The 365 Day Photo Challenge By Elijah Fisher

The 365 Day Photo Challenge

365 days. A whole year. Some of you may have heard of the 365 Day Photo Challenge. If not, I’ll explain. It is exactly what it sounds like; you take a photograph a day for 365 days. Some people do it for longer, other people for less, and others with different variations. We will get into some variations a little bit later. The entire point of this challenge is to develop your photography skills. A better way to think of it is as an exercise where there are multiple ways it can help develop your skill. One way it can help you is with building proficiency with your chosen camera. Or it can help you develop a habit of taking pictures. When you go further, it can help you choose to target different areas of your photography where you want to improve quality. It can target both quantity and quality, depending on the way you use the challenge.

In 2018, I chose to do the photo challenge. In full disclosure, I did not finish; when I started my fall semester in college I ended up quitting. In October I ended up not posting frequently enough as per my restrictions on the challenge and that 12 Written by Elijah Fisher Photos by Elijah Fisher

led to me feeling discouraged and quitting about the beginning of December. I still feel that I had a whole lot of experience gained from the challenge in all areas of photography and all the areas that I mentioned you can gain skills from the challenge.

First of all, I would say it gets you into the routine of using your camera. It helps you develop a habit of looking for photographs and seeing what people and environments around you are photogenic and photographic. This is one of the ways that I improved the most during my year.

Secondly, I would say you become much more competent and familiar with the equipment that you are using. It is always fun to know your camera and be able to get a shot quicker because you understand your dials and how they relate to the science behind photography. This does not just apply to having a physical camera; you can learn the controls on your phone a lot better by taking a bunch of pictures over and over again. You might say that you take plenty of pictures on your phone already, but it is different when you are try

ing to take professional quality photographic content. You learn to relate the controls better to the exposure triangle, and other theory based algorithms, as you are taking pictures rather than just snapping a picture or changing your exposure a little bit. You become much more aware of the controls behind your camera.

Giles Hooper, a frre-lance photographer for 25 years and Lead Photographer for Grace Family Church, said, “Once you learn manual on your camera you open up a lot of new possibilities. You are able to dial-in to exactly what you want to see and know what the camera thinks you want to see.“

Once you start the challenge you will see exactly how this plays into your photography. I can guarantee you will see a difference in the way that you use your equipment, whether it be a DSLR, a mirrorless, or a phone. The first month will feel extremely monotonous and tedious, and you will probably be up late finishing your pictures. But you will see improvement as you go. It will not seem as tedious and you will be able to see a lot of different opportunities for photographs around you. Something that did not seem photo worthy before will be seen with a different perspective and you will be able to find a good way to use it as a photo of the day. Being able to look at something and see it in a different light shows that you are changing your perspective on what can be photographed. This helps later on when you are taking pictures professionally and you are, say, taking a picture of a group of people and you are able to see an interesting background. You will be able to see different backgrounds in different ways once you practice using your eye to see different angles and perspectives.

Another very important perspective of the challenge is to post your pictures somewhere publicly. This might seem like an interesting thought, but it really makes sense when you think about it.

“It’s the act of continually posting photos that gives you enough push to put quality and commitment into your pictures,” says Corey Pate, a Flickr photographer.

You are committing to take a picture a day for a year, so it makes sense that you would be able to have an incentive for taking the pictures. Posting them somewhere really helps to make the challenge more valuable. Not only does it help enforce that you need to post everyday, but it also gives you an incentive to have good, quality photographs. You do not have to post to your main social media account; I posted to Flickr where only a few people followed me and I was able to post in relative privacy. The difference is that they were public pictures and I got other photographers to like my photographs, and some even followed me because I was taking the challenge. Find communities that help support you in your 365 Day Challenge. On Flickr there are many groups that have 365 Day Challenges that you can join and post your pictures to and see other people’s challenges as well. This is a great way to get the most out of shooting the 365 Day Challenge.

Overall, I feel that the challenge, in general, is designed to stretch you as a photographer. Doing it properly will boost you in a very good way, even though, at times, it can get somewhat stressful. On that note, you should always remember that it is just a challenge and you can miss a day or two, or even more, and not impact the challenge’s usefulness to you. It is a lot of fun to be able to say, at the end of the year, you took 365 photos in 365 days. Sadly, that is something that I cannot do, yet. Once I finish school I am probably going to try the challenge again, and this time try to complete it properly. I am looking forward to the time when I can do this because of the gains I saw in the photography while I took the challenge last year.

“Eli’s photography changed while he was doing the challenge in 2018,” said Mark Fisher, his father. “It’s neat seeing something make such an improvement to someone’s trade.”

I would say that I am the photographer I am now only because of the challenge and will be further behind in my ability if I do not challenge myself in the future.

Hopefully, some of this information has helped you. Maybe I have even convinced you to take the 365 Day Challenge. If so, do it right now because there is no better time to start. It is fun to start it on January 1st, but there is no reason to wait. If you choose to accept the challenge, hopefully, you will see gains in your photography as the year passes. Have fun shooting!