In the moment - a new project for 2024

Since I finished my decade-long 365 project I’ve enjoyed the freedom to broaden my photographic horizons without the need to publish new photos all the time. My interest in film photography, for instance, was never really compatible with the fast turnaround required for sharing a new image every day and shooting at a slower pace has allowed me space to create bodies of work from the places I visit.

When I was shooting every day I constantly observed the world as a photographer, viewing even the most mundane objects and scenes as potential photos and I’ve realised recently I’ve got out of this habit. To reactivate my inner ‘always on’ photographer I’ve decided to revive my 365 project for 2024, but with a twist. Each day I will share an image here of something that’s piqued my interest and inspired me. It may be an awe inspiring landscape, a beautiful building or perhaps just the way the light falls on an everyday object - I come to this with no preconceived ideas.

Taking stock - July 2024

Having kept a 365 project going for ten whole years between 2008 and 2018 I imagined I’d slip easily back into old habits for 2024 and my fresh 365. How wrong I was! Yes, I’ve kept my eyes open for imagery around me and have enjoyed doing so, but it’s proved harder than I imagined. Since 2018 my working life has changed a lot. Yes, I still spend a lot of time on the road, but when I’m not travelling a lot more of my working time is spent at home, creating educational resources for my fellow musicians and preparing for future events. That means there are many days when I don’t travel far from our home and that’s left me feeling less inspired to take my daily photos. What I have done instead is focus more on projects and bodies of work from places I’ve visited and I’m finding that more motivational for my photography rather than seeking out single photos.

I’ve reluctantly decided to call time on my 365 after six months and instead focus more on these larger bodies of work. Yes, no doubt I’ll still take one off photos when inspiration strikes, but perhaps these could become a body of work in themselves at some point in the future. In recent weeks my interest in film photography has been further reawakened too. By its very nature this is a slower process (it takes a few days to finish a roll of film, develop it and scan the negatives) and doesn’t really fit with the 365 concept. I don’t want to shoehorn this into the small spaces left beyond my work and travel so that’s another reason to close my 365 project now. I’m not saying I’ll never do this again, but it doesn’t really fit my photographic or working life right now so it seems the right thing to do. For now though, my Photoblog is the place to see my latest photography and I have a number of posts coming up in the next couple of weeks with images from my travels - I hope you’ll join me there!

June 2024

May 2024

April 2024

April was a better month - 22 out of a possible 30 images created, helped by lots more travel and slightly more inspiring light! I’m still finding it hard to motivate myself to find images on the days when I’m working at home, but as May will include lots more travel that should be less of a problem. My aim for this project was to find unexpected scenes which inspire me, and that’s still a work in progress. I tend to instinctively think in terms of creating bodies of work - for instance a collection of images from a single location which tells a story. With this project it’s more a case of looking for standout individual photos, keeping my photographic eye switched on and alert at all times. I’ve had a few of those in April and hope my continued efforts will help open my eyes to more possibilities.

March 2024

Rain, rain, go away! So much for my plans to take photos more consistently in March, but it’s been very hard to feel inspired when the days have been so wet and the skies so leaden. Still, I’ve fulfilled half the days this month and my photos have been a mixture of events and places I’ve visited, plus some spur of the moment, “Ooh look at that!” moments. The coming month will include more travel and some planned days out for photography (part of my plan to take most of April as a sabbatical from work) and hopefully the longer days will bring more illumination too. Fingers crossed!

February 2024

February has proved to be a challenge. I managed to shoot something for 22 of the 29 days, but the endless dank, grey weather hasn’t inspired me and I’ve had lots of days spent working quietly at home which have stopped me getting out anywhere interesting. But it hasn’t all been bad. A brief foray into London gave me inspiration for a new personal project - railway ghosts and I’m looking forward to exploring the possibilities of using more movement in my photos. Hopefully March will bring more beautiful light than February and as I travel more for work I’ll have fresh scenes to photograph so perhaps I’ll manage a photo every day next month!

January 2024

As we come towards the end of January I thought I’d take a moment to look back on my first month of this project.

Has it got me looking at the world with fresh eyes - definitely! I’m getting back into the habit of looking for beauty in the mundane sights around me, whether that’s when I’m travelling for work or just taking my daily walk around our village. I’m enjoying the process and, as I suspected, quite a lot of these photos come from my phone rather than from a ‘proper’ camera. Phone cameras are so capable these days that frankly I don’t think it matters what gear I use and I’m certainly don’t think it’s necessary to say what I used to take a given photo - you can take a guess if you wish!

Have I kept up my 365 project as planned? Sadly not! I honestly thought I’d easily slip back into the habit of daily shooting, but my working life has changed a lot since I last did this in 2018 and some days a photo just hasn’t come my way for one reason or another. That said, I kept up a 365 project without missing a day for a whole decade, so I figure I don’t really have anything to prove on that count! My plan is to be more aware as I go about my life and just see what happens. I suspect I’ll end up taking a photo on most but not all days each month and I’m ok with that. Every time I have a new image to share I’ll pop it in the monthly gallery here, as well as posting to my in.the.moment365 Instagram account so you’re welcome to follow along and comment if you’d like to. As winter turns to spring I have more travel planned for work, so no doubt that will bring me fresh inspiration so there will be plenty more beautifully mundane photos to come!

28 January 2024

Some ‘in the moment’ photos from 2023

2023 has seen me taking more photos with my iPhone, largely triggered by my experience of teaching a smartphone photography workshop in the spring. For years I’ve tended to carry a ‘proper’ camera with me much of the time, but my phone’s pocketability means it’s always with me and has led me to grab spontaneous images I might otherwise have dismissed. I have no restrictions on what I shoot with for this new project - I’m working on the basis that the best camera is the one you have with you.

I’ll create a gallery for each month of 2024, but to start off, here are a dozen images I’ve taken through 2023 which fall into this spontaneous, ‘in the moment’ category to get things started. You can also follow the progress of my project over on Instagram here. My Instagram posts will include more information about my picture of the day if you’re interested in learning what drew me to my subject.