366 Days of Kennedy
I did it. Well, almost. I missed a few days here and there, but I’m proud of myself to have 342 of the last 366 days of Kennedy’s life. Sometimes it was rather tedious. But, I am very happy with the finished product. One year ago I never would have imagined that my little baby who couldn’t even sit would be this walking, talking, stubborn, curly red haired big girl. I’m truly happy to have this project to look back on.
Day 1
Day 366
As a photographer it made me think outside the box. It made me get creative with limited resources. My iPhonetography has improved 100% in the past year. There were times I was sad I didn’t have my big camera on hand to capture a lot of those everyday moments. And there are amazing photographers out there that do a Project 365 with their big cameras. But, that’s just not for me. I feel so tied down by my big camera sometimes. My iPhone is always on hand so it’s easy. And when something is easy I follow through.
For those of you who are thinking about starting a 365 Project here are some tips:
1) You don’t have to start a 365 Project on New Years Day. You can start it whenever you want. Starting it on New Years Day is convenient, but don’t feel limited to starting it at the beginning of the year.
2) Don’t beat yourself up if you miss a day. There were days when I simply didn’t feel like taking a picture. Or I was out of town and couldn’t take a picture. If you miss a day move on and keep going. Don’t fake it with a picture that isn’t from that day. Stay authentic.
3) Make sure you use a hashtag for your images. Search the hashtag you’d like to use first to make sure someone else isn’t using it. This will come in handy later and will also allow people who follow you to look back on all the images. My hashtag for Kennedy was “366daysofKennedy” (it was a leap year).
4) I found that I put less pressure on myself if I took the daily picture in the morning. Most of the time I would wait to Instagram it until later in the day so if I took a better picture I could use that one. I just liked knowing that I had something and didn’t feel pressured to get a shot all day.
Now, what am I going to do with all of those images? First, I’m making a book through Artifact Uprising. I’ve never used them before, but they have Instagram specific book, price is right and I love their site. It’s an easy to use interface and I don’t have to design it in Photoshop. Yeah! A 60 page book with all of my images cost less than $50 (with shipping) and took about 30 minutes to make. I’m excited to get the final product (and will be sure to write a review on it when I do!).
Second, I’m making a 40×40 collage. This one I am doing in Photoshop. I was originally going to print a poster through one of the Instagram printing companies, but I wasn’t able to put the images in the order that I wanted and I know that would drive me crazy. And making a collage in Photoshop really isn’t that hard. It’s as simple as making a contact sheet! Here are the easy steps:
1) You will want to have all of the images you want to use in one folder. I used Instaport to import my Instagram images. This is where having a hashtag comes in handy. I can import all the images with a certain hashtag (look under the ‘advanced’ settings) and they will save them in the order that they were taken in. SO much easier than importing them through iPhoto!
2) In Photoshop go to “File”, “Automate” and “Contact Sheet”
3) Under “Source Images” you’ll want to find that folder where all of your images are.
4) Decide what size you want your print to be. I did a 20 x 20. If you are going to print it make sure you have the resolution at 300.
5) Then you need to decide how many columns and rows you want. I went with 18 columns and 19 rows because that was the closest to a square I could get with the amount of images I had.
6) Click off the “font” option under “Use Filename as Caption”. If you don’t do that the file name will be under each image!
7) When you use the contact images to make a collage with this many images it’s going to take a lot of power from your computer. Make sure you close all other applications before starting this and just let your computer be while it creates the collage. Hit “ok” and walk away for a few minutes.
8) Once the collage is done I created another 20 x 20 document. I wanted a little room around the edges (just personal preference). I simply drag and dropped the collage onto the new document.
9) I then resized the collage to allow for a little room around the edges.
10) I added the year and then sent it to print!
For 2013 I am going to attempt to do a Project 365 with Brayden. I contemplated not posting the first picture yesterday because it’s going to be much harder than Kennedy. He’s the hard one to photograph. But, I am going to try. We’ll see if I’m successful!
Happy Shooting!
PS If you’d like to follow me on Instagram my username is drewbphoto.
PPS If you’d like to know what apps I use to take pictures with my iPhone please read this post.
