The time has finally arrived to announce my Photography Project for 2011.
But first a bit of an update on what I have done in the past;
Westy52 (2009)
I started a project two years ago Westy52 which was my first challenge to myself - The idea being that I chose just one image each week to post to my website.
The idea of the project was two-fold:
- To actually get me out taking photos - and having to think about what I was shooting
- To see how my photography improved (or didn't!) over the space of a year
If you haven't seen the results before, the full gallery of 52 images is still available on both Flickr and on my WestyPhotography.com website.
12 from 2010 (2010)
After the challenge (and really positive feedback) of Westy52, I decided to do something different for last year, 12 from 2010.
As the name suggests, this project required me to select just a single 'best of the month' image.
Although initially this may sound like a bit of a cop out after the scale of Westy52 it was actually more of a challenge - It made me go for the best of the best - I was also trying to be realistic with the amount of time I had.
Again, the full album of 12 images is available for viewing on Flickr
and so to 2011...
I guess the obvious thing to do would be to attempt a 365 project - I didn't go down this route for primarily two reasons:
- I didn't want the photography to become a chore, which I think can have a detrimental effect on the quality of the images you post
- I wanted something that I can build month on month, so that I can build the project into Calendars at the end of the year
So, with two days of January left, I am pleased to announce my idea for 2011:
MyMonth
I came up with the idea when I noticed how many 'letters' there are around us, be it roadsigns, logos, advertising etc.
And, as I said, as I wanted to build the project into Calendars for printing in December, it made sense to combine the two ideas.
So each month, I will be shooting images that represent the letters that make up the name of the current month:
For example,
In January, I need to take images that either look like a J A N U A R or Y, or in some way represent the letter (for example a person pointing directing at the camera could be used as a 'U' (you!).
After my first month, I can tell you it is NOT as easy as it may sound!
There were also a couple of other reasons for changing direction slightly with this project too:
- I wanted something that meant that I had to make better use of Photoshop, especially with regards to adding textures and applying frames
- I have just taught myself InDesign, so I wanted a project that would require my to layout a number of images on a page to produce one overall combined image each month
I guess the easiest way to explain what I mean is by getting you to have a look at my first months' work.
I have set-up a new Gallery on Smugmug MyMonth Gallery where I will post the 'combined' images each month, along with full sized versions of the images that go to make it up.
I would love some feedback on the images, and project idea on a whole - You can follow me on Twitter (@paulwestlake) or on my Facebook Fan page
