An easy way to document your life in 2025

Over the last year on Instagram I've been keeping a simple photo journal throughout the year. At this point, it's mostly pictures from my Leica M240, a Ricoh GR IIIx and occasionally my phone, but the important bit is that they are photos that I have to look back on week on week, and that brings me joy!
If you want to follow along on this year's photo journey, follow me on Instagram: / willhdolan and subscribe here for more videos!

[@willhdolan]

Also! I didn’t talk about printing my work in this video… something for the future 👀

[@NotAnotherAdventure]

I love this so much. We've fallen into the trap of putting things out that we don't think is great but have to get something out there. Sometimes you just have to take the pressure off!

[@willhdolan]

Totally agree! It's so tough to get into that mindset, but truth be told, I have so many intense deadlines with work why should I force myself to do something I don't want to for my own personal channels too!

[@mrki4937]

Nice video, that is exactly what I am doing, documenting my family's life. For me, this is the most precious thing about photography. Forget about landscape photography, that is absolutely interchangeable, especially in the age of generative AI. But documentary photography will live for ever and can and will not be replaced by genAI as long as humans live.

[@willhdolan]

Thanks! I really agree. I think having those memories of your loved ones means so so much. I love landscape photography, and most of my photos I have up in my house are landscapes - but those photos will never mean the same to me as photos of loved ones. Thanks for watching!

[@mrki4937]

@@willhdolan Yes, I know what you mean.
My decision to deeply getting into documentary photography developed, when I started reading about Magnum press photo agency and especially about Robert Capa who covered the Spanish civil war in the 1930s and WWII / D-Day in Omaha Beach. I can absolutely advise Russel Millers book Magnum: Fifty Years at the Front Line of History: The Story of the Legendary Photo Agency which gives a tremendous insight into the founding of Magnum after WWII.
Everybody might have heard about Henry Cartier Bressons quote about the Decisive Moment that you are seeking to capture as a documentary photographer, but Magnum Photographer David Hurn's book On being a photographer that he wrote together with Bill Jay explained to me in a brilliant way how to successfully approach this style of capturing the decisive moment - the pdf is available for free on the internet, it is a short book that will change the way you take pictures.