I’ve tried this type of challenge before, both the project 52 and the project 365 without success. I find the project 365 (one image a day for an entire year) to be too much pressure and too time consuming. The last attempt I tried at a project 52, I did alone, and it fell apart after the first week.

The idea of these projects or challenges is to improve your photography. To get you into the habit of picking up your camera regularly and creating something. The problem with a 365 project is time. As I’m not a full-time photographer and have a day job, I just don’t have free time every day. I soon found myself roaming the house at 11pm, desperately looking for something to make an interesting image. In the end, you just end up churning out rubbish just to put a tick in the box for that day. This doesn’t improve your photography at all and often puts you off photography altogether.

A project 52 is much less time consuming and more manageable. There is less pressure and more time to plan and schedule in the required time to make a good image.

My last attempt at a project 52 was back in 2019. Over the Christmas period I took some time and picked out 52 themes using the lightbox photography cards and created and shared a public google calendar containing all the themes. My attempt lasted one week. Looking back on that attempt, I think one of the major reasons I failed (or gave up if you like) was the lack of accountability or support. It was just me.

I know there are several communities out there on the interwebs that do challenges like the project 365 or the project 52, but most of them are people or organisations trying to build an audience and populated by people needing attention. Most of the people using those platforms are trying to get their art out there, more interested in getting attention than interacting with anyone else.

I joined the Nicolesy community about seven months ago when she started it up on the Mighty Networks platform. I have been a customer/follower of Nicole since 2015 when I purchased my first batch of presets for lightroom, and I’ve purchased several e-books since then. When I joined, I was hoping for a more interactive community lead by someone who loves to educate and inspire. So far it feels like a good space, plenty of interaction and all positive. I’m hoping that this community provides me the motivation, support, and advice to complete the 52-photo challenge and in the process advance my photography.

If you want to know more about Nicole you can check out her website and blog, or if you want to join the community you can do so here.

Thanks for stopping by, have a good one.