For quite some time now i’ve been wanting to do a Photo a Day project. I’ve now decided that 2018 will be the year! How exciting. Though I am trying not to underestimate what an undertaking this will be in terms of commitment…

To make things a little easier on myself there won’t be any hard and fast rules apart from the daily photo will be taken with my mobile phone (an iPhone 6 a great phone and very good camera, i’ve had mine since 2015 but they are not available new any more sadly but available fully refurbished from Amazon). I’ve decided to go with my mobile as a means of taking my daily photos as I always have it with me, I don’t want to have to be constantly carrying around bulky camera equipment.

I’ve decided on weekly theme’s to give me some purpose as I go along – I thought that this would help with motivation. I’m also hoping that I can experiment with digital image-making as I go along – perhaps trying out techniques for bigger works.

I’m going to have 13 weekly themes – enough for a quarter of the year. Each set of 13 themes will then get repeated.

I have also decided that I would like a “physical” element to this project so I will also be printing out each daily photo using my Instax SP-2 printer that I bought earlier this month. This prints out from an app on my iPhone or iPad, it doesn’t use ink but uses special paper that is exposed much in the way that the old Polaroid film was. The paper is quite small, approx 85mm x 55mm with a photo area of approx 62mm x 45mm. I’ve been quite happy with the print quality so far, perhaps a little contrasty but I think it’ll be ideal for my project.

All of the prints will be popped into my sketchbook along with a little writing about my day. By my reckoning I will need two sketchbook (see below for the type I will be using). When Jane and I have our exhibition in May 2018 I will be five months into the project and will leave the book on our display table for visitors to have a look through.

See more information about the products I will be using and also to buy on Amazon UK:-

Instax Share SP2 Printer

(note that there is now also a newer model out, the Instax Share SP-3 Printer)

Fujifilm Instax Mini Film – 20 shots

though for my project I have now bought the Fujifilm Instax Mini Film – 100 shots pack to get me started.

The sketchbook I will be using for my journal is the square, black Seawhite 140mm x 140mm 140gsm artist’s sketchbook I have bought two of these and using a page a day I reckon each one should last me 6 months.