Dan

So I guess that wraps it up. Looks like I posted 298 portraits of people this year. Not of 298 different people though. There were repeats (Grace appeared the most often (4 times) although that could have been more). I posted at least 20 every month (December being the lowest and November the highest (30)). There were certain periods where it was hard to muster the energy to ask someone if I could picture them. I didn't feel like explaining it all over again. There were times when the opportunities presented themselves left and right and were easy as pie. I learned a lot about lighting as the year progressed, and though I mostly used natural light, I did occasionally use a speedlight and learned a lot about using it effectively. There were people I wanted to capture but didn't because of time and distance or opportunity.

One of the great benefits about the project was that it forced me to carry my camera everywhere and so I was able to take pictures of many other things that were going on around me when I had it. I have some great images of my mom and dad from this year that I might not have had otherwise. I plan to continue carrying around the camera as much as possible.

I don't know if I can say exactly why I started this project. I originally thought of it as a memory-aid. Really. I thought of it as a way to document the faces and events of the year. And it will certainly work for that. There's my son's bass instructor, my daughter's soccer teammate, the AAA guy who changed a tire in the pouring rain, the guy who sold me the killer running shoes that I can't use because my knee hurts too much right now. All of that and more. It was a visual diary of faces. I'm interested in how it will look years down the road. Will it still help me to remember? We'll see.

Where do I go from here? What's the new project? I haven't zeroed in on it yet. I know that it won't be a "daily" or even "weekly" project so I don't need to have it decided by midnight tonight. This is going to be a busy year I'm pretty certain, and I'm not going to have the opportunity (or want the pressure) to picture that often. And I don't want this project to be constrained like the portraits were to a similar look or framing. Thanks to Santa, I have a new camera (D90) and will look to make the best use of it. There might be a diptych or triptych component, perhaps something that combines portraiture and landscapes. I don't know if I'll post it here or elsewhere or not at all.

I'll be launching a new site for my photography at danconnolly.com. This will include galleries depicting my various completed projects, and links to work-in-progress as well. That should happen within a couple weeks. For now, I will be posting family snapshots and general daily shooting (as I have been for a while now) at my tumblr page.

Thanks to everyone who participated in this project and thanks to my family for their forbearance and patience. See you next year!