Image shot with Super-Takumar 28mm f3.5 and processed with Vintage Film Lightroom presets
So, chapter 9 of the #leesixtyfive project.
I’m not sure how many more of these I have in me. There should be 3 more after this, but I don’t know if all of those will be necessary.
At the time of writing, I’ve got 21 days left to make the rest of my 365 photographs.
This update takes us to number 270.
Too much to catch up with?
Very possibly.
Contents
When sinking is more likely than swimming
At this point, the smart money has to be on me not getting this project completed in time.
If it’s taken me 343 days to get to the update that brings you photograph 270, how likely is it I can get the rest done in the next 21 days?
I’m going to say unlikely.
That’s disappointing, but look at the numbers. They don’t lie.
Once this thing is over, whether it’s unsuccessful or not, I’ll do a real post mortem on why it went how it did.
Now isn’t the time.
Knowing how to swim
The bad thing about having to make 95 photographs in 3 weeks is having to make 95 photographs in 3 weeks.
The good thing about having to make 95 photographs in 3 weeks is knowing I have to make 95 photographs in 3 weeks.
When presented in the previous paragraph, the numbers didn’t look good. If I continued at the same rate as the last 11 months, I’d be nowhere near the target.
But let’s ask a different question.
If you had to make 4 or 5 street photographs every day for the next 3 weeks, could you?
Because that’s what I need to do.
It’s all I need to do.
The archives, my lifebuoy
The line about having to make 4 or 5 photographs per day for 3 weeks isn’t strictly true either.
I mentioned in the photographs 181 – 210 update that I would probably be raiding the archives for some images that didn’t make the cut at the time but should have, or are good enough to make it now I’m not so chronologically tied down.
I still haven’t done that, which means the number needed per day should come down again.
How far it’ll come down I don’t know, because I don’t know exactly how many will get resurrected from my hard drive.
But it will certainly lighten the load for the next few weeks.
Going for more than 365 photographs
This section is going to sound silly considering I’m running low on time to make 365 photographs for this project, but hear me out.
I now want to make more than 365.
When I began, the idea was to upload the best photograph each day and have those as my final 365 images. However, since I’ve gone for a less regular shooting schedule, there’s no need to do that anymore.
A better idea, and one I should perhaps have done from the start, is to go with more and trim the fat afterwards.
There are a couple of reasons for this.
The first, which is the most obvious, is that I’ll end up with a better set overall. There are some photographs from the early days that I’d certainly like to replace.
The second reason for doing this is that it takes away some of the pressure of the last few weeks.
I’ve been feeling a weird resistance to going out to shoot for this recently, and I think that comes from knowing it’s coming to an end. It’s adding a weird kind of stress that I hadn’t anticipated.
Looking at the numbers left as something I need to tick off is fine, but I also see it the other way. That I only have a limited number of opportunities to add good photographs to this.
Any below par image uploaded was one less chance to add a great one.
Shooting more and discarding the worst takes this anxiety away too, giving me more mental freedom to get the photographs I need.
Regardless, this is a relatively short update because I’ve got other things I need to do. Like seeing what I can go get from those archives.
I’ll be back once I’ve done that, I guess.
