Thousands of stories in 365 photos

It was Dec. 3, 2009, the night of Elon's Luminarias, my favorite annual tradition at Elon when the campus becomes even more magical than usual as it is covered in lights for the holidays. That night, I took my first photo for "A thousand a day..."

It has been a whole year since I started the "thousand a day" photo project with my friend David. The morning of the Luminarias, David and I were sitting in the Pendulum office - at the computers in the center of the room, if I remember correctly - and he pitched an idea for a photo project. We would set out to take a photo every single day for a year. A picture's worth a thousand words, and we wanted 365,000 of them. Here is my very first "thousand a day" post. And this was the first photo I took that night:

I came to the bittersweet realization that our "thousand a day" project was coming to an end as soon as December hit. I remembered the reason David wanted to start the project and the reason behind the name. We wanted to take photos for us - not for the school paper, not for classes, not for work. These photos would be taken purely for ourselves, so we might start to see the little details in things and people we encounter every day. I quickly learned the reasoning was not selfish - we wanted to share the photos with one another, with our families, with our friends. And when I think about that, I also know the reason why I was able to stick to this project. I didn't want to let those people down. Any time I'd post my photos, I'd always check David's and a few of our other friends who tried the project with us. When I saw their photos, it was a comfort knowing I was not alone in the project. I had people to cheer on and they were there to cheer me on.

Finding a thousand words in one day to share with others was not hard. Every day has its mini stories, its big events, its exciting moments and its own adventures. Some days were far more telling than others and the challenge was greater on those days. I remember thinking to myself a few times, "Here I sit, it's 11 p.m. and I still haven't taken a photo of the day. Now what?" I was disappointed with myself for thinking it and then I'd manage to find some trinket lying around my home to photograph in a new light, a fun angle.

And then I would have a month in Japan, a photo adventure in an abandoned house in Gibsonville, NC, or 24 hours at a dance marathon. It's those days I would look forward to most because I knew I would take hundreds of photos from which to choose. I live for adventures like those, the ones that scream, "Photograph the heck out of me!" And I live to share moments like those with my friends and family.

Whether we continue the project or not, I know we had a wonderful journey. Photography was always on my mind. I was constantly thinking in terms of framing, angles, lighting, a camera setting I had not tried yet. I have always seen and appreciated the little things in life, but this project encouraged me to share that beauty. So, thank you for sticking with me for so long. Your comments and words of encouragement have made this project the happy success that it has been. I have loved every syllable of the 365,000 words and every pixel of the 365 photos I've been able to share with you.

You can see all 365 photos here, but here are a few of my favorites: