares. I have started to shoot again, but nothing is as fun right now. I intend to keep up with the Photo A Day, but I will probably end up missing about 20-30 days by years end.

Dave

Rob Skeoch · Jun 20, 2010

I've missed a number of days also. I plan to restart on July 1, but it's a hard to keep it going with the darkroom work and all.
-rob

David William White · Jun 21, 2010

Yeah, I'm going to coast to the end of June, then go on hiatus till September. I've gotten good at the 'front end' i.e. shooting and delivering something each day, in a rough-and-ready sort of way, but the 'back end' is a shambles. I've got hundreds of rolls of film that have only had cursory examination, and my darkroom is quite cluttered at the moment. Looks like a pipe bomb went off, to be honest. I'd really like to sit back, put my feet up, stick a pipe in my teeth, and go over contact sheets and make some nice prints.

So I'll pick up this project in September, hopefully posting a print a day, with a mix of old and new negatives. Maybe I'll learn to be a bit more organized on the 'back end' along the way. That seems like it would be the most useful and instructive thing to do with this project at this point.

DWW

Ken Nadvornick · Jun 22, 2010

Well, just to chime in and complete the picture, I ran aground quite a few weeks ago myself. Too many extra hours on the job for a company that didn't appreciate or use it well. (Thankfully that situation is now resolved.) And far, far too much rain and darkness this year.

I heard on the local news last night that our start of summer was 15F degrees below normal and the least amount of light recorded in the last 15 years. And, of course, it rained. I don't think we've had three months total of decent weather in the last three years. Tripods and fast film can handle the darkness. But one can only photograph in the endless rain from inside the car for so long. Automobile-friendly subjects get used up real fast before ad nauseum sets in.

The weatherman says we may get a small break tomorrow before the rain returns later this week. And tonight we're again burning the wood stove for heat.

I have several weeks of negatives to add to my set, just need to scan them. I haven't decided if I'll simply backfill missing dates and continue, leave empty holes and continue, or just throw in the towel.

Ken

David William White · Jun 22, 2010

Well, it's all just about indulging in our hobby, making some nice photographs, raising our personal bars just a bit, and sharing experiences. There is no 'rules' committee, so just morph the mission as necessary! That's the way I'm looking at it.

Mike Té · Jun 22, 2010

David wins.

David William White · Jun 22, 2010

Arg! Those who venture forth and return with printable negatives win -- every day. You just never know how precious or valuable a photograph might become.

MattKing · Jun 22, 2010

I gave up on this about 50 days in. I found that too often, my focus became one of taking daily photographs to fill the quota, rather than concentrating on getting photographs I wanted or expanding my photographic experiences.

The back end administration was a real drag as well.

I think that this might work better for me if I was already shooting regularly, and either developing and printing very regularly (3+ times a week?), or using a lab to develop and scan most of my negatives. The fact that my darkroom space is temporary, and that my scanning resources are slow, made a daily quota a real challenge.

I also didn't like the fact that the practicalities of developing and printing daily work tended to push me toward 35mm black and white, whereas I often would have preferred to shoot Kodachrome (another project I am trying to complete) or medium format black & white.

I may try this again with a different quota - something like three shots per week.

KWhitmore · Jun 23, 2010

I haven't been here for a while so here's my thoughts.

This has been a great challenge for me. I've missed a few days certainly but I've made my peace with that.

I've shot more film than I could have imagined in such a short space of time and had many interesting conversations with friends and family about the whys and hows of doing such a thing. I think I'll never get caught up in the darkroom even after using color film or digital to get me through the really tough days. I've enjoyed the mental stretch and will continue as best I can.

Good luck to you guys!

Rob Skeoch · Jul 2, 2010

It's the half way point of the Photo a Day Challenge. A group of us started Jan. 1 taking a photo every day. I think only David White has taken one each day, I know I haven't.

The project would be much easier using a digital camera but most of the photographers who came along on the ride were shooting film. After six months of shooting you go through a fair bit of film and chemistry. You also learn a few things.

