Monday, January 19, 2009

28 days



Award-winning nature photographer Jim Brandenburg gave himself a challenge: for 90 days between the autumnal equinox and the winter solstice, he would take only one photograph each day in the forest of the great northwest where he lives. As a nature photographer he is used to shooting hundreds of photos a day, so limiting his creativity to only one shot a day was like handcuffing himself. The results were incredible. Brandenburg documents the choices he made throughout his cleansing journey. Forsaking sure-thing photo opportunities for the possibility of a better one before the sun set. Chased by the light indeed. The cynic in me wonders if he truly limited himself so stringently. We may never know.

Inspired by his quest, I once limited myself to one roll of film per day on a weekend photo excursion. Yes, film. I’m old, get over it. The point is, I respected his challenge enough to try it, but was neither cocky enough nor confident enough to limit myself to single photo each day.

I’m happy to say that I am cocky enough these days, though still not confident that I can pull it off with as much grace and success as he. I am not in the great wilderness, I am not a world-renowned photographer, and I am limited by my day job for the amount of daylight hours I can shoot, but I’m going to give it a go. For the entire month of February, I will travel everywhere with my camera and I will snap only one photo per day. 28 days/28 photos. No cheating. Only found photos, pictures I come across during my daily life. There will be nothing staged. I will snap a single photo per day for the entire month of February and post them here the following day. Wish me luck, I’ll need it.

The link below will take you to Jim Brandenburg’s images from the project:

http://www.jimbrandenburg.com/gallery/90%20day%20images/90day_htmls/day_01.html
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