Take A Photo Of Yourself Everyday

Noah Kalina is the epitome of success through consistent dedication.

I say this because Noah took a photo of himself everyday for six years, and then created an incredible video of his life in fast-forward using 2356 photos.

At the time of this writing, his video has been viewed over 6 million times. That’s remarkable for a video nearly six minutes long with no dialogue.

Click the video below to play:

Regardless of the fact that Noah doesn’t actually speak in the video, he communicates so much to me.

There are several “one-liners” that initially came to mind when I first tried to understand the message behind Noah’s video: “Life is short.” — “Seize the day.” — “Time flies.”

It’s difficult to say what the true message is, since it appears that Noah never replied to any of the 25,000+ comments made by YouTube viewers. Looking for an intended message, I visited Noah’s website.

Noah Kalina Photography, his official website, has a section called Noah K Everyday where you can see all of his photos, some of which are for sale. In his FAQ, Noah only describes “Why?!” he did this by saying:

With the emergence of digital technology as a means to quickly and affordably take on a long term photography project, coupled with an interest in the subtleties of the ageing process, I started photographing myself every day.

I’m therefore supposing that how you interpret the video is up to you.

To me, I believe the message is simply: Today matters.

It really does. Today is the day you can decide to start taking a photo of yourself everyday for the rest of your life. Today is the day you can decide to practice piano everyday for the rest of your life. Today is the day you can decide to help someone else everyday for the rest of your life.

Today is happening now. Everything you want to achieve in the future won’t ever happen unless you begin taking steps towards that future today.

If you don’t have any set goals for your future, use today to plan them out.

If you already have set goals, but you won’t reach them today, then use today to bring yourself closer to those goals by tomorrow.

Thank you Noah, for your creative video. Your consistent expression as the world changes around you creates a very hypnotic gaze — and it keeps me watching every time.

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6 Responses to “Take A Photo Of Yourself Everyday”

#1 Luke on 29, May, 2007 at 3:15 am

This is amazing; and quite sad how many days can flash by as quickly as this video to some. Its quite amazing how it looks like he is moving.

#2 Shaun Boyd on 29, May, 2007 at 7:21 am

@Luke
I agree — in fact I think it’s so amazing that I’ve begun snapping a photo of myself every day in the hope that I’ll be able to create a similar video after a few years that shows my own life in fast-forward. Thanks for your comment.

#3 jeff on 29, May, 2007 at 10:53 pm

There is a site dedicated to making this dedication easier for the rest of us. It is http://www.flickaday.com if you would like to do this yourself, this tool will make it easier.

#4 Shaun Boyd on 30, May, 2007 at 7:13 am

@jeff
Very cool. Thanks for sharing that website — it definitely appears that the process is made much simpler using that site and a webcam. I wonder if it also sends you a reminder email message to take a new picture each day.

#5 BQ on 10, Aug, 2007 at 3:01 pm

Really amazing video. We have so much time and yet we don’t usually do anything with it.

#6 gabytza2gaby on 04, Jan, 2010 at 1:39 pm

Amazing . but he looks very sad.

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