Looking back on the ninth straight year of my photo-a-day project.

Way back when I was just 144 days into the first year, I sat down and made a 12×12 grid of the days and wrote this:

“The public side of the project is less important to me at this point and I just want to make enough people see the project that I’ll get properly shamed into continuing.”

“It’s also a well-curated version of my life, with a focus on the positive. The photos remind me of fights and mishaps as often as exuberant moments and beautiful sunset runs and bring to mind tastes, smells, and sounds, including cookies I baked, dirt I accidentally ate, and frozen rivers I fell into.”

“Some days it’s a real toil and chore and I don’t even pick up my camera until 11:58pm because I’ve been working on video editing or just homesick. I’ll run outside and search for some flicker of light like a madman. Other days I’ll leave the house early and drive 4 hours across three states or take a ferry to Canada for a few hours just to get a new photo.”

“These photos represent friends I’ve had for ten years, my biggest vice (sweets), the effects of that vice (check out Day 15), jobs I’ve finished, strangers I’ve met, books I’ve read, and other photographers and photographs that have inspired me to try something new.”

So much has changed about my life in the nine years since I wrote that but I’m still running outside late at night searching “for some flicker of light like a madman.” So much will keep changing every day and year but so much stays the same.

This year, I watched friends become parents, finally caught COVID, trained Dilly, grew plants, flew way too much, gave a lot of rides with Portland Wheelers, met so many wonderful strangers in so many different states and countries, made friends in the neighborhood, got to pet so many dogs, learned to play hockey, ran a lot, bike party grew to epic proportions, and Emma’s now 34 weeks pregnant. I have a hard time imagining what life will be like 12/21/2023 but hope this journal plods along.