A summing up of sorts

Now that my "daily practice" or "365" project is finished, I've been reflected on the lessons learned.

Doing the project has certainly connected me more strongly to my surroundings, has made me more aware of quality of light, the interesting lines made by shadows, has made me sensitive to the incredibly rich prospects for making images, has resulted in improved compositional skills. In looking back at the images, I can see certain subjects/themes that arose, some which I will likely pursue more purposefully in the future. I like the fact that these subjects/themes came out of the process naturally, reflecting a sincere conscious or unconscious interest on my part. I also appreciate how doing the project as I did (i.e. blogging daily) encouraged me to think more about some of the philosophical issues of photography, also to think more about why I made certain images and what those images expressed to me, and to write about these thoughts.

There were a few things I didn't like about doing the project. The first was the length - after about 7-8 months, I felt that I had absorbed the various lessons to be learned, and seen the improvement in skills that consistent practice provides. I was ready to abandon the project at that time, suggesting that for me projects spanning about 6 months are more ideal. I also feel that by its very nature, a "365" project imposes a quota mentality - that my focus was in many ways on getting that image done for the day to fulfill the "quota". Finally, because I wanted to keep an up to date blog on the project, I was for the most part using a digital camera, and pretty much have not shot any film (which I love) for the past 6 months (except for our trip to SF). The daily project was not the only reason I haven't been using film recently - the presence of a couple of furry guests who have free-range access to the area where I develop and dry film has made it more difficult to get the films developed and dried in pristine condition.

Overall I think it was a worthwhile exercise. Today I went for a walk by the lake, and I immediately picked up my camera before I headed out the door. I'm pretty sure that I'll have a camera with me every day when I leave the house, a lasting legacy of doing the project.

Daily Practice 365/365

Title: "Full Circle"

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For the final image of my Daily Practice project, I went back to the site of where it all started. I wanted to have a sense of closing the circle, so I took my 4X5 pinhole camera, expired Fuji FP100C45 film and went down to the same location I went to on January 1st, a favourite spot of mine. The wonderful thing about making instant images with a pinhole camera is the way it slows down time; especially in the winter when development times are longer. I felt a great sense of calm and serenity, sunning myself against the rocks of the shoreline while waiting for each exposure to develop. The experience today was quite sublime.

Daily Practice 364/365

Title: "Vague messages from a shadowy world"

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In this penultimate image for the Daily Practice project, I've returned to a common theme, shadows. This morning I was sitting on the studio porch, admiring the quality of the morning light, and the shadows being cast on the sides of the house. I'm continually attracted to make these images by the quality of the light at particular times of day, the way it is enhanced by the shadows, and also by this idea that shadows represent a slightly off-kilter alternative world. I always get a sense that there is a story to be heard, of daring or mundane events, told in a way never experienced before.  It reminds me that when I first started printmaking, I had coopted a cast of figures and shapes from ancient rock art, creating compositions with them that only in retrospect I realized enacted scenes of confrontation. I sense a certain tension between the organic shape on the left of this image, and the strong, rigid geometrical shape on the right. Hopefully it will all end peacefully.

Daily Practice 363/365

Title: "Yearning for change"

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There's something about a body of water receding beyond view, the sun glistening on its surface with foggy hills far off in the distance. It tugs deeply within the soul, creating a yearning for what is around that bend, what is really unknown. Yet when looking at a scene like this, a sense exists that truly spectacular adventures await; a feeling that can be captured each time one looks at such an image.

Daily Practice 362/365

Title: "A reflection of all things past"

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When my dad came back from his morning walk today, he was telling me about some sad news he'd had over the past couple of days. Friends of his had gone to pick up their mother on Christmas morning only to find her dead in her bed; another friend had had a mini-stroke on Christmas evening. As he turned to go into the house for breakfast, my dad remarked "these are the things that happen to your friends at my age" (he's 79).

  

As the year comes to a close, we typically look back for memories or to get some sense of context for our lives. On Christmas eve, my sister-in-law shared stories of Christmas' when she was a girl growing up in Slovakia, and also memories of her formative years living on her grandmother's farm. These memories often seem to come sharply to us, as if we stumble upon them in the foggy mists of lost and half-remembered times past, thoughts that came to me as I caught this reflection of the sky today.

Daily Practice 361/365

Title: "Multiples"

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I'm always fascinated by the shadows cast by sculptural objects. It was the blue colour of the wall and the shadows cast by the ornaments that drew me to make this image. It was only afterwards that I found a total of 7 shadows cast by the three balls. It must be the "new" math!

Daily Practice 360/365

Title: "Whispering to the clouds"

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This time of year offers the opportunity to delve into the secret life of trees. The intricate paths of both main and secondary branches is generally hidden from view during the summer months, yet it is these paths that tell of the life of each tree. Contemplating these twists and turns inevitably leads one to consider the paths of one's own life. I find that like the tree, I accept all the consequences life has offered with equanimity, since they have woven as rich a structure for me as life has woven for the trees.

Daily Practice 359/365

Title: "The two shepherds"

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I come from a religious family, but am not religious myself. But I love the Christmas story, that idea of an epic event heralded to the most humble of people. While I reject religion, I am thankful to have been raised with values such as treating others as you would like to be treated yourself. Today we have family with us, and it is this opportunity to share a meal and laughter that embodies the holiday season for me.

