Pro’s challenge Boost your social media

A daily smartphone photo project can improve your photography and serve as a powerful promotional tool, says Jo Bradford

When I set myself the challenge of doing a 365-day photo project on Instagram, I had a few hundred followers, many of whom were

friends and family. Giving up my Canon EOS 5D Mark III body and a range of pro-series lenses in favour of keeping it simple, I shot and edited a new photo every day on my iPhone and posted daily on my Instagram account, @greenislandstudios. The response was astonishing: by the end of the 365-day project, I had over 40,000 followers.

Photography, like any skill worth mastering, is all about practice, so the repetition of a 365-day project teaches you to be a better photographer. The daily challenge of producing high-quality content that maintains a strong thematic link in harmonious colours can be daunting, but is key to success.

Reduced to the bare bones of photography, working with just a fixed-lens smartphone camera means you need to make images sing by mastering exposure and shutter speed and using them creatively. You hone your composition skills by balancing the play of light and shade, using leading lines and diagonals, finding creative ways to introduce depth of field with foreground interest. An iPhone app that manually adjusts camera settings became my new best friend.

Daily photo projects are great to help build your following on

Instagram, too. Regular posting keeps your account active, so a 365-day or 52-week project will do wonders for your visibility – a dark art in itself, given the vagaries of Instagram’s algorithms! And as your following grows, so will the opportunities to promote your work to an engaged audience. You will begin making connections with brands and publications that benefit you immeasurably.

Within a few months of starting my project, I had the offer of a funded solo exhibition for the finished project. I’m now often invited to speak about 365-day projects and to deliver smartphone photography workshops to photography societies and camera clubs, and even on TV

and radio. I’ve also had brands send me clothing and equipment, and been offered travel assignments – although I’ve turned down more offers than I’ve accepted, to keep things genuine and honest. After I appeared on Countryfile on BBC1, a publisher asked me to produce a book, Smart Phone Smart

Photography, which will be published internationally in 2018.

It’s been quite a ride. The biggest thing that I took away from my project was that by applying myself to my craft every day and being open to finding inspiration locally, I was able to achieve something I could never have dreamed of – and all it took was a bit of daily dedication to my own creative process.