 Today's post has a special significance for me because it is the 1,000th entry I am posting on Erudite Expressions. This photoblog began on April 24, 2006, and today - January 17, 2009 - marks exactly 1,000 days since the photoblog's inception (first entry). If you scroll through the photographs one by one, you'll find that there is one image posted for every day between April 24, 2006 and today (click here to see the date counter). Of course, there were times when I couldn't post an image for a given date, though I always made sure to come back and post an entry retroactively (such as when I was traveling and didn't have access to an internet connection; in those times, I would pick a candidate for the image of the day in my mind, and I would post that image the next time I would get access to the internet and my post-processing tools). I think the way I got to the 1,000th consecutive entry milestone is by taking it one day at a time. I made short-term goals on what and how I wanted to post when the photoblog began, and then I would adjust my goals after those short-term goals were achieved. For instance, initially I just wanted to see if I could post an image a day for a month. After achieving that milestone, my next goal became two months, then three months, then half a year, then a year, then two years, and finally, the latest goal was 1,000 posts. Having said that, I have no idea what my next goal should be. Another 1,000 entries? Maybe so, but I think I am leaning further and further away from daily posts. I think a more sensible goal is to post two to three times a week. What do you think? Part of the reason for my hesitancy to continue posting every day is that I've always opted for quality rather than quantity. And I think that while posting every day allows me to keep the momentum going, the downside of that reality is that sometimes I have to scramble to find something to post, and the result is a mediocre image of the day (that's to be expected occasionally I suppose). Additionally, as I mentioned in my first post of 2009 (click here to see it), one of the things I will try to do this year is to get more involved with photography which can generate some sort of income - shooting commissioned projects, weddings, events, portraits, and the like (let me know if you would like to help me out by hiring me or passing the word that I can do this kind of work). If this transition is successful, I think I would still be able to post interesting material on Erudite Expressions frequently (maybe every day). Otherwise, my long-term goals with regard to posting daily will necessarily change, as I will have re-focus a lot of the time I spend on photography (usually about two to three hours every single day) into a more sustainable goal (which at the moment is to try to find an internship in the financial industry for Summer 2009). I think my photography has definitely evolved since I began this project 1,000 days ago. If I take a look at some of the images I posted in 2006, I often think they should go in the trash pile. However, I know that at the time I had a good reason to post those images; in a sense, those images showcase the evolution of my selection criteria on what constitutes an image worth posting as the image of the day. As far as today's entry goes: it is a collage I created of 500 of my images; I tried to create a good balance of images I posted in 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009. I've posted a collage before on Erudite Expressions, which I created manually in Photoshop. This time, thanks to a suggestion by David of Chromasia, I tried to automate the process as much as possible: I imported my images into one folder (having pulled the images from three external hard drives), and then created the collage in Picasa. I first installed Picasa (still in beta mode) for my Macbook Pro, but when importing images, it crashed (the program crashes when importing TIFF images, of which I have plenty). Anyway, to make the long story short, I found a Windows computer and made the collage from there. The collage consists of 500 images (25 columns times 20 rows), which I first organized by date; before hitting the create button, however, I shuffled the images (so that the images in the collage appear to be arranged randomly). If you are interested, I have uploaded a larger version (3,000 pixels wide) of the collage, which you may find here. Let me know if you spot any duplicate images in the collage; I went through it a few times before posting, but I might have overlooked something. Question: do your eye wander to any particular image (or images) in the collage? I've also opted to include the images of portraits I've shot over the years; if you see a picture of yourself in the collage, let me know by leaving a comment or sending me an email. More about the collage...Some are wondering why I didn't try to put all the images I ever posted on Erudite Expressions in this collage. A few reasons for that. First, not all of the 1,000 entries I have posted on Erudite Expressions are images; at least one entry is a collage, and at least one image appears to be blank (can you find it in the archives?). Second, through the last two years, eights months, and twenty five days (corresponding to 1,000 days), I must have acquired something like five or six external hard drives where I have been saving my images; it was already hard enough trying to compile 500 images into the collage, much less finding every single image I've ever posted. Finally, if I tried to make the collage out of 1,000 images, it would be too small to see anything at the resolution I post. Indeed, you may find that this collage, at just 800x500 pixels, is hard on the eyes. So, I recommend you check out the larger version of the collage; click here to see it! I'd like to thank all of you who have visited Erudite Expressions over the last few days, weeks, months, or even years. Thanks to all of you new visitors and those of you who come back frequently to see what I have posted. If you made it reading this far, I have an announcement: to commemorate the 1,000th post, I am giving away (i.e., for free) two 10 inch by 15 inch metallic prints (of your choice) to two lucky individuals (valued at $50). I've thought about how I could organize the give-away, and I decided for the following: if you have facebook, become a fan of me on facebook between now and January 27, 2009, and I will enter you into the contest. Here is the link to my page. The reason I am using facebook is because 1) most everyone I know uses it (if you aren't on it, give it a try), 2) it is very convenient and, 3) there is one-to-one correspondence between name and identity (i.e., if I opted to ask for people's e-mail addresses, it could lead to spamming and/or multiple entries by the same individual). So, to summarize: become a fan of me by January 27, 2009; I'll then write everyone's name who has entered the contest on a piece of paper (if you are already a fan, just send me a message that you saw this post and I'll enter you into the contest also), put them in a hat, and draw out two names (without replacement). If your name gets drawn, I'll contact you on facebook, ask for your mailing address, and ship out the print to you! I'll ship the prints anywhere in the world this time, so what are you waiting for? P.S. I might edit this post with more information regarding which photos you see in the collage and more of my thoughts regarding the 1,000th post in the next few hours or days. |
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