Photo a day January 2013: Inject a little fun into your everyday!

January 2013 - photo a day challenge

Hello!

Would you like to inject a little fun into your life? Would you like to stop each day and appreciate a little beautiful along the way? Put the photo a day challenge on your resolutions list! Whether you jump on in for the month of January or even the whole year… it is a really great way to tap into your creative side and enjoy each day a little more.

Above is the new list for January 2013 and below are all the details on how to play. Do join us!

How to play!

Playing along with photo a day is super easy:
♥ Check out the January photo a day list.
♥ Each day look at the daily prompt and take a photo according to whatever the prompt is. For example for day 1 the prompt is TODAY. As it’s New Year’s Day some might be sleeping off a hangover, others might be fulfilling their New Year’s resolutions. Take a photo of what it is you chose to do on the first day of 2013.
♥ Once you’ve taken the photo it’s time to share it. There are loads of places you can share it. See below for more details.
♥ Check out other people’s photos. You can browse through them on my Facebook page. Or on Instagram or Twitter just search for the #FMSphotoaday hashtag to see them all.

Where to play?

There are loads of places to be social and share your photos with the #FMSphotoaday community:

Instagram: Just upload your photo, use a fancy filter, add a caption and the hashtag #FMSphotoaday and then share.
Facebook: There are a few options here. You can simply share on your own personal page, among your own friends. Or you can upload to my page’s wall, or I’ve created a Facebook group for 2013. You can join it here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FMSphotoaday/
Blog: If you have a blog, you could share each day or do a wrap up of all the photos at the end of the month.
Tumblr: Add your daily photos to your Tumblr feed.
Flickr: I’ll be playing around more with Flickr in the New Year. You can get their app {for free if I remember correctly} and share your photos there, or upload on their web version. We also have a photo a day group here.
Twitter: You can share on Twitter by uploading the photo and sharing the hashtag #FMSphotoaday. Easy.

Now I know a few people are concerned about the Instagram changes and want to explore other places to share. You can definitely use the above platforms. I’m also going to explore some other apps as well, particularly EyeEm.

How do I remember the prompts?

There are a few ways you can grab the list or remember the prompts:
♥ Come back here each day and click the button on the right-hand side to check out the list.
♥ Right-click on the list above and save it to your desktop. Or if you’re on your phone you could take a screenshot and save it as your wallpaper. {To screenshot click the power button and home button at the same time}.
♥ The very fabulous Doug has created a calendar for us. You can have the prompts added to your phone’s calendar by clicking here. It will open your calendar program and ask if you want to add the calendar. This works on iPhone, iPad, Android phone, Mac and PC. Alternatively you can view the calendar online in your browser here.

What’s the fab four?

Each day I’ll be picking my favourite four on Instagram and Facebook, and sharing them to my Facebook and Instagram. To have your photos in the running you can just share them to my Facebook page or the FMS Photo A Day group or the #FMSphotoaday Instagram feed, or both.

What do the prompts mean?

There are no rules when playing along with photo a day, you can be creative as you like! Interpret the prompt as you please. For those that need a little help, some more suggested details about each prompt are below:

