A year has gone by. When it started, I made a vow to try and record 2007 by posting a photo every day to Flickr.  Now, 395 photos later (I missed a day or two and then posted more than one on some days) I can look back and see what has the experience been like.

Well, it has been a challenge. But also a delight. Eye-opening. And definitely a learning experience.

A challenge to remember to keep a camera in my pocket and to keep up the daily routine. In fact my first camera got worn out.

A delight in finding photos that came out better than I expected. and then in finding strangers and friends commenting on them (thanks especially to top commenter starstruck232 for being so encouraging).

Eye-opening in the way that I learnt to start looking at the world in a new way. Often the shot I chose was not what I saw in front of me but what was behind me. You learn to look back a lot more. And down. And up.

So what have I learnt?

To take a moment to enjoy the world. Nearly all the shots are made inside 60 seconds, maybe 3 minutes if I was cycling at the time; and I often was on my daily commute; that’s not a lot of time out of the day – but many of those moments (like this , this and this) are still so vivid in my memory. and would be even if I had not taken a photo, because I saw something, stopped and snapped.

And what of next year?

I will still bring my new camera with me, often…maybe not every day. But I still want to stop, look, listen and absorb my environment every day.

Stay tuned for 2008’s challenge.

PS. This was the most viewed image!