Daily Practice 358/365

Title: "Deep from the well of knowledge"

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I was just leaving the house to go for a little jaunt, when I spied the crown of the oak tree across the street. I love the curving sweep of the top of the crown, defined by all the intricate lines of the branches. It acts as a nice geometric form against the more organic shapes and tones of the clouds.

Daily Practice 357/365

Title: "Culmination"

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A furious invasion from distant shores, repeatedly pounding and degrading the beach. One feels helpless, in awe, invigorated, mesmerized. A overwhelming demonstration that we have only the most tenuous of leases on this world.

Daily Practice 356/365

Title: "Stream of Consciousness"

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I love this location because there always seems to be many compositions open to interpretation. I like the interface between the solid and the liquid, the aging lines etched on the rock surfaces, the shades of green in the water, particularly when it is in shadow. Each composition is made as if in a stream of consciousness, a never ending narration without breaks, full of meaning.

Daily Practice 355/365

Title: "Riding the King Tide"

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The extremely high "king tide" occurring at the moment because of the sun-moon alignment, combined with very windy conditions has resulted in beautiful ocean vistas along our south coast. This morning was relatively calm by recent standards, yet one gets a real sense of the awesome power of the ocean when the tide is this high. Every day along the coast is the same, and different. It seems an apt metaphor for life.

Daily Practice 354/365

Title: "Walking out after all thoughts have gone before"

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Thoughts without a thinker, a mind without thoughts - just the rawness of being human, visceral appreciation of being alive.

Daily Practice 353/365

Title: "The awakening of curiousity"

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In his book Creativity, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi writes about indicators of future creativity in childhood. Children cannot be creative because by definition creativity involves changing a way of thinking or doing things, which first requires mastery of the old or conventional ways. Children can of course show tremendous talent, and if there is a concordance between that early talent and what they go on to become known for in later life, we have a tendency to mistake that early talent for creativity. As an example, Csikszentmihalyi cites Mozart: as a child Mozart was a piano prodigy, but it was only after he learned conventional music and learned about composition that his creativity was born. So what is the best indicator in childhood of the potential to go on to a creative life? It is a prodigious curiousity, which may or may not be on the subject that a person ultimately becomes creative in. It's a need in the child to explore and understand some part of the world around her or him. It makes sense that prodigious curiousity is an indicator of creativity, since being creative involves understanding the world by changing our way of thinking about it. And it makes sense that art is a natural outlet for creativity because it provides a way to express new thinking about the world.

Daily Practice 352/365

Title: "Releasing pre-conceptions"

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Making art is all about challenging yourself, questioning the rules, even quesioning the physical laws of the universe. It is impossible to observe without causing a change, in both the world and oneself. Making art is about defining how you perceive the world, it's about understanding yourself and how you see yourself within that world; creating something new that blurs the lines between the real and perceived to achieve a unique view.

Daily Practice 351/365

Title: "Transcendant life"

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As my daily practice project comes to a close (but not my daily practice itself), I'm starting to reflect on what I've gained. This image illustrates one of the gains, because (1) I am more aware of my surroundings, and the play of light and shadow, and (2) I always have a camera with me, and am far more likely to document these little moments. That being said, there's much more to learn. Besides the pattern of shadow on the wall, what caught my eye in particular was the quality of light, both direct and indirect on the wall. I wasn't happy with the image as it came straight out of the camera, and do not have the requisite post-processing skills to really achieve the look as I remember it. So I have more to learn on that end of things. But something else I've learned from my daily practice is to consider the raw image as simply a starting point from which I will bring the image to a resolution. In this case, I decided to emphasize the patter of shadow, how it moves from middle left to top right and is anchored by an architectural detail. These are some of the elements, besides the quality of light, that made me decide to make an image in the first place, and I like how those compositional elements are resolved in the final image.

Daily Practice 350/365

Title: "Random periodicity"

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Our lives are usually governed by periodic events, the things we come to rely upon. But what makes each day interesting is that one random event, completely unpredictable, that overlays the routine and makes it seem fresh again.

Daily Practice 349/365

Title: "Caught in a reflection"

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Just one of those days that was busy - my dad arrived for Christmas, and we were sitting in the living room talking. One of Z.'s cats seemed a bit leery of him: the last time she'd seen him he'd packed her into a carrier and took her to the airport for transport out to us. I glanced over from my chair, and caught her reflection in the living room door. She was keeping a careful watch from the hallway, and the low light provided this impressionistic image.

Daily Practice 348/365

Title: "Thick as thieves"

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I've written before of my love for the inter-twining lines of kelp on the shore. I always see a drawing lesson in these images - here the lines vary in thickness, change directions, cross each other, run on out of the frame, vary in tone, create interesting negative spaces. I may go on to other subjects from time to time, but I always come back to kelp.

Daily Practice 347/365

Title: "Awakening to the world"
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I think of this image as a metaphor for those times when one has been in a funk, when suddenly it begins to lift. I'm thankful that the weather here is often changeable - from storm to sun to storm at this time of year, which keeps things lively and interesting.