Monday, January 30, 2012

Projects for 2012

Ahh, a new year, new goals, new ideas. So full of optimism and eagerness. I wish I could say this is directed at an exercise plan or a decluttering strategy, but instead all this optimism is directed at undertaking several year-long photography/scrapbooking projects, not to mention several smaller ones too! Right now I am full of plans and inspiration, so I am testing the waters to decide which projects will work best for me.

I KNOW I could not manage a Project 365 (+1 for Leap Day), but I seem to have fallen into doing a photo-a-day project for January. I have done the month-long version in the past too, and like this as a way to capture the random everyday bits of our lives and give a summary of a month.

I am considering taking on Becky Higgins' Project Life, but seriously doubt my ability to stick with it. Since I don't print photos at home, it seems like that would be an especially difficult project to keep up with. However, Donna Januzzi introduced me to the "Document 2012" idea (which Shimelle Laine originated in 2010). This seems to be a bit like Project Life in a more manageable monthly format and smaller scale. I haven't ruled out Project Life, and in fact, I have been saving paper bits and jotting notes to use in some sort of project like this. I plan to print my January photos and do a sort of practice run of Project Life, then decide from there how to continue for the year.

I love Rebecca Cooper's Simple Things weekly photo challenge -- just a reminder to stop and consider a simple moment of the week and document it. If I do this weekly, I think it would make a nice little album to have 52 Simple Things at the end of the year.

In a similar vein, I have joined the 52 Photos in 52 Weeks Flickr group and completed Weeks 1 and 2. In this challenge, Monika Wright and Lisa Ottosson give a theme word for the photo of the week. Again, this would make a nice collection at the end of the year, although in week 3 I was already a bit stumped with the theme "community." I had a few ideas, but several of them were not ones I wanted to make available on the internet. I haven't given up on this one, but I can see it will be a challenge.

Ella Publishing is running the "Take 12" challenge -- take 12 photos on the 12th of each month (it's okay if you end up doing the 13th or 20th or whatever). I did this challenge this month too, and already am finding myself thinking about ideas for next month.

Last year, I took a family photo on the 11th of each month (in 2011), and while that album is not completed (big surprise, right?), I like looking back at the photos and plan to do this again, just moving our family photo day to the 12th. So this actually fits nicely with the "Take 12" project.

So far, I am "doing" all of these projects/challenges, and using January as a trial month. At the end of the month, I can look back and see what did or did not work, and decide how I want to continue. I love the feeling of having plans for projects, but I want to love the feeling of completing projects too, without being disappointed in myself.

What are you working on in 2012?

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