Looks like we made it!! 4 weeks ago I set out to release a single photo every day on Thousand Circles. And today marks the last day of that challenge.
What better way to celebrate than with perhaps the cutest photograph in the history of the site?
Bakso was born in September of 2024, making him just about 5 months old now. He’s one of the newest members of Disney’s Animal Kingdom, where he spends his days with his mom, Sohni, on the Maharaja Jungle Trek. She's the tiger below Bakso in this image.
He was the first tiger cub to be born at DAK in 7 years. And as a Sumatran tiger, he’s one of the rarest animals in the world. His kind are native to the island of Sumatra in Indonesia, and according to the International Fund for Animal Welfare, there are less than 600 of them left in the entire world due to loss of habitat and hunting. Which makes him quite a big deal. (As if he wasn’t already.)
And if all of this wasn’t already pretty awesome…how about this: a Bakso is an Indonesian meatball.
I can’t even.
I went to visit Bakso and his mom yesterday because I thought they’d be a very special end to a very special month. This process, releasing an image into the world every day of the week for 4 weeks, has meant so much more to me than you might realize. I think as a creative (or as a human, really) we tend to hesitate to release our work into the world. We do a thousand things to hold onto it instead of putting it out there. First among them, perhaps, is continuing to try to better it indefinitely. We call ourselves perfectionists, but really it’s often just a delay tactic.
This project forced me to carry a single image from start to finish every single day. It forced me to release my work into the world every single day. And because each image was “only” for a day, it also took the pressure off of long term perfection in a way. Release, receive your feedback, finish, and start again. Every day. It was challenging, but it was also freeing.
And so, I’d say, this little experiment has been a success. Through it, I somehow learned to keep letting go and to keep moving forward.
This has all been so wonderful, in fact, that we are going to keep going. Every week, Monday-Friday, I’ll be releasing a new image. We might play with the approach a bit over time, but for now, starting next Monday, March 3rd, we’ll be continuing with this. One image. Every day.
I’m shifting to 5 days a week for a little extra room to breathe and plan, but otherwise things will stay the same. If you're subscribed (which you can scroll down and do below if you haven't yet), you’ll still get this email every morning, Monday-Friday. Images will also be shared on Instagram (@thousandcirclesimages) and on my personal Facebook page. I’ll also keep the journal going. And I’ll always keep listening to your feedback. In fact, I have some fun ideas for how I might involve you more in the process in the future if you’re interested.
As for now, though, I honestly just couldn’t be more grateful to you for joining me on this journey. I appreciate you more than you could ever know.
And so, with that, I’ll bid you farewell…until Monday. <3