whitelightscal

I am fairly certain that was an early tagline for www.shuttercal.com. And it’s true.

Sure, your photography skills will improve with daily practice and exposure to the many talented artists on the site, but I’ve gotten a lot more from shuttercal than better pictures (and if you look at my calendar, you’ll see that taking the best shot has never been my aim). What I really love about the project is that it forces me to find something special, interesting, or beautiful for each day. I’m inspired to see more and do more just so I can document it for the internet to see. Bad day? Better find something worth shooting. And on the flip side, for those action-packed, fantastic days, I am forced to choose just one image—I can’t show you all 80 pictures of the wedding or the vacation. I think the sense of restraint really makes the cal better.

A few other notes on shuttercal that I feel don’t get enough attention: for those of us who are bad at keeping journals, it’s a fabulous way to record your activities to look back on later. Also, I think the cal is a really cool medium, different from straight photography. The whole is more than the parts. It shows a journey, not a moment. I like to think of my life itself as the art project, and its the desire to make an interesting life that makes a great cal (in my opinion). As DefaultArtist, cofounder of the site and friend of mine, has to shuttercal users: “[I hope] you look back at your cal to see a life well lived!”