365 Film Project - Month 1 - May 2019

I was introduced to this project concept by Amy Eklund, one of my former photography students. After thinking about this it for a while, as in many months, I finally decided to start on May 1, 2019 for lack of a better date. And I guess that May 1st isn’t a bad date. Historically it has been celebrated as May Day, a day of rebirth and celebration. Gone are the traditions of just 50 years ago, but as a child I remember making May Day baskets in school and then filling them with spring flowers and leaving them on the doorstep of friends and family. I even vaguely remember celebrating around the May pole at one point.

So the project is this: using a dedicated film camera shoot one and only one picture a day with it for a while year. My goals are to challenge myself to:

1) Stick with it.

2) Push my comfort zones.

3) Photograph only people, preferably complete strangers. (This goal changed on day 2, see my blog for more details)

I will use a Canon AE-1 with a 50 mm f/1.4 Canon lens, Ilford HP5+ film exposed at ASA 200, and D-23 developer.

I chose this camera because it was the model of my first SLR back in the late 70’s, and I have quite a few of them kicking around.

I decided that my first shot would be a self portrait and that I would finish the project with another self portrait.