I just uploaded my last photo of Project 365 for 2009 to Flickr and took a moment to make sure I had the right number of photos in my Project 365 Flickr set. It is very satisfying to see “365 items” there. As I did in 2007, I have taken at least one photo every single day of 2009, and I chose one photo from each day to be my single picture of the day.

It was easier to do this project in 2009 than it was in 2007; I am a more avid and more accomplished photographer now than then, though it was in large part Project 365 in 2007 that put me on that path. There were very few days this year when I nearly forgot to take a photo, though there were certainly days when I had not taken many photos or any photos I really liked. At the same time, there were fewer times this year as compared to 2007 when I captured a really wonderful photo that I would not have captured had it not been for Project 365. That was the magic of doing it the first year, but having become a habitual photographer in 2007, I didn’t see that leap of creativity in 2009.

The iPhone, which I received halfway through the year, was a help in the project, as it meant I always had a fun phone with decent resolution on my person, and I had a lot of fun experimenting with its wide angle view and the many photography apps available for it. There were several periods when it made photography fresh for me, and it would have been a harder project without it.

I have not made any photography-related goals for 2010. (Another post on the goals I have set for myself is coming, probably later today.) I don’t feel the need to push for a photo a day this year and am looking forward to the break, though I fully expect to take a lot of photos in the coming year. (In 2008, the year between my two photo-a-day years, I took more photos than in 2007, so I don’t need the project to keep my clicking the shutter.) I have already taken a photo in 2010 (last night just after midnight, with my phone).

I have also made scrapbook pages of all but the last few photos of the year; I expect to do that last page today. I will be assembling those pages--one page per week of the year, pretty much--into a printed book at Shutterfly.com and will post a link to that project when it’s uploaded and put together. I am really looking forward to having that book in my hands; I expect it to be even more satisfying than seeing the completed Flickr set on my computer screen.

The last time I finished Project 365 I also posted a summation of the experience, which you might find interesting. It is here on the blog I set up strictly for Project 365 in 2007.