Welcome to the One/Day Project

Here you will find hundreds of photos that I've taken every day since 2/29/2008. I reached my initial goal of making it to leap day 2012 (after 1462 photos), but I'm still going - the new goal is to make it to Monday, 2/29/2016.

Every photo in these galleries is a unique creation from that day. My intent is to create art, and I've taken great care to create most of these photographs. In addition to not uploading simple snapshots, I try incredibly hard not to repeat myself.

Please enjoy, and feel free to comment. Like the shot? Give it a thumbs up. Really like it? Buy a print or digital download.

Thanks for looking!

_03/26/12_ Blood Orange
This is one of several blood oranges I got from a friend at work! I wish I had my own fruit tree so I could give back, but it's hard to grow anything in our 3x8' concrete patio. Go figure. One day we'll live in a real house with a real yard. One day...
Anyways, I set the orange on a cutting board with black foam board behind it, and set up my softbox on the off-camera flash. Since I got pretty close to the subject, I had to use a pretty small aperture to get it all in focus.

[last year]
_03/22/12_ Preciouses
After 3.5 years of wearing them, I finally took a daily photo of our wedding rings. Unless you count the photo I took the day after our wedding... but that doesn't count.
Mine is the one in focus, my wife's is the one with a ruby. Both of them have the etched mountain range, which resembles actual peaks around Tucson. I believe this one is Thimble Peak, near Sabino Canyon. 
With this photo posted, I thee go to bed.

[last year] love this one - it's real, very little processing...
_03/19/12_ CT-301
Ah, the good old days. When remote controls had metal grills and only three buttons. I think my favorite part is how the on/off button doubles as the volume.
I took 25 photos before I decided I liked the lighting enough. The biggest difference came when I wiped off the remote with my shirt - it was pretty dusty. Note to self: clean photo subjects before photographing them. I think that applies equally to both inanimate and human subjects.

[last year] the chase...
_03/18/12_ Server in Motion
Does anyone know if it has a better name than 'spaghetti server'? I hoped it would have an awesome, overly-syllabic italian name, but  several minutes of searching online yielded nothing. So I gave up.
This photo was going to be of a dead plant (yes, really) but turned into this after I realized the lighting was cool and I could use it to illuminate something more interesting than our latest botanical victim. I got the streaks by setting the shutter speed to 1/2s and moving my body after the flash fired. I'm impressed I kept it so level.

[last year]
_03/17/12_ Stormy Seas
It rained a lot today, but mostly cleared up in the afternoon, so I thought it'd be a good time to take the ol' camera down to the beach for sunset. I had trouble parking because of the LA Marathon happening tomorrow, and the sunset itself was pretty much a bust. 
I took this shot on the bank of an outlet that was being eroded away with every incoming wave. Because the outgoing drainage was meeting the incoming sea, there were a lot of interesting patterns in the water when I used a slow shutter speed. Not interesting enough in themselves, however, so I framed this shot with the Santa Monica pier and more of the sky, which was also interesting. This view is looking northwest, towards Malibu at the foot of the Santa Monica mountains.

[last year]
_03/15/12_ Slanted Pipe
I thought it was strange that this pipe actually was slanted - the camera was level. It caught my eye because the color of the pipe so closely matches the color of the wall.

[last year] still haven't bought new lighting stuff...
_03/10/12_ Just a Leek
This huge leek was purchased earlier at the farmers market. I've always liked the way leeks have the gradient from green to yellow to white, along with the subtle lines that follow the stalk. I also like how if it was the same shape but made of wood and leather strips with metal, it'd make a wonderful medieval weapon. A flail, I do believe.
To see how I photographed it, take a look at this blog post I wrote up just for you. 

