I made it! A year of taking a photo every day and posting it to Flickr is complete. I actually completed this great feat over a month ago already, but it’s taken me until now to even wrap my head around it and have a chance to process it all.

It was quite a year, indeed. An amazing year of discovery, learning about my camera and lighting and setting up a shot, meeting other (extremely talented) photographers, trying new tricks, over- and under-exposing, sharing my life, getting out of my comfort zone, seeing my kids in new ways, and, well, seeing everything in new ways, for that matter. What a year.

But I will let you in on a little secret. Taking a picture every day is not easy. I mean, sure, once you do something enough days in a row it becomes a habit. I was able to figure out how to make room for this project in my already crammed days. And I’m so glad I did. Because however much I did not want to finish out the year on some days, ultimately, I learned about practice and persistence and dedication. I learned about photography. I learned about myself. I wanted to quit many times. But here I am, with a photo of every day of the last very interesting and exciting year. I’m glad I never gave up on it.

But in doing this project, I also learned about balance, which is why I gave myself space to rest a while over the past month and a half. I’ve taken photos when I’ve had the chance, and even uploaded a few to Flickr. But I have given myself a break, too. I definitely needed that.

But now that I’ve taken a break, what’s next? Well, I have learned a thing or two about myself and my photography. I’ve learned that I need a challenge to keep me in active pursuit of improvement. I realized once I was done with my Year In Pictures, that I could easily set the camera down and walk away. But lately my trigger finger has begun to itch. And I’m ready to jump back in. I’m not ready to jump in for a whole year— I’ll be taking baby steps back in. How about we start with a whole month of pictures? It’s a challenge we’ve taken on for several years here at Digital Photography Blogs. March has always been the month when several of us have committed to do a Photo A Day project. And I’m up for the challenge again this year. But it definitely won’t be fun to do it alone. Anyone want to join in? If you’re thinking about taking on the challenge of a photo a day for the month of March, leave us a comment and let us know where we can follow you! I’ll be posting regularly here on the blog with some of my daily captures.