More than a year ago, my good friend (and fellow 24days.in author ) Tue Wolff Madsen asked if we (our little “posse” of photographers) were up for a challenge.
Of course we were – as long as it didn’t involved raspberry Jello and a skinned polar bear - we were pretty much up for anything … photo related.
So the idea was to challenge ourselves to upload 2 images each week for a whole year. And not just any two images, but with the small catch, that the images had to be taken between the two deadlines.

as long as it didn’t involved raspberry Jello and a skinned polar bear - we were pretty much up for anything

Explanation please!

Two deadlines each week. The first is Wednesday 23:59 and the second, sunday 23:59. So, when you deliver you 1st images (on Wednesdays) you have the window until Sunday 23:59 to shoot the next image. And then again, until Wednesday 23:59 for the next  – and so on.

Furthermore we each had 4 “topics” to force down on a delivery. As an example it could be Portrait or perhaps Lines or what ever creative idea you could come up with. Both topics and “limitations”, such as Black & White or 50mm could also be applied at will.
If nothing was “applied” our hands were free to do what ever we felt like.

Why on earth …

… would you do something like that? You might ask. Simply because we all felt our photographic creativity needed a fresh start and maybe a kick in the ba**s.
We all felt a bit stuck in our photography … or maybe the right word is SAFE.

you, yourself, do not evolve as a photographer.

And when you’re safe in your photography you’re also stuck, so to speak. You might be very good at the things you do – and succeed every time – but that is because you’re safe.
And because you’re safe, and you are operating within a comfort zone, you don’t evolve your photography and you, yourself, do not evolve as a photographer.

So back to SplitSek100 as we called the challenge.
SplitSek because that’s the name of our little group, and 100 because that’s the number of images we end up delivering when the year ends.

Engage

So in January 2018 we started year one of SplitSek100 – a journey towards 100 images.
Right from the get-go it was a hassle to think images constantly. But that was part of the journey ... to really think images.
You were constantly on the look-out for exiting images, quirky stories to tell with your images … or simply just that killer shot that would blow the others’ minds – ‘cause hey .. like any other photographer we too crave that recognition and amazement from others :)

Right from the get-go it was a hassle to think images constantly

Some things became easier along the way, but still your had those panic moments, where you just ended up shooting something arbitrary plain and boring household item, because the sand in the hourglass simply was running out.
And, admittedly, I missed a couple of deadline (buuuuuuuuu) due to holiday mind melt, where I simply forget what day it was.

And eventually two of the Party of Five fell short – due to either a time issue, or simply due to moving to Australia to study :D

Evaluation

All in all this has been such a great time. Hard at times yes, but the amount of "image-thinking" it has led to is simply fantastic. And seeing how the others think images is extremely fulfilling and giving. That is definitely something I have learned a lot of.

Would I take another year? 

At the moment I honestly don't know. If the others would, I probably would too, and then I'll be better at using my topics, 'cause I sure missed out on that opportunity. But no matter the hassle / at times, stress of having to push two images every single week of the year, it has been a fantastic and wonderful challenge ... and hell yes, I'll take another year if you do ... guys ?? :D

If all of the above sounds interesting to you, you could check out almost an entire year of SplitSek100 right here.
Furthermore you can read "all" the rules etc. for the challenge (scroll down to the bottom)

hell yes, I'll take another year if you do ... guys ??

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Note: I have spiced this article with some of my own SplitSek100 images – the captions below are week number + image number + the captions I provided for that specific image.