57 Project :: Sky 365

Everyone seems to be looking at the ground lately. Ali at Domesticali, Mrs Thrifty Household, and lots of other folk keen to photograph the land beneath their feet, are taking part in the fascinating daily photo journal From Where I Stand*. I had thought I might join them. But then I got to thinking that I'd rather spend my days looking up than looking down. And a line from Paul Auster's remarkable Moon Palacepopped into my head: "A man cannot know where he stands on the earth except in relation to the moon or a star". Project :: Sky 365 was born!**




All of the photographs in this post were taken from my garden between three and five yesterday afternoon. That's all I had to do, step outside. Easy. This morning's sky pics were shot through an open window, in moments. Easier still. And when you're pointing your camera at the heavens you don't need to worry about revealing your embarrassingly muddy boots or your scruffy bunny slippers to the world. And, and this is important to me, you don't have to be standing anywhere.

I won't dwell on this, just say that through my association with Action for ME and NRAS I know some lovely people who are housebound, wheelchair bound, even bedbound. For some of them, and I'm sure for others who are similarly limited, participating in From Where I Stand would present an almost insurmountable challenge. But Project :: Sky 365 just might be possible.

"There is the sky, which is all men's together." Euripides

So, anyone can have a go. And you don't have to commit to daily photographs, weekly is fine, or less often if that's all you can manage. Fancy joining us on Flickr?

The rules are few. Skyscapes are what it's all about, taken anywhere, anytime, day or night. Look up: no horizons or skylines or earthbound things please, although overhead cables are fine. As is anything that is in the sky: sun, moon, stars, clouds, falling snow, seeds blowing in the wind, birds, hot air balloons, kites, aeroplanes ...




I did worry I might become bored by unrelenting firmament. But the sky is a never ending kaleidoscope of subtly shifting colour and light, even in the most dismal weather (although you might need to switch from auto focus to manual focus if your camera protests at an expanse of variegated monochrome). No, the thing I'll find challenging is choosing just one image to represent each day, for the knitsofacto Project :: Sky 365 page I've added to the blog***.

Oh, and there's a reason I've chosen to launch this with photographs taken on January 9th. The date marks the anniversary, 173 years ago, of the French Academy of Science's announcement of the Daguerreotype, the first commercially successfully photographic process: arguably January 9th is photography's birthday!


Even my knitting is getting in on the act ... you knew that was coming, didn't you! I'm planning a stripy Old Shale stitch wrap in a palette of sky colours. Real sky colours, as close as I can get to those in my photographs, but not too much blue, because, well, I'm not that fond of it. Watch this space!

And now, if you'll excuse me, I'll leave you with this little button pic - just in case you'd like to link to the Project :: Sky 365 Flickr group at wherever in Blogtopia you call home - and rush off ... there's a rather nice sunset I need to catch!


* The current craze for this seems to have begun with Susannah Conway, and bloggers around the globe have picked it up. But I can remember doing something similar in my art student days.

** I know there are 366 days in 2012 but I didn't want to limit this to leap years, who knows, it might catch on!

*** You can, of course, add as many images of each day's sky as you choose to the Flickr group.