A creative experiment.

(PAW2009 01/52)

One of my not-a-resolutions was to take more photos this year. Knowing that were I to attempt a Photo365 I would be dooming myself to embarrassing failure, I’ve decided to opt for the slightly less intensive challenge of a photo every week — or PAW.

My plan is this: every Monday I will post a photograph with a little bit of commentary. The image may not have been made in the seven days up to its posting, but it will have been taken since 1 January 2009. This way I will encourage myself to keep taking photos, but will allow for the fact that I prefer to shoot film, and processing and scanning takes time. Hopefully there won’t be too many silly little snaps just to make my deadline; this requires planning and dedication.

Strangely, the most difficult part of the challenge isn’t to keep producing images. While I’ve posted a fair few photos here in the past, I tend to edit very closely and only post the images I’m absolutely the most pleased with. Pushing myself to not only take more pictures but to post more pictures means that, especially here at the start of the year, I’ll be posting some of what I’ve taken recently instead of waiting until I’ve made a picture that I really want to publish. Some might be pictures that I’m proud enough of that I’ll print and hang on my wall, but I expect that most won’t. Which is why I’ll be displaying them at smaller sizes than my irregular photoblog posts — click through to Flickr if you want to see them bigger. Small steps.

There are three principles motivating this approach:

• Spending more time with a camera in my hand is good and will lead to better images.
• Being too precious about what I like and show of my work is bad and stifles creativity by way of encouraging timidity.
• Sitting around waiting on some sort of creative impulse is a trap; better to just do it.

My first post in PAW2009 is the view yesterday afternoon, across Belfast Lough from Holywood, not long before sunset.