Daily Shot

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog

Like this tulip, lingering languidly long after its prime, I am giving up the 473 day photo string of participating in the Daily Shoot. After 15 months of being faithful, I am giving it a rest.

Part of it is just not feeling the drive or stretch to complete the assignments, which, frankly is making me feel hypocritical considering I have been using it as an example of successful informal learning. But like others, I am feeling a bit of weariness with the repetition of recent assignments:

• April 24, 2011, #524″ “Make a photograph that features the horizon”
• March 27, 2011, #497: “The horizon can be a strong composition element. Make a photograph that emphasizes the horizon today.”
• and at least twice more in the older history

Or:

• April 21, 2011, #522: “Make a photograph that features water today.”
• March 9, 2011, #497: Make a photograph that features water in one way or another today.
• Also used for number 9, number 51, and number 293….

And I am contradicting my own post from last month, where I suggested the repeats were really best seen as a reason to ratchet up the creativity, even take it in an opposite direction:

Keep in mind that just because YOU did the assignment once, does not mean some new person has. Keep in mind that you can interpret the assignment in a radically different way. It is a challenge, right?

I urged people to take action, if they don’t like the assignments, to submit some new ones. In one day, I submitted 10, and noticed the id number of the returned URL was above 400. That says to me that a lot of people have submitted ideas.

But I can barely remember the last time I say a user submitted assignment come through the queue. Now, the folks running the site are busy, professional photographers, and perhaps, running this little sideline has become a chore. Yet, I feel they are making a social media mistake of not even responding to comments, tweets, more or less ignoring the participants. The last blog post was January 12, 2011. If they need help keeping the energy going, I think they ought to reach out to their activists.

While one hand it feels a bit childish to expect communication and feedback, there cannot help but be a sense of loss when a network you participate in ignores you. And at some point, people ignore shrug their shoulders and focus elsewhere.

cc licensed ( BY NC ND ) flickr photo shared by Jillian Corinne

I am quitting the dailyshoot, though it has been a powerful experience and example I fall back on as a key approach to motivation and learning- that we learn by doing, redoing, again and again. And I am going to still do photography on a daily basis, but will rely on my own inventiveness for the subjects.

Daily photography still is the creative obsession I hook into. Just going my own way with it.

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