I’ve written about my friend Michelle a lot before; she gave me my first SLR out of the goodness of her heart, she runs an amazing photography grant, she’s funny and brilliant and wicked, she’s the best mom I know after my own, she’s been one of my biggest cheerleaders and best friends as I have worked to make photography something I can support myself with. She also happens to be a fantastic photographer herself — last year she and I collaborated on a not-quite-complete Project 365 that we called Project 182. It trailed off because we’re both lazy, not because it wasn’t an awesome challenge.

I’m in the middle of a pretty bad downswing, both personally and professionally; skipping shows, moping, worrying. So last Thursday, when Michelle proposed we do a 30 day challenge, I was all over that, just to get myself going again, and to collaborate with Michelle. We dragged her friend Carolyn in with us, made a list of 30 words — 15 from Michelle, 15 from me — and are shooting every day for the next month, one word a day.

I’m calling it 30 in 30, like the ESPN documentaries, and my started set is here. Which is the whole point of this post: are you blocked, are you down, are you frustrated with your shooting or your life or the weather? Get in on this. The list of words is in my set; we started last Thursday with “hot” (85 degrees at 10 pm? HOT), and today, Sunday, is Day 4, “Open”. Catch up or just start where we are now — get your days 1 to 3 at the end if you want! — and post your photos on Flickr tagged “30in30”. This project was Michelle’s idea, and I’m already smitten with it, and I’d love to help other photographers work out of a block like Michelle always helps me.

If enough people are interested and posting on Flickr, I’ll start a group for everyone’s photos. Get on it!