About DrewB
I’ve started this blog as a way to connect with other moms who love photography. Whether you are a professional photographer who is looking for advice on how to manage your own business and your family or if you are a mom who is looking for tips on how to take better pictures of your kids, I hope that you can find some good information and be inspired!
What version of PS are you using? I have 4 and I don’t have an option for “contact sheet.” I’m really hoping I’m missing something because this little trick is brilliant!
Jenny G´s last [type] ..Little Lucy
Love this grid idea, but CS4 doesn’t have this option. It looks like you need to use Bridge to make them, but I just tried it and the output is PDF and the pictures are rectangular, not square like yours. Oh well. Yours is pretty!
Thank you so much Drew for all of your advice on this! So awesome. I loved watching Kennedy grow this year and I look forward to the next year with both kids. You have inspired me to try it with my two also. Question for you…. Do you import regularly to your computer or did you wait until the end to import them all? Thank you!!!
Hi Jenny,
I was wondering about this too, so I looked it up and found this answer. It looks like they took it out for CS4, but it’s still on the install CDs and they link to the files on this forum. Hope that helps!
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/forum/index.php?topic=28891
Amazing write up Drew- Love the idea!
Stephanie – thanks for your kind words! I back up my images when I plug my iphone into my computer every couple of months (I should probably do that more often) and now that I use Instaport I will probably do it more often because it’s SO easy to just get my Instagram images.
Emily – were your pictures rectangle or square to begin with?
Leslie – exactly! I think you may even be able to download a plugin from the Adobe site if you google it. Thanks for the insight. Hope you are doing well!
Jenny – see the other comments
Hi there! Is there anyway to do this without putting the pictures on instagram? Could I upload it so it will save it and then delete it? I just wasn’t sure if I wanted a pic of my son on there every day. Thoughts?
Also, is this even possible without photoshop??
This is such a great idea! Thanks for the inspiration!! I followed your blog for the last 2 years and couldn’t wait until I was actually a MOMtog! I am doing this for my little one now as they change so much when they are so little and I’m allover the instagram anyways…
however after checking out the books they have, I am totally ordering a book of my maternity session through them!
What are all of your images sized to before you made your contact sheet?
Great job and fantastic tutorial!
This is so great Drew!!! I don’t have anything from when my kids were young, it’s so sad. Anyway, I have a ton of pictures on my phone that I never posted to Instagram, I don’t want to now post like 100 in a row in order to have them in my account, but I do want to make a book and a collage, any idea how I can do it?
Miss you, looks like your family is doing really, really great!!! Such beautiful kids. Take care!
Julie – When you download them from instaport they are 8.5 x 8.5 at 72. And they are obviously already square because they were from Instagram.
Tracy – you don’t have to post them to Instagram. If you want them square you can use an editing app like Magic Hour, save them to your camera roll and then you can make a collage or you can use that album company I mentioned (or any album company for that matter). Miss you too! Too bad we didn’t run into each other at Nashville! Hope you are well!
Lauren – They look really cute. I’m hoping they look as cute in real life as they do online!
Ashley – You don’t have to use Instagram. If you want the image to be square you would either have to use a editing app such as Magic Hour and save them to your camera roll or do it in an editing program on your computer. For the collage tutorial that I did you do need Photoshop.
Wow! Thank you for the advice. I love love the one of not having to start on new years. Going to do this for both of my girls:)
That is an awesome project! Fabulous:) I often feel burdened by my big camera too, and worried I’l break it. I love iPhone photos when you get them right:) I’m going to check out that instagram book!
Brandi´s last [type] ..Friday Night Leftovers
I caught your project toward the end of the year, but really enjoyed the daily picture & its good to know that the pictures didn’t start out so good. I am attempting one of my son this year & a few of these tips were helpful. Thanks!
Marissa Nicole´s last [type] ..A Challenge to myself || Augustsa, GA Senior, Engagment, & Wedding Photographer
I was able to do the collage in PSE if anyone is interested in doing it and only has elements. File, contact sheet.
For some reason my pictures are coming out in random order though. I can’t seem to get them in the order they were taken. They are named 1-366 in the folder. Anyone else have this issue?
Jill
Jill, thanks for the note on PSE…. what version do you have? I have .10 and I don’t see the options under File, contact sheet.
Thanks!
Mayela
Hi Jill,
What version of elements are you using ? I have e11 and I can not find it under file, thanks