…like so many things in my creative life I have a kind of love-hate relationship with the daily photo. I love how the photos capture everyday life and show – in daily detail – what changes and what doesn’t, what I love most about this life, especially the people (and the dogs!), the places, the seasons. But I hate the days when everyday life is just too everyday…those days I struggle for inspiration to document even a single glimpse of anything.
Last December, after two years and two months of relying on my own inspiration for a daily photo, I decided to follow someone else’s. Except for the day of and day after Katie’s wedding, I took and posted an #fmsdailyphoto on Instagram every day this year, up to last Thursday. That’s 302 daily photos. Back in August, I started “collecting” them.
Seeing the photos altogether tells a story (yes there’s knitting, and Holly and summer…changing to fall), but I’m not sure it’s really the story I want to spend my time telling, at least not right now. I certainly appreciated those daily prompts; most were fun, some were challenging, and a few were downright weird. Honestly, it was the October 17 prompt which made me re-think the whole thing. The prompt was “first world problem”. My unimaginative response was a black and white photo of microwave popcorn (partially popped…) Yep.
It inspired me to take a different approach. I’m only five days into it, but I usually find that sharing something here is a good start to a new habit! On Instagram, I’m sharing a daily #fromwhereIstand photo; those are all taken with my iPhone.
The Instagram community continues to be a wonderful source of inspiration; I’ve added dozens of new contacts and have enjoyed getting more comments on my own photos. But it’s made me use my phone camera way more than my DSLR, and I’m missing it. (Yes, I’ve said that here before). So I’m challenging myself to take a second daily photo with that camera. Those I’m
sharing on Flickr. (that’s right Mom, I’m putting photos on Flickr again!) It’s been a long time since I’ve been part of the Flickr community – I’m curious if it still exists, or if Instagram (or Tumblr, or Twitter, or some other platform I haven’t even heard of?!?) has taken its place. We’ll see.
I know a few of you take daily photos; how do you make it work?
As always, thank you for reading! (and my username is mere2007 on both Instagram and Flickr; if you’re reading my blog you probably already know that, but just in case… I’d love to be friends there, too).
mere-et-filles 
I am not disciplined enough to take daily photos. Maybe when (if) I get a smart phone I'll consider it. I love seeing pictures of Holly.
I've taken daily photos since, geeez, 2010. I use the fms prompts when I'm stumped but most of the time I manage to come up with something. I take my camera with me to work a lot and that helps, too.
Mary, you'll never know how much inspiration you've given me. Especially with journaling – which I will get back to in 2014 and Instagram. I'm on my way over to follow you on Flickr if I don't already. I've actually taken a few pictures with the camera myself the last couple of days! Keep on keepin' on…no matter what it's always great!
i'm enjoying the "where i stand" prompt, and i love how collect reminds me to take my photo for the day. there are many days that i feel uninspired-same day, same spot, same stuff. i also think that it's TOTALLY okay too.
I take photos pretty much daily – with either my phone or my trusty Canon. One year, I even did the Photo 365 thing in a serious way. For me, though, I find the "formal" nature of the prompts too stifling, although I know for others they work like a charm!Your photos are lovely and inspirational. They make a wonderful photo journal, and I thank you for sharing — both the photos and your process!