Pick just 1 image

In a previous post I alluded to my photo of the day (POTD) project that I do for my family (and anyone else who wants to peek into my life! Well, today is the day that I want to encourage anyone who is interested in improving their own photography skills to take on their on POTD challenge. 

Here's an example of 1 day of my POTD project.  These are the thumnails of all 22 pics I took on a random day in January (you can see this larger here)

You might be able to tell from the thumbnails above that some shots are better than others.  Some are out of focus or not exposed properly, and one is completely black (should have deleted that one!)  Some days it's really tough to choose a single photo and others it's a no brainer.  Picking the best photo of the bunch is not easy but by forcing myself to do that I have learned to be more critical of my work and as a result have improved my skills.  So, without further ado, the winner for the day was...

Here are my top 5 reasons that you should start a POTD project for your family...

1) The best of the best will always be ready to go. 
In 2010 I had 170 images in my POTD project (no I don't really take photos 365 days a year).  Lets just say that for each day in the project there were 10 images to choose from.  If I had not sorted out my favorites during the year, I would have 1700 photos to look through to find the ones I like the best.  Now that I'm in the process of putting my POTD images into books for each year, I'm so glad I don't have to sort the best images out of 1700+ files.  That would never happen, not even for me.

2) Your friends and family will love you for it.
A POTD project will allow you to give frequent updates to the people who love you from a distance.  This was the main reason I started my POTD project after Evan was born. 

3) Less is more.
If you think that uploading 50 shots of your kid doing the same thing is better than displaying 1 photo a week, think again!  It's not necessary to share every image you take!

4) It will make you a better photographer.
By forcing yourself to choose 1 image a day to show off, you will start being more critrical of your images and can learn to improve your skills.  Also, as with any skill, the more often you practice, the better you will be at it.

5) Less editing! 
My editing is pretty streamlined now but even so, there is no way that I would ever have the time to edit every photo I take.  I bet you don't have that kind of time either!

My POTD's are located here if you would like to check them out
2011 POTD
2010 POTD
2009 POTD

If you want to start your own online POTD gallery, here are a few (of many) free places you can use...
Flickr
Picassa
Facebook
Shutterfly

Good luck and please share your photos with me!