Here is a not so secret method for how to be successful at anything. Practice it every day. But there's more to sustaining this than repeating it for 10,000 hours. That's boring. We have something in the DS106 Open Digital Storytelling course that has helped people improve their creativity and imagination. The Daily Create is modeled the defunct Daily Shoot, which offered a daily challenge designed to help people practice their photography skills. For over two years, the ds106 Daily Create has offered a daily creative prompt in written, photographic, drawing, audio, and video form. These challenges are now to no stake and encourage participants to try things that may have never done before. What makes this different from exercising or learning to play the saxophone is that the Daily Create is fun, open, and generates connections between people around the world. And you can modify the same approach for any subject. Invited keynote for Riding the Wave of Change conference, Gimli (Manitoba) May 2014

1. Doing the Daily Create
Alan Levine cogdog.info
cc licensed ( BY NC SD ) flickr photo by Adam Melancon:
http://flickr.com/photos/melancon/2629905708/

2. who wants to be good
at something?
cc licensed ( BY NC ) flickr photo by Thomas Hawk:
http://flickr.com/photos/thomashawk/2354086423/

3. cc licensed ( BY NC SD ) flickr photo by davemmett:
http://flickr.com/photos/davemmett/3022383314/

4. creative commons licensed (BY-SA) flickr photo by cogdogblog:
http://flickr.com/photos/cogdog/2543589389

6. Curly’s Law

7. creative commons licensed (BY-SA) flickr photo by cogdogblog:
http://flickr.com/photos/cogdog/4246807676

8. cc licensed ( BY NC ND ) flickr photo by jónr:
http://flickr.com/photos/jonragnarsson/280131282/
“When it comes to the artistic value of images
and proclamations of self importance, let me
be very blunt: where there is no artist, there is
no art. No matter how beautiful or powerful
the feats of nature you photograph, if all you
do is record them using photographic media
without introducing your own sensibilities into
the final product, they are not art!
Your images should provide viewers with an
experience they could not have had, and
would never have seen or felt, if it were not
for your sharing it with them.”
Guy Tal, (http://guytal.com/wordpress/2011/05/dont-be-an-idiot/)

9. OR EMAIL
cape97house@photos.flickr.com

10. “I’m not a good
photographer”
cc licensed ( BY SD ) flickr photo by Ernst Vikne:
http://flickr.com/photos/iboy/4532497884/

11. cc licensed ( BY NC ND ) flickr photo by imNicholas:
http://flickr.com/photos/imnicholas/5013500139/

12. Try.
Reflect.
Share.
Repeat...

13. 365 photos
http://www.flickr.com/groups/366photos/

14. 2014
1159

15. cc licensed ( BY NC ND ) flickr photo by imNicholas:
http://flickr.com/photos/imnicholas/5013500139/

19. "Photography is an art and a craft. Getting better at
both requires practice—lots of practice. The Daily
Shoot is a simple daily routine to motivate and inspire
you to practice your photography, and share your
results! It’s not a contest and there are no prizes. It's
simply about encouraging you to pick up your camera
and make photographs.
That's it. There aren't any other rules. You aren't going
to get demerits if you miss a few days, nor will you get
gold stars for doing every assignment. We're just here
to help you with a little nudge every day. The rest is up
to you!"
The Daily Shoot, (http://dailyshoot.com/)

23. John King
cc licensed ( BY NC SD ) flickr photo by john.king:
http://flickr.com/photos/johnking/5251126461/
cc licensed ( BY NC SD ) flickr photo by john.king:
http://flickr.com/photos/johnking/5425668561/
"The intelligent, polite and talented DS
photographers expand my creativity by showing
so many possible good approaches to the same
photographic problem.
Commenting on other photos and having my own
photos commented on is yet another
enhancement to the learning.”
John King, (http://flickr.com/photos/johnking/)

