325 Pictures

By Neil on January 1st, 2008

325 Pictures

So, I did it. Sometime last Christmas, I decided to take one photo every day in 2007 and post them for everyone to see.

I took the first photo at 3.37am on Jan 1st 2007, just after I had driven Hayley and her boyfriend Neil back to Ivybridge after Julie and Dougal’s New Year’s Eve bash. I took the last one last night at about 2 minutes to midnight. In between, I managed to take 842 photos with my phone, but only 325 ended up in the collection. I could have fiddled it and put any old photos in the days I missed, but I felt so bad when I cheated and did this on February 7th/8th, I left it incomplete.

The truth is, there are some photos that were brilliant, but for their own reasons, the people involved didn’t want them online. I also took a few at work (you may have noticed) and there are rules about what you can post online where work is involved. Sometimes I just included too many people in the shot and I never put anything up that didn’t have everyones’ say-so. There were also some that were complete crap. Having seen what I did post, you can only imagine how useless these few were.

When I started, it seemed like a really simple thing to do and I wasn’t expecting a profound experience. Those of you who have seen the pictures of tea and coffee (6 of them) will testify to this sad and simple truth. It does however, tell you a lot about my life if you look hard enough.

Some statistics.

135 taken at work.

78 taken at home.

The rest taken elsewhere (I got bored counting).

Appearances.

Me 17
Sam (Cat) 10
Sophie 8
Tiger 7
Scott 7
Pippa 6
Louise 5
Alice (Cat) 5
Mum 4
Rob 3
Naomi 3
Angela 3
Paul 3
Tony 3
Julie 2
Cookie (Julie’s Cat) 2
Hayley D 2
Alanna 2
Jayne 2
Hayley C 1

Thanks also to Leon, Mary, Amanda, Sonya, Emma, Jamie, Joe, Luke, Andy, Caleb, Bernie, Gareth, Sam, Joe W & everyone in the backgrounds.

My Favourites.

5 ladies…

This is Angela and that photo is totally and completely her in all her adorableness. A good photograph should capture a person or a moment exactly as they are. I think this one does.

Julie, because of the smile and because it is so her. That make sense?

The P. She rocks.

Sophie, my niece. She can never resist taking her own photo with my phone. How can I not include one of those?

Louise making me laugh. Again.

5 Blokes…

Andy C, just after he asked the fatal question “have you taken your photo yet today Neil?”

Tiger always makes me laugh when work sucks.

Scott doing what he does. How little we knew of what was to follow in the months ahead.

Me. Because Sophie took it.

OK, so Louise is in it too, but I like this one of Gareth because it will always remind me of what a laugh we had at Christmas this year.

Some photos That Didn’t Make It

Well, 27 of them to be exact.

Just before the smile, pondering as to whether I would be allowed to take her photo. The fact that she had just had her hair done seemed to tilt the balance in my direction.

I took loads at the Manager’s workshop we all went to, mainly because it was something different and I was already running out of photo ideas in February.

This is what we were watching. Louise roleplaying and using the word ’shag’ too much.

The best photos of cats are taken when they can’t see you.

Sophie just after playing footie. Copies of this are in a few family frames

Ewan.

In my opinion, the best photograph I took with the phone all year. The only reason I didn’t include it was that its in a frame and I see it everyday. Not really a good reason though now that I think about it.

Sophie took this at Jane’s house in Bromham. A great weekend.

I forgot how good this was. Should have used it really but I was only allowed one a day you see…

Cats. Some people just don’t get them.

Jinxie, the feline neighbour. Look at her wrong and she will kill you. Honest.

Little Caleb. Laughing his socks off.

Emma and her lunch box. I just thought the version with Tiger holding it was funnier. The pressure I am under to make these decisions. You have no idea.