In the end...

...it was all rather different from the beginning.  The only time I really shared old photos was when I was ill in February and couldn't do anything much at all.  Aside from that I was pretty hard on myself and made sure I had a photo every day and posted one for every day even though I thought an awful lot of them were rubbish.  I didn't do very well at keeping up with posting a photo every day at times, particularly latterly.  I found that not only was taking pictures hard work, so was picking the best picture each day, and writing a post to go with it.  The project became more than just getting me taking more pictures, it was taking new and interesting pictures, looking at everything as a potential picture, making decisions and writing well enough for people to understand what I had to say about the picture.  I think I knew I was going to be challenging my decision making skills.  They have always been ropey.  But I don't think it ever occurred to me that I would be challenging my ability to write.

I feel a little lost now the project is over.  I grew to hate it in so many ways.  The constant pressure was very unpleasant.  The feeling that you were posting horrible pictures purely because you needed something for that day.  Always having to remember to have at least one camera, if not two, charged and with space on their SD cards.  The decision making involved in picking a photo from the day and cropping it appropriately if it needed it.  Most days it was hard enough to get a photo, let alone find something to write about it.  And yet I felt that I had to write something, and it was better if I looked at the photo and analysed it, or at least talked about the day I had getting it so there was some depth and interest to the photo.  It might not seem much to a lot of people but this was pretty epic to me and the mess I got myself in towards the end was horrifying - I'm not sure I will ever know how I managed to pick myself up and finish the blog on time.

In a strange way I miss the project too.  I think it might mostly be the achievement I miss.  There is no way I miss the pressure and I won't put that upon myself again.  But I do miss taking new and exciting photos.  I'm glad that everywhere I look I see cool things that I think would make interesting or exciting photos.  I think I have had that for a long time but it's there even more so now.  It does mean I ache slightly inside when I don't have a camera with me and/or can't capture what I see, but I think it's worth it.  I think my technical competence might be improving slightly.  And finishing a blog post to my standards and being happy with it was very satisfying.

For the past month I have done very little photography and it doesn't feel particularly good.  Certainly, I think I needed a break and I haven't been that many places with stunning photo opportunities or excellent conditions.  There has been a visit to the zoo which I should really choose a photo from and post.  But there is now the notion that I want to do more than just photography.  The project pushed everything aside and became all encompassing.  I have other projects I have been meaning to work on so, perhaps now, the blog can become a project of projects.  I enjoyed documenting the building of the scale model of RR-1 and with any luck there will be more to document.  So I intend to keep the blog and to reinvent it slightly.  Whether it works will be another matter.  But lets see how it goes.