1. Today: It’s the first day of the new year, so take a photo of how you spent the day.
2. Something new: Take a photo of something new. Something physical, the sunrise, a new attitude. Be creative!
3. Heart: Take a photo of a heart, or a heart shape.
4. The view from here: With many people around the world on holidays, it’s a great way to see where people are. Take a picture of your view from where ever you are.
5. Movement: Get moving and take a photo. You could take a photo of cars whizzing by, somebody jumping or you could even take a run and take photos as you’re jogging along.
6. Mine: Take a photo of something that’s yours. Perhaps it’s a thing, something you’re proud of or a person you call ‘yours’.
7. Street: Take a photo of a streetscape.
8. Something beginning with ‘T’: Take a photo of something today starting with the letter ‘T’.
9. Paper: Take a photo of something made from paper. Perhaps it’s someone reading the newspaper, or it could be wrapping paper. Think outside the square.
10. One o’clock: Take a photo of whatever you’re doing in the hour between one and two. It could be in the middle of the night {you party animal, you!} or during the day.
11. Water: Perhaps it’s the beach, a river, water in a glass, the bath {keep it PG!} or even the rain.
12. Surprise: I love when I stumble across coins when I’m walking. It’s a lovely surprise. That would be a lucky photo for me. Can you think of a way to capture surprise?
13. Circle: Look as you go about today for things shaped in circles. Is it the tyres on a bus? A big sign? Or something else?
14. Something yellow: Find something yellow in your travels today and take a photo.
15. An ordinary moment: Choose an ordinary moment and capture it. Is it you grabbing your daily coffee? Or playing with the kids? Or something that you do often and consider it as kinda ordinary?
16. Two things: Look for things in pairs today. Is it a lovely old couple that you see from behind? Or the salt and pepper shakers sitting on the bench? Find two things and take a photo.
17. Ready: Is it a photo of your dinner being ready? Or you ready to catch the bus? Or something else. It’s a toughy – but it will get your mind thinking!
18. Shadow: Find a shadow and shoot it. It could be your own, or a shadow of something else. Shadows look great with a black and white filter over the top {just sayin!}.
19. Delicious: What’s delicious to you? Is it the chubby cheeks of your toddler, the hunk at the gym or a cake you plan on eating for afternoon tea?
20. Something you saw: Go about your day with eyes wide open and take a photo of something you saw.
21. What you do: Do you go to school? Train elephants at the circus? Write at home? Play mum to your kids? Act as CEO to a big business? Paint in your spare time? Dance when no one is looking? Take a photo of what you do {something that makes you ‘you’} and share it.
22. Corner: It could be a sharp corner of a building, a corner of an artwork, a corner of your home or something else. Corners are everywhere. Shoot one.
23. Electric: This could be a simple photo of your toaster {but get creative} or something else electric.
24. Stripes: Look for stripes in your everyday. They could be in the zebra crossing on the road, or in your outfit or somewhere else.
25. Landscape: Step back and take a photo of a landscape near you. Or even take a little trip just for the photo. Would be nice to explore your town for a beautiful photo.
26. Together: There are many definitions for together. One is: In or into a single group, mass, or place. Take a photo of together, whichever definition you’d like to use.
27. Sun: Whether the sun is out in full force, or hiding behind the clouds today – take a photo of it. Or you could get creative and take a photo of sunlight or some other interpretation.
28. Through: Take a photo of looking through something – through the window, through the gate, through the trees… whatever you please.
29. Grow: People do it, plants do it too… get creative and take a photo of something that grows.
30. Down: Is it looking down or something that makes you feel down? Interpret it however you like.
31. Yourself: Take a photo of yourself. Or something that represents you.

Two little changes in 2013:

♥ I get a lot of requests for charities to be involved in the photo a day challenges, and I’ve had trouble figuring how I could make it work. I thought that in 2013 we could donate a prompt to a charity and bring some awareness.

For January I wanted to share the charity: The heart and lung transplant trust. So prompt number 3 is for them. They’re holding a photographic competition over this month to bring awareness in the lead up to Donate Life Week 2013 {24th February – 3rd March 2013}. You can read more about it here. The photo competition is titled Life Flashes, so feel free to add the hashtag #LifeFlashes to your heart photo.

♥ Also starting February I’ll be adding in a reader’s suggestion for the prompts to the lists. I’ll be asking for people to submit their suggestions in the form below, and then I’ll pick 5 and take them to Facebook for a vote – the winning prompt will make it into the list. I’ll credit that person in the monthly post too, of course!

Suggest your prompt below:

Fill out my online form.

Are you in for January? Are you ready for some photo-taking fun?

92 thoughts on “Photo a day January 2013: Inject a little fun into your everyday!”

