I'm ba-ack

Happy New Year to anyone who is still out there reading this thing. I've been to all sorts of places figuratively, literally and literature-atly since the last time I posted here. I can't say I'm any more focused then I was during this blog's previous incarnation but alas, I guess I'm just one of those people who is hard to pin down.

I’m not exactly sure how the next few weeks and hopefully months will look like here at S.O.L. but for starters, I'm launching something I've always wanted to do, which is a 365 Project. In this case, I'll be posting a photo a day for the entire year. My rules are simple: I have to take at least one new photo a day and it has to be something along the daily route of my life, wherever that takes me -- that is, nothing I have to go out of my way to capture. I don’t have a title yet, but I hope somewhere along the road one will come to me. Suggestions welcome.

I'm a professional writer, not a photographer and my equipment is what it is. So these photos will be mostly about documenting a year of my life and hopefully learning a little about photography along the way and well, maybe something about myself too. Said equipment at the moment: a beat-up Pentax K100D DSL, a Minolta DSL circa 2004 film camera and my iPhone 3G (soon to be 3GS). I’ve also got a box of old cameras in my storage locker and I hope to dig into them and see what I can create with them.

Some caveats: While I’ve promised myself that I’ll take one photo a day, I know I won't be able to post here every day. I promise to get the photos up as close as possible to the date taken. For anyone who cares, all the photos will be up on my flickr.com page where you can check the date and other information (see links to the right). I’m also not going to limit myself to just one photo a day – as some days may call for an extra or two.

The photos, of course, will be edited. My program of choice is Photoshop and what I know about it couldn’t fill a shot glass. Part of this process is to learn more about how to use digital editing programs. The results will be, I hope, interesting at least.

I will try to talk a little bit about each photo, my hope is it will reveal something about the way I see the world now, not only through the lens of my camera but also as a writer. I don’t know how much time I’ll have to blog about other things – this is my way to keep this blog alive and not take too much time away from my other writing – but I’ll try to talk about things that interest, fascinate and disgust me, make me laugh or sing or cry or piss me off. And, I’m sure I’ll have something to say about my sports obsessions from time to time. If you're really bored and can't stand not knowing what I'm thinking about the Mets or watching on the TV or listening to on my iPod, feel free to follow me on twitter (again links at right).

The first two days of photos will follow this post. Please comment if you like – I love to hear from you. But, my peeps, while critiques – positive and negative – are not only welcomed but encouraged, I can assure you that being nice about it is the best way to be heard here.

Here’s to a great 2010. As always, thank you for stopping by.