1 pic a day 2012: January

I confess I was intrigued by the "1 pic a day" challenge: I had seen it on Facebook/Twitter and had wondered what was the point of the whole thing. It seemed like a major commitment with no audience at all, so all in all, a bit pointless. But when my friend Cristina proposed that we tried the challenge this year, I immediately said yes. Cristina has a way of convincing people to do stuff, so I couldn't say no. Plus, I enjoy a challenge; I have, after all, changed my thesis topic after several years into my Ph. D. (don't try this at home, kids).

So, Cris set up a closed  group on Flickr, and I joined her, IleneDawn, Mrs. Maccas and Wollepb in this adventure. So far we have 92 pictures (as of today), which means not everyone has managed to keep up with it. That's fine, as I don't think this should become a burden, and everyone should do this at their own pace. And there's the question of, you know, life. And family, and jobs, and, well, stuff.

After 39 days, and as many pictures, I have to admit I'm hooked. Even if I don't get a comment on Flickr or Facebook, it is an interesting exercise. (I'm posting to both and making my pictures public and visible outside the closed group - I haven't done it on Twitter, and now I'm wondering why, as I'm a self-confessed Twitteradict). It keeps my eyes open for new things, makes me look at the same old streets in a different way, thinking about this or that frame, or how things would look with a different light, at some other time of the day, in a different season, and so on. I spent a whole afternoon with CosmoCat, aka Chahira, taking pictures and having lots of fun, just to get the one image I posted that day.

These are the 31 pictures that I took in January (not in order):

So, no portraits or people, except for that one pic of my parents' wedding. I couldn't say why, but I think I'm gonna keep this trend. I do take photographs of friends and family and post to Flickr, Facebook or Twitter, but somehow I subconsciously  decided not to include those.
My cats are there, though: Sebastian (full name Jonathan Sebastian III) was January 1st, and Sophie (aka Sofia Cristina) was January 3rd. There's four flowers/plants, which is not a lot, considering I spend a lot of time around those. Let's see what happens in the spring.
There's also food, of course. I'm a foodie. There's tea and coffee, plus Japanese and Colombian. My Thesis is there, my ex-workplace, assorted buildings (I can't help it, I live in Barcelona), a gift from the lovely Berenice and her crazy/adorable daughter, Bea; one from the Wikipedia blackout #fail, my CD collection, my aunt's emergency pill kit, and some random pics that I never thought would end up here.

I intend to keep this up, so at least once a month I'll post about the pics I'm taking. And the possibilities for next year are endless: follow a theme each month or do a theme according to numbers, so all pics from the 1st day of the month are about the same subject, same with the second and so on; or just do numbers, and try and get 1 to 365 in pictures. We'll see. for now, I'm enjoying this exercise, and as with so many things, what I enjoy the most is being able to share it.