[last year]
_03/09/12_ Final Leg
Today was a pretty epic day.
First, I got a ton of support and congratulations from fellow employees all across campus after they saw the story about my first four years of the One/Day Project on our staff/faculty news site - http://today.ucla.edu/portal/ut/after-hours-a-photo-a-day-for-230169.aspx. I'm feeling the love, and it's very appreciated.
Second, I went out for drinks with some coworkers after work and had a great time.
Thirdly, and most epic of all, my wife and I saw the LACMA rock on it's final night. We caught up with it around Figueroa/Adams shortly after 11pm. After it rounded the turn it had to stop for adjustments. That's when I grabbed this stationary shot.

Have you heard about this? It's so awesome.
As part of his piece called Levitated Mass, artist Michael Heizer needed a big rock. He found a giant boulder in a quarry in Riverside that he liked. The damn thing weighs 340 tons, and over the past 11 days it's been traveling 105 miles across Southern California towards the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. A company called Emmert International built this transporter just for the rock, which is 200 feet long with 176 wheels to distribute the ridiculous weight. In addition to the huge truck you see here, there were two more trucks linked behind, pushing. There was a whole entourage, with lots of police clearing the road ahead as it cruised along at 3-5 mph. The transportation cost is about $10m and is paid for by private donors. It will reach the museum sometime early Saturday morning. 

Update: it reached LACMA at 4:30 am! Glad we didn't stay up for that. You should seriously check out the LA Times for more photos of this, it's crazy. 

[last year]
_03/08/12_ Black Daisies
It was kind of a hectic day today, and I didn't find any time to get outside for a photo. Instead, I took five photos of some daisies that we have and smooshed them together into this Photoshop creation. There was layering, there was masking, there was inverting, there were effects, but in the end I'm not really sure what I did. Just played around, mostly.

In other news, I was featured on the campus staff and faculty news! Check me out!
After Hours: a photo a day for 1,462 days

[last year]
_03/09/12_ Final Leg
Today was a pretty epic day.
First, I got a ton of support and congratulations from fellow employees all across campus after they saw the story about my first four years of the One/Day Project on our staff/faculty news site - http://today.ucla.edu/portal/ut/after-hours-a-photo-a-day-for-230169.aspx. I'm feeling the love, and it's very appreciated.
Second, I went out for drinks with some coworkers after work and had a great time.
Thirdly, and most epic of all, my wife and I saw the LACMA rock on it's final night. We caught up with it around Figueroa/Adams shortly after 11pm. After it rounded the turn it had to stop for adjustments. That's when I grabbed this stationary shot.

Have you heard about this? It's so awesome.
As part of his piece called Levitated Mass, artist Michael Heizer needed a big rock. He found a giant boulder in a quarry in Riverside that he liked. The damn thing weighs 340 tons, and over the past 11 days it's been traveling 105 miles across Southern California towards the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. A company called Emmert International built this transporter just for the rock, which is 200 feet long with 176 wheels to distribute the ridiculous weight. In addition to the huge truck you see here, there were two more trucks linked behind, pushing. There was a whole entourage, with lots of police clearing the road ahead as it cruised along at 3-5 mph. The transportation cost is about $10m and is paid for by private donors. It will reach the museum sometime early Saturday morning.

Update: it reached LACMA at 4:30 am! Glad we didn't stay up for that. You should seriously check out the LA Times for more photos of this, it's crazy.

[last year]
_03/09/12_ Final Leg Today was a pretty epic day. First, I got a ton of support and congratulations from fellow employees all across campus after they saw the story about my first four years of the One/Day Project on our staff/faculty news site - http://today.ucla.edu/portal/ut/after-hours-a-photo-a-day-for-230169.aspx. I'm feeling the love, and it's very appreciated. Second, I went out for drinks with some coworkers after work and had a great time. Thirdly, and most epic of all, my wife and I saw the LACMA rock on it's final night. We caught up with it around Figueroa/Adams shortly after 11pm. After it rounded the turn it had to stop for adjustments. That's when I grabbed this stationary shot. Have you heard about this? It's so awesome. As part of his piece called Levitated Mass, artist Michael Heizer needed a big rock. He found a giant boulder in a quarry in Riverside that he liked. The damn thing weighs 340 tons, and over the past 11 days it's been traveling 105 miles across Southern California towards the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. A company called Emmert International built this transporter just for the rock, which is 200 feet long with 176 wheels to distribute the ridiculous weight. In addition to the huge truck you see here, there were two more trucks linked behind, pushing. There was a whole entourage, with lots of police clearing the road ahead as it cruised along at 3-5 mph. The transportation cost is about $10m and is paid for by private donors. It will reach the museum sometime early Saturday morning. Update: it reached LACMA at 4:30 am! Glad we didn't stay up for that. You should seriously check out the LA Times for more photos of this, it's crazy. [last year]" href="javascript:openLB(1743359206,'',XLarge,'',1024,685);">_03/09/12_ Final Leg
Today was a pretty epic day.
First, I got a ton of support and congratulations from fellow employees all across campus after they saw the story about my first four years of the One/Day Project on our staff/faculty news site - http://today.ucla.edu/portal/ut/after-hours-a-photo-a-day-for-230169.aspx. I'm feeling the love, and it's very appreciated.
Second, I went out for drinks with some coworkers after work and had a great time.
Thirdly, and most epic of all, my wife and I saw the LACMA rock on it's final night. We caught up with it around Figueroa/Adams shortly after 11pm. After it rounded the turn it had to stop for adjustments. That's when I grabbed this stationary shot.

Have you heard about this? It's so awesome.
As part of his piece called Levitated Mass, artist Michael Heizer needed a big rock. He found a giant boulder in a quarry in Riverside that he liked. The damn thing weighs 340 tons, and over the past 11 days it's been traveling 105 miles across Southern California towards the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. A company called Emmert International built this transporter just for the rock, which is 200 feet long with 176 wheels to distribute the ridiculous weight. In addition to the huge truck you see here, there were two more trucks linked behind, pushing. There was a whole entourage, with lots of police clearing the road ahead as it cruised along at 3-5 mph. The transportation cost is about $10m and is paid for by private donors. It will reach the museum sometime early Saturday morning. 

Update: it reached LACMA at 4:30 am! Glad we didn't stay up for that. You should seriously check out the LA Times for more photos of this, it's crazy. 

[last year]
_03/09/12_ Final Leg
Today was a pretty epic day.
First, I got a ton of support and congratulations from fellow employees all across campus after they saw the story about my first four years of the One/Day Project on our staff/faculty news site - http://today.ucla.edu/portal/ut/after-hours-a-photo-a-day-for-230169.aspx. I'm feeling the love, and it's very appreciated.
Second, I went out for drinks with some coworkers after work and had a great time.
Thirdly, and most epic of all, my wife and I saw the LACMA rock on it's final night. We caught up with it around Figueroa/Adams shortly after 11pm. After it rounded the turn it had to stop for adjustments. That's when I grabbed this stationary shot.

Have you heard about this? It's so awesome.
As part of his piece called Levitated Mass, artist Michael Heizer needed a big rock. He found a giant boulder in a quarry in Riverside that he liked. The damn thing weighs 340 tons, and over the past 11 days it's been traveling 105 miles across Southern California towards the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. A company called Emmert International built this transporter just for the rock, which is 200 feet long with 176 wheels to distribute the ridiculous weight. In addition to the huge truck you see here, there were two more trucks linked behind, pushing. There was a whole entourage, with lots of police clearing the road ahead as it cruised along at 3-5 mph. The transportation cost is about $10m and is paid for by private donors. It will reach the museum sometime early Saturday morning.

Update: it reached LACMA at 4:30 am! Glad we didn't stay up for that. You should seriously check out the LA Times for more photos of this, it's crazy.

[last year]
See photo in original gallery.
All photographs © Jonathan Wilson