What I wanted to say today has been on my mind for over a year now, and somehow I still have no real idea for it. Therefore, true to my general writing strategy we are just going to go until the words say what I really want them to. The ultimate point of today is that this post marks the end of my fifth year of posting a new blog post and image each day! What started as a way to keep myself posting regularly has become a part of my daily ritual for nearly 2,000 days since. Now, I think it’s time to let the blog become something new.

Yes, that means that today is the last of the “Daily Photographer” posts.

I’m actually pretty sad about that. However, let me be clear before I say any more. No, I am not quitting photography. Don’t be silly, I get paid to do what I love…who could ever give that up? This is happening so I can dedicate more time to my business, not end it.

So many amazing opportunities have come out of this project…so many amazing relationships as well. In the past five years people from all over the world have taken the time to write and share their own stories and images with me. How can I fully express how awesome that has been? The words just don’t exist. That’s the biggest reason I’m sad to be ending it, but oddly also the very same reason that I’ve chosen to. See, the hardest part about the project hasn’t been taking and posting images for you. Photography is my life, making images is something I will never stop doing. I’ve been doing this for a living for over a decade and plan on many many more before I’m done. The challenge has always been what I want to say each day, and then finding the time to get it said. In the beginning I had a lot to talk about and my own forum to do so in whatever way I chose. Well I still have my own forum obviously, but the words began to feel more and more forced as time went on. The blog, whose original vision was to be an insight into the daily life of a professional photographer, became something more like a daily journal.

You might say that a daily journal isn’t really a departure from the original idea. However, it is certainly a less helpful approach than I would like. Which is what made me decide to write less several months back, and ultimately post without really writing at all. See, I want you to actually gain something from spending time here, not just listen to me ramble on about whatever random thing comes out. This place needs to get back to being helpful both to my clientele and my colleagues. Regular image posts can have their place on Instagram from here on out, I want to give you more.

What that vision looks like is something I’m still working out. I have at least determined that new articles and/or tutorials will go up bi-weekly at least, if not weekly. There will be a schedule you can rely on unlike the “whenever I have time” method of my daily posts. Not to mention the fact that I really need to make my Facebook business page worth having… I seriously haven’t paid any attention to it since I figured out how to automate posts. This new plan isn’t something that will start up right away…but more likely in a month or so. Call me crazy but after this post I don’t really want to put up anything else until I’ve had time to fully realize that I don’t actually need to post something every day anymore.

I’m very curious about how long that adjustment will take.

Here’s the big piece though, and hopefully you’ve made it this far…

Thank you.

Thank you for taking part in this with me.

Thank you for setting aside even a moment of your day to look at each image.

Thank you for writing to me.

Thank you for stopping me on the street to say you love my work.

Thank you for letting me know when I’ve forgotten punctuation (or even whole words).

Thank you for the phone calls.

Thank you for the interviews.

Thank you for the meetings.

Thank you for the inspiration.

Thank you for being a part of my life.

And thank you for letting my images and ramblings become a part of yours.

Talk to you soon,

D

How’s that for random, eh?

Seems like there was an unexpected hiccup in updating our servers today. It’s possible that some emails may not have come through during the process. Over the next 24 hours I will be working to retrieve any that may not have been delivered.

Please forgive any delays in communication while this is sorted out.

-D