366 January

I’m not sure yet what it is I’ve started. I’ve not shot even a dozen rolls of film in the past five years and now I have this idea of shooting at least one frame of film every single day of 2016.

Time will tell if I’m in over my head or not. It’s already clear that I need to have a forgiving attitude towards myself and this project. Aside from being the first month of the year January is probably the worst month to start a project like this. Deep winter darkness envelops everything. There’s only daylight for a few precious hours and those are often spent working at the office. Weather dreary. Activity low. Always a rough time creatively.

The lack of light also means challenges of a technical nature – most shots this month have been made at the widest aperture possible, at the longest shutter speed possible to hand hold. I lost a few shots to camera shake, though not as many as I’d feared.

Aside from time of year related challenges I’m also not sure yet what or how to shoot. If I want to work in themes, focus on specific subjects, limit my set of lenses, stick with B&W, use other cameras, how should I present the work, when, and so on.

Maybe I should’ve planned more beforehand, but I quite enjoy the organic process.

I’ve found one thing that doesn’t quite work, at least for now. At the start of the year I was shooting some stuff digitally in addition to the film I was shooting for this project. But trying to figure out what to shoot on which camera only resulted in more confusion. Instead I’ll shoot film exclusively, at least while figuring the project out in the coming months.

As for the shots of January they have been mostly about quiet home life. Shots of my family or walking the dog. We visited the Olafur Eliasson exhibit at Moderna Museet. I managed to catch a rare optical phenomenon. Another shot I liked was made while waiting for the subway.

I leave January with more questions than answers regarding the project, but also with a number of images I quite like.

I’ve decided to show every frame I’ve shot during the month. I might choose a different approach other months. It feels slightly scary since every mistake I've made, every less successful shot, every retry is on clear display. But this also makes it feel more interesting to share. Without anything further, this is January.