I'm done.

I never thought I would utter those words.  But that day has come.

I'm sure my kids will be relieved as my hobby was consuming a lot of their time.

I know my husband will appreciate having my undivided attention each evening.

I wasn't sure how I would feel on this day, knowing that I was closing a chapter of my life.  But it feels very good.

I've spent some time looking back tonight and there are many things I am proud of.  Others not quite as much.

But.  I tried my best and now I am done.  Done!

Some people have asked me, "Would you do it again?"  Not anytime soon.

Others asked, "What's next for you?"  A lot of rest.

You see on Jan 6th, 2009 I started my 365 project (taking one photo a day for one year) because I was inspired by her who had just started her own.  I thought, "I could do that too!  It would force me to connect with my camera."  And it did.  I took my camera out of PROGRAM mode and was amazed at what I could do.  More so, and more importantly, the project taught me to really appreciate the simple things in life through observation.  There were many many many times that I stopped the minivan, evacuated the kids, let them run free in an open field, observing them and taking each delicious minute in.  Bliss, I tell you.  Fleeting moments I would not have been able to devour unless motivated to capture something on film.

I took one-hundred of my most favorite photos from the year and created a 12 by 12, soft padded cover, 100-paged book on Shutterfly.  It was the most expensive book I have ever purchased.  But who can put a price on bliss?

Cover photo taken by Heather.

All 365 photos are here.

My advice to anyone thinking about starting a similar project:

1.  Do not give up. I took a photo when my corneas had herpes, under heavy medication.  But, I did it.  Here's the photo.  If my eyes were on fire and I was screaming bloody murder and I took a photo.... chances are you can too.

2.  Carry your camera everywhere.  Keep it in your car.  I got many awesome photos from pulling the car over and hopping out.

3.  Don't think too hard. Just capture everyday moments.

4.  Relax. Watch your subject, enjoy, breath and lay down to capture some amazing shots at ground level. Some of my most favorite shots happened when I was completely relaxed.

5.  Quantity.  We live in a digital age where you don't have to pay for each photo, which results in many more frames.  You can delete.  And delete I did.  Some days I took upwards of 100 frames in exchange for one good one and deleted the rest.

6.  Edit. There are many free editing website like Picnik online.  If you have Photoshop you can download free actions from sites like The Pioneer Woman or purchase some incredible actions from a professional commercial photographer like Rachel Devine.  I used both, frequently.

7.  Crop.  About a quarter of my photos have been cropped.  I was not in love with this photo SOC (straight out of camera):

But with a decent crop job, sharpening and some color enhancements in photoshop the end product looked like this:

Incredible for an amateur photographer, no?

8.  Organize. Label each one of your photos 1, 2, 3 until 365 on your hard-drive and each night upload to your website (such as shutterfly, flickr, kodak, etc...).

9.  Motivate. Let your all of your friends and family know about your project to keep you motivated.  I am forever grateful for the handful of people on twitter, facebook and flickr that left me comments.  Thank you all.

10.  Do not give up.

I started this project hoping that my photography would improve.  It did.  I ended the project realizing that I created many random moments of laughter that would not have otherwise happened.  And now my father can't say "You never finish anything you start."  Boo-yah.  Three hundred and sixty-five photos!  Tis the end of my personal challenge of taking one photo a day.