  1. One of my New Year’s resolutions this year is to learn my camera more, esp. off auto, so this challenge couldn’t of came at a better time!

  2. I have been following Photo A Day for a while now…and participated in a couple of months and completed one or two…I love this even when I start and don’t finish. In 2013 I will be photo taking along with the prompts as best I can, no pressure for me just fun…I certainly feel I have accomplished something when I complete a month…I add them to my Project Life album. Thank you♥

  3. I’m so happy to see that you are doing this list again this year! I plan on playing along this time. I pinned each month from last year in the off chance you didn’t do it again this year. I can’t wait to see where this year goes with a photo a day!

  4. I. Just want to thank DOUG for taking the effort out of me having to put the prompts into my calendar it really makes it easy and I am so thankful. I am so excited to be starting the challenge on the new year as I have been wanting to do the 365 project for so long and the prompts make it possible. Thank you so much I might even do last years prompts as well. Two photos a day…hahahahaha here we go bring it on 2013

  5. Thanks so much Chantelle for kicking of the Charity challenge with the Heart Lung Transplant Trust (Vic). I really hope that it inspires everyone to have the chat about organ donation with all of their family and friends, and gets them to sign up the national organ donor register (on the Medicare website)!
    I have my fingers crossed that I’ll receive a double lung transplant very soon.

  6. Thank you for the iCal import (: Doug’s a legend ! I really like the idea with the suggested prompts, as well. Good work, Chantelle!

    • might I ask how you put it on your iphone, I just got a new one and am trying to figure out how to use it and would love for it to me on my calendar in my phone!!

  7. I’m looking forward to getting started. I’m trying to decide where to post. I’m on both face book and pinterest. Any suggestions?

  8. I am so looking forward to the next years photo a day challange because I’m planing on doing it 365 days. yeah
    Where should I leave the link to my blog at the end of the month?

    Regards from Germany, Nina
    http://www.gedankensommer.de
    (I hope you have a happy New Year)

  9. For some reason the calendar won’t open on my iphone, ipod or ipad. Is there something I need to correct in the settings to make this work?
    I’ve tried for the last few months but now we’re going into the new year and I’d really like the reminder every day. Can anyone help?? Thanks, Michelle.

  10. So you post a photo you took that day, the day after, a photo you have taken yourself recently, or whenever? I’m guessing its that day seeming its photo a day lol.. 🙂

  11. So I hear You guys are gonna start taking people’s photos & start selling then without letting the person know AND without paying them.? That’s gonna ’cause a loooooot of trouble just so You know. It’s also not fair to Your users.

  12. I’m in! We are heading off for a year away – first travelling through Thailand and then off to live in Bhutan – can’t wait to take some interesting photos!

  13. Fabulous, I’ve just opened the calendar in my planner on Android, what a fabulous feature. Now I haven’t got to open the computer to find out what the prompts is! Thanks for organising it. Can’t wait to play along!

  14. So excited you’re doing the charity prompt. The heart is a perfect start to the new year 🙂 Thanks for working with Camille on this 🙂

  15. I love your photo a day challenges and are finally mustering enough courage to try the January challenge! Have been enjoying it so far! Wish me luck!

  16. I have been enjoying the Challenge VERY MUCH! I liked the idea of the heart and lung transplant trust but have never done anything with hashtags. I thought that was a Twitter thing(?) which I don’t participate in. So now that I have already posted my heart theme photo, can I add this hashtag thing? or am I out of luck with that. I especially wanted to participate since my husband had quintuple bypass surgery and February will be his 5 year anniversary of successfully beating the the grim reaper. Thanks! Marta

  17. I love this idea, thanks so much for your generous sharing of these prompts. I so need to get my camera out more often and take more than just the normal shots. Love it!

  18. I went through Doug’s calendar and changed all the “9am the day before” alarms to “8am on the same day”. This way when I look at my phone in the morning, I’m reminded about what photo I’ll be trying to capture today 🙂

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