I don’t really do New Year Resolutions, but at the end of 2023, I decided to challenge myself to take a photo every day for the whole of 2024. I think I am fairly creative, in a creative ideas/entrepreneurial kind of way, but I’m not particularly artistic. I thought it would be an interesting challenge to see what images I could come up with using just my phone camera (iPhone 14 Pro) and its editing software.
To keep this blog short, I’ve picked one image from each month of 2024 to give a general overview of my 2024 creative challenge.
1 January 2024 Briarfields Touring Park, Cheltenham, UK
We started the New Year at the campsite that had been our main ‘home’ in Cheltenham, since moving into a motorhome in 2020.
This was our last night there for a while and I liked how the reception Christmas lights reflected off the rain-soaked tarmac.
25 January 2024 Mar Menor, La Manga, Spain
On 2 January, we left Cheltenham and drove our motorhome down to Spain, over the course of about ten days.
We settled on a campsite next to the Mar Menor (inland sea), near La Manga in Murcia.
This image captures something of the beauty of the Mar Menor (the pink glow is common for January in southern Spain), and also the juxtaposition of the apartment blocks that have been built up around it.
25 February 2024 Alicante, Spain
We stayed on the campsite at La Manga until March, but took trips out to other areas, such as Alicante just up the coast.
This view from the rugged Castell de Santa Barbara, with the sprawling town of Alicante below, and the mountains in the distance, hints at some of the mystique and grandour of southern Spain that summer tourists don’t always appreciate.
24 March 2024 River Seine, Les Andelys, France
We left Spain in mid-March to drive slowly back to the UK. Just before heading to Dover we stayed at a campsite in the picturesque town of Les Andelys.
The Seine makes a wide bend here and I thought the reflection of blue sky and clouds in the river balanced against the real sky made a great image.
6 April 2024 Kessingland Beach, Suffolk, UK
Once back in the UK, we dropped in to see our new grandchild and then went off to the seaside for a few days. We parked up at a small motorhome stop, right on the edge of Kessingland Beach.
On the last day, I got up just before dawn to catch the sun rise over the sea and beach. The image captures the coolness of the early morning warming in to life, with the surf beginning to glow, as the sun edges above the horizon.
27 May 2024 Rochdale Canal, Hebden Bridge, UK
From Suffolk in the East, we spent the next three months touring England, ostensibly for Lizzie to speak at a number of business events, but also to explore parts of our country we’d never visited before. There were many pleasant discoveries, including the delightful Hebden Bridge.
Walking up a short rise, I was suddenly presented with this image of the canal in the lush green of the summer. I quickly snapped the image before any other walkers got in the way and, later, didn’t see any need to edit this representation of the picture perfect scene.
7 June 2024 Little Beck, Sleights, UK
Our tour of England concluded in North Yorkshire, where we also spent a few weeks walking and sightseeing around the Yorkshire Moors.
We discovered this pretty stepping stone crossing of the Little Beck on a walk to Whitby one day, The slight shade of the tree canopy and the weather worn steps created a magical effect.
4 July 2024 Election Day, Cheltenham, UK
We returned to Cheltenham in July 2024 (where we are registered to vote), to vote in the general election, and to take a break before deciding where to go next.
I wanted to record the election day, so I took what would have been a fairly ordinary photo of the way into a polling station. I then tweaked the light to create an image I hoped would reflect something of the solemnity and importance of that day.
11 August 2024 East Quantoxhead, Somerst, UK
After a brief break in Cheltenham, we decided to try our hand at being campsite wardens for the summer. We secured a place on a site in West Somerset, an area we hadn’t really explored before.
We had a daily view of the sea at St Audries Bay and also along the coast when we went out for walks to places like East Quantoxhead.
I thought the black and white filter helped to intensify the impressive merging of land, cliff and sea
16 September 2024 St Audries Bay, Somerset, UK
We worked at the St Audries Bay holday park for about three months and enjoyed many stunning sunsets from the cliff top location.
This was one of the last sunsets before we finished at the site and drove our motorhome into storage, before setting off on a new tour for the winter.
1 October 2024 Old City Hall, Toronto, Canada
At the end of September we flew into New York, USA and then took the train to Toronto, Canada.
We really enjoyed spending time in Toronto and discovering all its little quirks, such as these gargoyle representations of city officials on the Old City Hall. The revenge of the architect.
10 November 2024 Congress Ave Bridge, Austin, USA
After our quick stint in Canada, we returned to the USA and spent a few months travelling around mostly by Amtrak, ending up in Texas in November.
“Weird” Austin was a fascinating and fun place to hang out. It was a bit late in the season to see the nightly bat flights from under Congress Ave Bridge, but this image captures something of the energy of the crowds that gather every dusk (on boat and land) to spot them.
19 December 2024 Perisur Shopping Mall, Mexico City, Mexico
Just before Christmas, we popped down to Mexico City for a week. We loved Mexico City for its diversity of experience and particularly its archeological and historical sites.
I took plenty of other images, but this image is simply of a vibrant shopping mall at Christmas time. A fun image that could be anywhere, but I liked that it shows a side to Mexico that not everyone appreciates.
31 December 2024 Arenal Volcano, Costa Rica
2024 started on a cold rainy day in the UK and finished on a damp, but tropical, day in Costa Rica, looking out on to the Arenal Volcano.
As a general rule, I avoided taking the obvious ‘tourist’ shots, but this image was the result of waiting for the clouds to clear over Arenal for a few days to take this nicely framed shot through the trees.
366 Images And More
I created a new Instagram account for my 2024 challenge and succeeded in posting 366 images for each day (albeit, some days it was a quick snap of my dinner if there wasn’t anything else). It was a really enjoyable challenge, which I decided to carry on with. However, I was concerned it would become a bit of a chore to continue to post every day, so now I just post when I feel like it.
Although it was a sort of photo diary, its not a series of snapshots of my adventures, eg there are no photos of me standing in front of a famous landmark et al. Each image reminds me of the context of when the photo was taken, but to the onlooker it is just an interesting image, which hopefully is worth viewing regardless of the story behind it.
With few exceptions, the images are edited to create a particular effect or mood that I liked. That is very deliberate. The idea was that each photo should stand out in its own right – as a piece of ‘art’ if you like. My creative input was modifying the image to get what I wanted rather than taking a cleverly constructed photo in the first place. I’m not laying claim to being a ‘photographer’.
If anyone is interested to view more of my images, my Instagram feed is here:
