Day 1 / 2022 Photo Project365

Ten years ago, I did a one-haiku-per-day project on my haikumages blog, which was intense and overwhelming. That’s because I would post each haiku with a relevant, original photograph of mine, so it was double the effort. Turned out to be quite difficult and draining to write a decent (or great) short poem each day, PLUS make a decent (or great) photograph. And then there was all that posting, which kinda ruined the underlying purpose of writing a haiku (or senryu) because it was a mechanized daily regimen.

Haiku should be intuitive observations, emotional vignettes, contemplations, and meditations on the essence of a moment or place, which can’t be scheduled daily. If it is, there’s a good chance the quality of writing will go way down… I think poetry is best written when the mood or inspiration comes to you. Therefore, I won’t do a daily haiku/image or even a daily poem project, ever again…

That said, I do take photographs daily, mostly on iPhone, but also quite often with instant or regular films, and digital cameras. Now, after observing a number of my friends doing some wonderful “one-photo-per-day” projects, I’ve decided to give it a try myself. My friends tell me it will evolve my creative vision significantly — we shall see!

My daily photography is a huge part of my life, functioning as a journal, a creative outlet, and a fun way to interact with family, friends, and clients. It is also a beautiful daily exercise for me, without which I would feel empty and uninspired. Since I’m shooting, capturing, and editing photographs every day anyway, I might as well post them, right?

As recommended by a friend, I’ll be using an app called Project365 to manage the “one-per-day” image and basic social posting part of the project. But here, on my photography blog, I’ve decided to also post other images from the day, which may or may not be related to the official image for the day. It’s actually pretty rare for me to take ONLY one image per day, as the sheer number of images (and their dates-of-capture) on my iPhone camera roll will attest!

So, here is day one of my photo project365. The official daily image is the header of this post, and here’s a slideshow gallery of some other images from January 1, 2022 — enjoy!