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Ian Dawson committed to capturing a photograph every single day for a whole year, and he’s a better photographer for it

We look at the results of a 365 project and bugs in flight

MISSION: Take at least one photo every single day throughout 2020. That’s 365 photos in one year! PHOTOGRAPHER: Ian Dawson

LOCATION: Bodø, Norway

KIT USED: Nikon D5300, AF-S DX 35mm f/1.8g, DX Micro 40mm f/2.8g, Sigma 18-300mm f/3.5-6.3 DC Macro OS HSM C

WEBSITE: www.ianspages.com

Iretired at the beginning of 2020 and decided I would fill my free time by attempting a 365 project. That meant capturing at least one photo every day throughout the whole year. One photo per day – how hard can it be? But it’s a big commitment, and one I had tried and given up on before. I found it too difficult to find the time while I was still working. This time around there were still days when I was wondering what to photograph at 9pm and desperately searching the house for interesting subjects to shoot.

Practice makes perfect

I wasn’t happy with every photo, but I persevered and used the project to learn new skills. For example, I struggled to capture light trails [11] and decided to shoot Raw. This allowed me to push the file much farther when editing, and I’ve now learned to shoot with Raw and JPEG.

I’ve taken a wide variety of photos and been inspired by many sources. The most important rule is to have your camera with you at all times. Here are a dozen of my favourite photos throughout the year...

I decided to try black-and-white street photography in the town where I live, and noticed these birds sitting on the edge of the angular building [2]. I wanted to shoot an abstract and captured raindrops on a garden chair [3]. An article in N-photo helped me photograph the moon after I’d previously struggled to get it right [4].

In the local woods there’s a family of squirrels who seem quite used to people [5]; they even pose for you, but you have to be quick! This island is often photographed as a backdrop to Norway’s midnight sun [6], but I thought it would be interesting to capture it in winter. I saw this composition many years ago and wanted to try it myself [7]; the challenge was having everything set up before lighting the matches as they burn quickly!

I edited this Raw photo in Photoshop to give it a more dramatic effect [8]. I read an article in N-photo about infrared photography and was given an infrared filter as a present [9], the challenge was getting the focus right before adding the filter as it obscures the viewfinder. The plant’s outline through the window made for the perfect silhouette [10]. There are many photos of water reflections, so I thought I would try something different using a mirror [12].