Dec 19 2007
CameraPhone365
Are you ready for CameraPhone365? I am. I’ve been tinkering with a new photoblog (http://www.mikemunhall.com/cameraphone365/) that integrates very well with flickr. This new photoblog will be dedicated solely to my CameraPhone365 project. I still have some tweaking to do and I have to clean up the test photos, but I think it will serve me well. My CameraPhone365 project will begin January 1.
What is CameraPhone365?
Every day, for one full year, take a picture with your cameraphone and post it to your blog.
Where did this idea come from?
The idea for CameraPhone365 came from two places. I had just finished a blogging project, NaBloPoMo (National blog Posting Month), where you write a post on your blog (not necessarily a photoblog, just a regular blog) every day for the month of November. There was no way that I could actually write every single day, but I knew I couldn’t fail if I could just post a photo from my cameraphone on the days that I didn’t have anything to say. A picture is worth a thousand words, right? There was simply no way I was going to miss a post if all I had to do was simply snap a picture and email it to my blog. As far as NaBloPoMo is concerned, it was sort of cheating, but it turned out to be a fun way to blog.
The other source for the idea of CameraPhone365 is Project 365, another project where you post a photo to a blog every day for 365 days. The difference between CameraPhone365 and Project 365 is that in this project, you snap photos with your cameraphone.
Can I do my own CameraPhone365 project?
Heck, yeah. And I hope you do.
What do I need for my own CameraPhone365 project?
You need a mobile telephone that will take pictures and a blog. You will also need some way to get the pictures from your cameraphone to your blog. How you do that is up to you. I am emailing my photos to my flickr account, and using the flogr photoblog software on my website to display the photos. flogr does all the fetching of images for me so the only thing I need to do is email the photos from my phone to my flickr account. This, to me is the simplest way to do it.
Another option for getting your photos from your camera to your blog using flickr is to set up a special flickr email address that will post images to your Wordpress, Blogger, Typepad or other blog. You can get information on how to do that here. I used this method on my regular blog (here’s an example ) and I found that it worked very well.
You don’t have to have a flickr account to do your project. There are other online photo services that can be used, and there’s nothing wrong with skipping the online photo-sharing sites altogether and using the brute force method of downloading the pictures from your phone to your own harddrive, then manually posting the pictures to your blog. Use whatever method works for you. If you need help, send me an email or ask your question in the comments of this post and I’ll do what I can to help.
Do I have to post every single day?
Yes and no. At the end of your project, you should have 365 posts, each containing a photo from your cameraphone. A different picture should be posted to your blog every single day. I think it would be unreasonable, though, to expect everyone to be able to do the actual posting every single day for a year. The one requirement, therefore, is simply to have a different picture posted every day. If you have the time to download your photos and manually post them to your blog every single day, more power to you. If it is easier for you to create multiple posts in a single sitting, then do that. Just remember to have one post for each day of the year by the end of your project.
What about leap years?
On leap years, February 29 is a free day with bonus points if you post anyway.
Can I post more than one picture per day?
Sure.
Do I have to use a cameraphone?
Yes. Otherwise, this would just be another Project 365. The point of CameraPhone365 is to make it a little easier for non-photographers to start and finish the project. Being a photographer myself, I don’t think I’d be able to actually complete a Project 365 unless I could use a camera that I carry with me every minute of every day - that is, my cameraphone.
Why should I do a CameraPhone365 project?
- It gives you a healthy, clear complexion.
- People will like you.
- It’s fun.
- It’s a great way to document your life.
What else do I need to know?
Nothing, really. But, I would like to know about you. If you plan on doing your own Project 365, tell me by emailing me at (cameraphone365 _at_ mikemunhall.com). I want to know if you think this is a good idea and I’d like to see the progress on your blog. I’m toying with idea of creating a website for this project and letting people (like you) register and see the other participants. It could be its own huge mega CameraPhone365 industry one day.
I’m in. I set up a page on my blog and I’m ready to go!
http://sundancemoods.com/blog/cameraphone365/
Sounds like a fun project! If only I had a camera phone… :(
Sounds interesting. Now I just have to figure out how to get images from phone to blog. Maybe a ‘picture of the week’ for me. I always forget I have a phone in my camera. Good idea. Let’s see how you do with it.