24. Jabiz Raisdana
cc licensed ( BY NC ) flickr photo by Intrepid Flame:
http://flickr.com/photos/intrepidflame/426620305/
cc licensed ( BY NC ) flickr photo by Intrepid Flame:
http://flickr.com/photos/intrepidflame/5380534348/
"Daily shoot has really forced me to look more
closely at my world and experiment more with
my photography. I am trying different angles,
lighting and composition. By shooting everyday,
I am also able to see when I fall into a rut or a
pattern thus forcing me to try new things.”
Jabiz Raisdana, (http://flickr.com/photos/intrepidflame/)

25. Audrey Williams
cc licensed ( BY NC ) flickr photo by AJ Wms:
http://flickr.com/photos/ajwms/292988246/
cc licensed ( BY NC ) flickr photo by AJ Wms:
http://flickr.com/photos/ajwms/306635688/
"'Forcing' yourself to take a photo every day
means you have your camera with you at all
times and you start to look at objects and events
with a more artful eye. I find it that I frame shots
in my head even if I am not going to actually
press the shutter button.
I have always loved photography but this kind of
project actually made me fall in love with
photography all over again.”
Audrey Williams, (http://flickr.com/photos/ajwms/)

26. cc licensed ( BY NC ) flickr photo by Galagon Wagon:
http://flickr.com/photos/galagonwagon/5429505007/
“I remember walking around campus that day thinking about preparedness, looking
for preparedness, wondering what preparedness was. No luck.
That evening, though, I was thinking about how Leatherman’s were an example of
preparedness, and then I remembered an old pocketknife my grandfather had
given me.
I tried to think of how I could make it interesting. It needed… atmosphere. It
needed… lighting. But just shooting it with a flash turned out bland, so I figured out
how to get the flash focused on a small area of the scene (it’s called a snoot).
It’s clear, I think, that absent the constraint of needing to take a certain kind of
picture that night, I probably wouldn’t have ever headed down the path which
resulted in the picture, nor would I have gained further practice in photography.”
Galagon Wagon, (http://galagonwagon.com/2011/02/the-daily-shoot-and-creativity/)

27. cc licensed ( BY NC ) flickr photo by Intrepid Flame:
http://flickr.com/photos/intrepidflame/5348740810/
“Despite knowing that photographing water is difficult, I
walked around our campus after school looking for it; I
should have been looking for liquids. Then I saw it.
Beautiful, dense, thick buckets of mud. A blend of earth
and water and gas and everything mushed together. I
have always loved mud, so with great pleasure I
snapped a round of shots. I am glad I didn't go with a
more traditional glistening form of liquid, and I tried
something a bit different.”
Jabiz Raisdana, (http://intrepidflame.blogspot.com/2011/01/state-of-matter.html)

28. cc licensed ( BY NC ) flickr photo by electrovert:
http://flickr.com/photos/58873944@N07/5417153345/
“The assignment’s taken me on some pretty
unexpected adventures. Almost everyday I’ve
started with a completely different idea (or no idea)
of what I was going to photograph, then stumbled
upon something extraordinary. It’s forced me to
think about things in new ways and it’s shown me
that sometimes it’s easier to make art when you
take a more hands-on approach and don’t
overthink it.”
Matt Martin, (http://blog.electrovert.net/?p=69)

29. Oct 2011

30. tdc.ds106.us

35. how did we do?

36. learning by doing matters
cc licensed ( BY NC ) flickr photo by Thomas Hawk:
http://flickr.com/photos/thomashawk/155589939/

37. motivation matters
cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo by Faithful Chant [ back ]:
http://flickr.com/photos/chant3/3252597528/

38. shared space matters
cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo by kennymatic:
http://flickr.com/photos/kwl/4555399660/

39. learning with others
matters
cc licensed ( BY NC ) flickr photo by teliko82:
http://flickr.com/photos/teliko82/2189579308/

40. daily ______ ?
cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo by striatic:
http://flickr.com/photos/striatic/241843728/

42. create something every
day
cc licensed ( BY NC SD ) flickr photo by Ernesto JT:
http://flickr.com/photos/auggie/405845898/

43. cogdog.info
cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo by woodleywonderworks:
http://flickr.com/photos/wwworks/4759535950/