1/365: Happy New Year!

1/365: Happy New Year!, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

January 1st

So much sparkle! Happy New Year!

Two thousand and eleven!

You can find the description of the place where I took this photo at the end of this post, but I want to mention something else while the day is young. Can you guess?

PROJECT 365!

I wrote about it just before I started last year, but did you know 2011 will be my fifth year? Just in case you don't know, there is only one rule:

Take one photo a day, every day, for one year.

I think you should do it too. January 1st is the best day to start, for those of us who make resolutions. And this one is fairly easy. You just take a picture. It doesn't have to be good, it doesn't have to be spectacular, it just has to be YOURS.

Reasons why you should do it? Here. Five good ones. 

Photo Project 365 is:

1. a photo diary of every day of the year (those who have kids or other ongoing evolving projects should find this most convincing)
2. an excellent way to improve your photography (without really even trying!)
3. a creative project! We all need something creative in our lives. 
4. a great incentive to carry your camera everywhere you go (have you ever said 'I wish I'd had my camera on me'? Yes? Then this project is for you.)
5. a good way never to find yourself saying 'I need to take a picture of that some day.' SOME DAY IS TODAY!

Go on. You know you want to at least give it a try. If you fail, you've lost nothing. If you succeed, you'll probably want to try again next year. ;)

And now for the description which originally went with this photo:

Lodz is a flat city. Very flat. Its highest point is a semi-artificial mound piled in 1969 to create a small (K-15) ski-jumping slope. No bleachers or judge tower were ever built, and the slope fell into ruin in the eighties. I hear some resourceful young volunteers fixed it up just this last year. Interesting to note that people had already been ski jumping from the natural portion of the mound in the 1930s.

Anyway, the mound itself stands 230 m above sea level and is called Rudzka Góra, which means 'Mountain of Ore', as it lies in an area of town where bog iron used to be extracted. There's an artificial bobsleigh track that runs up the top (awesome fun), and when half the town showed up to watch the fireworks they all clambered up by holding on to the lift cable.

You can see part of the track in the photo, behind the people. On an ordinary day you're not supposed to climb over the fence and get that close to the track and the equipment, but New Year's Eve is special. You're probably not supposed to launch fireworks haphazardly in a crowd, either, but that's what people did. I did not get hit, but it was close. Fireworks are stupid, but they're a beautiful kind of stupid. From the Rudzka Góra, I saw them go off all over town. I didn't get exactly the shot I wanted, but I got others which were equally good, and next year I know what to do.

No one got hurt, it was loud, it was beautiful, I had the best time. I don't like parties at all, but on New Year's there's an inevitable pressure to do Something, so I am always looking for a good place to be that doesn't involve drinking and dancing. Especially since I'm never invited anywhere that WOULD involve it!