100. One Hundred. C. Cien. Hundra. Mia moja. Hundre. Šimtas. Un centinaio. Céad. Εκατό. Hundert. Isang daang. Yüz. Njëqind. 1100100.
Yep, no matter how I say is, 100 days of photos is a lot of days. True, I still have 265 days to go, but I honestly think the first 100 were the “hardest” and I think these remaining 265 will, at least in theory, be easier. Though-out these first 100 days, there have been many o’ times I have thought about stopping or just doing 1-2 pictures a week. But, I made myself take a picture everyday – true some of them were pretty bad, but some of them turned out pretty good as well.
While posting these pictures, I kept asking myself: Why am I doing this!? At first, I thought: Because I am a sick, sick person! Now, while this is true, over the 100 days I’ve learned it’s more to it than that. First, I learned that I don’t know nearly as much as I thought I did about taking pictures! Now, this isn’t necessary a bad thing, quite the opposite, it just means that I still have a lot to learn. But, I am enjoying learning it. I’m still struggling with some technical aspects of photography, such as proper lighting and portraiture. Hopefully, over the next 265 days I’ll be able to expand in my knowledge of those areas. Included with this “learning” theory, is that I really wanted to learn how to use Photoshop with more confidence. I think that any truly professional photographer needs to master Photoshop to be competitive in today’s “art” marketplace. (Not that I’m saying I’m anywhere near professional – but every road has to start somewhere!)
Secondly, I enjoy all of the projects and ideas that have come from this project. Many of my shots were staged (aka: I purposely setup the environment of what I wanted to shoot and tried to control as many of the factors as I could), and I don’t think I ever would have taken some of those pictures if I wasn’t motive to work every day on something. Some of the “theme” weeks included: Games, Science, Santa Cruz, and this weeks, Spices! I have more theme-related ideas for the future that I think will be interesting as well.
Third, I wanted a place I could write a little bit. I enjoy writing, but normally “blogs” are either a) political, b) religious or c) egotistical. Now, I’m not really into having giant internet-based fights about politics or religion (I’m not going to say anything about the ego one), so I gave some thought to what I would like to writing little ‘blurbs’ about, and I thought – coins or art… I think coins would have scared folks too much (my geek level is high when it comes to coins). So, art it was! Now, true, so far all I’ve really done related to art is photography, but you never know what’s to come! (Ok, more photos are what’s to come, but I could throw other things in too!)
Lastly, I just wanted a place to show my work, be it for friends, other artist, or just the random “internet viewer”. Now, as of the 100th photo, I don’t exactly have a ‘cult following’, but I do have a nice group of folks who look at the site at least once or twice a week. A few of you crazy folks actually read it daily! Scary! Honestly, I’m not really sure who is actually reading this thing. I know a couple of folks are (because they are uber-cool and comment! Woo!). But, for all I know, everyone else is a random SpamBot looking to send me emails about my Uncle in Lithuania who just found 45 million dollars in un-recycled soda cans and all he needs from me is a rock and a bank account. Still, for those few of you who are real (ish), thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy the next 265 days.
I also encourage any of you to start you own “Project 365”, be it photography, short stories, Haiku’s about Spam, or anything really. I’d love to see it!
Enjoy!
Anthony
Ps: This was also a double-bonus nifty week, because not only is this my 100th photo, but my FLICKR site got its 10,000 view today. Crazy.
Some Interesting Facts about AntTree Blog (up to Day 100):
Total Viewers: 2462
Top Countries of Viewers: US, Canada, Germany, Russia, UK, Denmark, France, and… Latvia (woo!)
How Folks Find The Sight: Facebook (1st), Bogger Website (2nd), AntTree.org Home (3rd), and AntTree_Art Twitter (4th)
Most Viewed Photos:
Day 1 – Fireworks
Day 42 – Wave Crash
Day 28 – Kite Festival
Day 12 – Meeting Morimoto
Day 35 – Scrapbooker’s Dazzle
Prints Made – 2 (Thanks to those two folks – I’m still stunned someone would want to hang my work, but I very much appreciate it.)
Thank You Anthony for Blogging! Your wit, humor, banter, and art are enjoyable and refreshing!
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