10 on 10: January, my first try

What a learning opportunity the 10 on 10 proved to be for me this week. This was by far one of the most difficult challenges I have tackled, it even beats the 365 I did in 2010. Who would ever guess one day could be so creatively draining but then provide so much wonderful feedback?! 

By 2 p.m. I was ready to abandon my project. I wasn't feeling well, we didn't leave the house that day, and I felt like I was capturing a bunch of junk. I decided to load my images to my computer to see if I could "salvage" a few images for submission. When I saw my first 7 photos for the project, I was re-energized and excited about what was taking shape. 

Then the next 3 hours happened.

It's winter. The light fades FAST this time of year. Since I don't know flash and rely on natural light, those last 3 images were killer for me. It truly became a scavenger hunt to try and find the light. I was convinced I was going to change the rules for next month to allow 10 images from any part of the day--not spread apart by an hour each. Now that I see my final project, I've decided THAT is the challenge in and of itself. Finding the light across all hours of the day. What a neat way to observe the seasons and the sun and the many many varying qualities of light. 

When I feel like my images are all looking the same, I now realize why that is: Because they're all taken at roughly the same time of day!! I've been avoiding tricky light situations because I don't want grain or out of focus subjects. Now I completely see this challenge as a way of adding variety to my albums and forcing me to learn to work with all nature of light. I'm looking forward to the challenge of more moody darkly lit shadowy images that are not normally my style. 

I'm thrilled with how this project turned out for me. It was exhausting and terrible to get through but now I see how worth it that effort was. I'm even more excited to tackle February and will be looking back at this set before I start to motivate myself. I can already see where I want to work and improve and am looking forward to progress.

What were your thoughts on the project? Did you find it worthwhile? What lesson are you carrying away from it? I'd love to hear your thoughts since this is such a new challenge to me! Let me know in the comments!

Here is my first 10 on 10. Taken January 10th, 2012 hourly from 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.: