A Lumia Photo diary: 1000 days of images
Whether you’re a professional photographer or an amateur, keeping a photo diary is a great way of keeping a visual record of your life – and learning about picture-taking.
With a Lumia smartphone with you all the time, it’s easier than ever to capture and share all the beautiful things and moments you encounter every day.
My new colleague from Microsoft, Whitney Cubbison, has been keeping a “Photo-a-Day” diary for more than 1000 days. She started taking and making photos with a Lumia 800, then switched to Lumia 820 and recently she was given a Lumia 1020 – the fabulous one – as she likes to call it.
Each day, she posts to a special album on her Facebook page.
“I’ve never been anything other than an amateur photographer. I’ve always loved taking pictures. Once I got the Nokia phone, I was taking possibly more than I used to, but I’ve always really been a documenter of things, ” Whitney says.
There are many reasons why you may want to start a photo diary. It could be about documenting all the little special things and moments in your life that may otherwise be forgotten, or capturing all things your favorite color you come across.
For Whitney the original inspiration to start her “Photo a Day” journey came from a friend who had been doing it for a while, documenting Paris. Whitney was also going through some difficult times in her personal life, so starting a photo diary gave her something else to think about.
“I really started to do it because my marriage was falling apart…I was living in the most beautiful city on earth and I thought it would be a great way for me to force myself to focus on the beauty of the every day,” she said.
“I was taking pictures of the small things in Paris. The little details of the city that I just wanted to take the time to notice and appreciate and be happy about, despite things not going that well in my personal life,” said Whitney.
“It really quickly became something very positive. I got a lot of feedback from my Facebook friends who were really enjoying the photos. I even had Parisians say they were actually looking at Paris differently because of the way I photographed it. That felt nice,” she continued.
Your photo diary can have as many or as few rules you wish. You can post only once a week, post at a specific hour of the day or only post pictures about dogs. You set the rules!
For Whitney it was quite simple.
“My rule is one photo every day and it supposed to be about something beautiful. At the beginning I was very religious about never including people. I wanted it to be about things. Since then I’ve broken the rules on that a few times.”
“I also always wait until the end of the day before posting to see what I’ve captured, unless there is this killer image and I know I’m not going to get anything better that day,” she continued.
“Very soon after you’ve started your photo diary, you’ll notice that you start looking at things and the world differently as you’re always on the lookout for that daily shot. You observe more, but you also remember those days and moments better.
“I can click back through these three years worth of photos and remember almost every day. I can remember where I was, who I was with and what I was doing. It has become like a diary of the last three years of my life,” Whitney says.
When I asked Whitney about how long she will keep going with her “Photo-a -Day” project, she simply said:
“Until I don’t.”
Are you keeping a photo diary? Do you have any tips you’d like to share? Let us know in the comments.