1 - get the system better organized so you can streamline the processing, contacting and proofing stage. The darkroom seems to be the bottleneck of the exercise.

2 - try and get into the darkroom every couple weeks to make high quality prints of the better images

3 - try and work a theme for a few weeks so you can really get the technique down

4 - enjoy getting out a taking photos

5 - use different formats, it keeps things fresh

6 - travel if you can

mopar_guy · Dec 17, 2010

This thread seems to have tapered off a little lately. I was just curious to know if any of the "participants" of this exercise had any thoughts. I guess that I will go first.

1. I am probably somewhere in the 50% range (I made a photo or slide on about half of the days). I think that I only missed a couple of days in the first three months and after that I steadily missed more and more days. Things picked up more after summer was over.

2. My organizational skills are really lousy.

3. Somewhere about four or five months in, I hit a creative wall and could not think of fresh ideas.

4. On a positive note, I used up a lot more film than I have in over ten years, and I am now taking a camera with me a lot of the time.

Oh well, there is always next year.

Ken Nadvornick · Dec 18, 2010

Here's what I learned,

(1) To make a single photo on each day for 365 days I will probably need to be retired. At least to make a meaningful photo. However, to make a photo for each day might be more realistic.

(2) The logistics are indeed a killer. And the first thing to get killed was making darkroom prints for scan reproduction. Negative scanning was the only way to keep up. And negative scanning sucks.

(3) The project consumed just about all available photographic resources. Kind of like NASA spending the last thirty years concentrating on only sending shuttles to the space station, instead of going on to Mars.

(4) I made it through into April before succumbing. But I only managed to develop and scan through the middle of March. And I only posted throught the third week of February. (See #2 above.)

(5) I need to live where it rains less than 10+ months out of each year. Yes, inclement weather can be good. And you'd be amazed how much subject material can be found right outside the car window. But still...

(6) I'm seriously thinking about trying again starting this upcoming January 1st. (See #1 above.) Go figure.

Ken

Zergling Rusher · Dec 19, 2010

this sounds both challenging and fun. Assuming I have my equipment together I'll try this out for 2011. I may wait until my second semester starts though, I only will have two classes to worry about.

Thanks for the challenge,

Daniel

canuhead · Dec 22, 2010

If I had the funds, this could be an interesting project with my Alpenhause Polaroid. Just scan the prints and post. No need to shoot partial or short rolls and process.

markbarendt · Dec 24, 2010

Ken Nadvornick said:
Here's what I learned,

(1) To make a single photo on each day for 365 days I will probably need to be retired. At least to make a meaningful photo. However, to make a photo for each day might be more realistic.

I agree.

I started but found real quick that my job's patterns pushed me to consider the same subjects over and over without being able to vary the time of day.

Ken Nadvornick said:
(2) The logistics are indeed a killer. And the first thing to get killed was making darkroom prints for scan reproduction. Negative scanning was the only way to keep up. And negative scanning sucks.

This goes back to #1 for me, gotta have the time regardless.

Ken Nadvornick said:
(3) The project consumed just about all available photographic resources. Kind of like NASA spending the last thirty years concentrating on only sending shuttles to the space station, instead of going on to Mars.

For me it was just doing a shot a day without a real destination, that got old quick.

Ken Nadvornick said:
(4) I made it through into April before succumbing. But I only managed to develop and scan through the middle of March. And I only posted throught the third week of February. (See #2 above.)

Mid-Feb

Ken Nadvornick said:
(5) I need to live where it rains less than 10+ months out of each year. Yes, inclement weather can be good. And you'd be amazed how much subject material can be found right outside the car window. But still...

I don't know if that is a fix. I live where there are 300 days of sun.

Ken Nadvornick said:
(6) I'm seriously thinking about trying again starting this upcoming January 1st. (See #1 above.) Go figure.

Ken

I'm not, unless I find a subject that would warrant that. I think that's my limit.

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