Personal Projects

   As photographers, we must always strive to find ways to keep from falling into a rut, creatively. We have to always be creative and imaginative in our work in order to make our clients happy. Over time you may find that you have lost that “spark” and photography is starting to feel too much like a job rather than someone you loved that you went to school to get paid for.

                                              old phone booth in Lincoln County, Ga

    A good way to stay “fresh” as a photographer and artist and keep your passion alive is with personal projects. Personal projects are photography projects that you come up with that are mostly for fun and to keep the spark ignited, but can also serve a purpose such as raising social awareness. I personally recommend and I know many of our professors so as well, that you always have one or two “pet” projects on the back burner, that you work on when you have time.

    Over time, becoming established as a professional photographer, you may even be commissioned by a client to do a photography project, such as the one Time Magazine sent Ed Kashi on, photographing the incoming Hurricane Sandy in New Jersey with nothing but an iPhone.

                                            from Ed Kashi's project on Super Storm Sandy

    For me personally, I am working on a personal project right now I call Forgotten Pieces of Georgia. For my project, I am traveling the back roads of Georgia, shooting old buildings, rusted old vehicles and the like and talking to people as I go to get more information about their area and the way it’s  been devastated by the poor economy. The project will take considerable time and effort as I am shooting in all 159 counties of Georgia, but yours doesn’t have to be as massive an undertaking. I am including a couple of shot from my project for inspiration as well as one of Ed’s from the Super Storm Sandy project he did for Time.

                                            abandoned Citgo station in Lincoln County, Ga

    So, think of a personal project that you would love to do, and just do it. You may not be able to devote all your time and energy to it as other things get in the way, but you can at least set some time aside every month to make some progress. Now get out there and shoot!


Source:
6 Famous Photographers Working on Epic Projects, Photoventure. Web. visited Nov 23, 2014 http://www.photoventure.com/2013/03/01/6-famous-photographers-working-on-epic-photo-projects/



Comments/Questions

Brainstorming is Useful!

Hello everyone and welcome to another Terrific Tuesday!

So, here is the situation: you have started class and during the first week you are asked to submit a proposal on a final project for the class, the parameters and the requirements are set, however, you have no idea what to do.  Hurry, you have to post that proposal for review before the end of the week!  What do you do, what topic you choose, how are you going to develop it?

Answer: start brainstorming as soon as possible!

https://blogs.montclair.edu/cwe/2013/07/03/cooking-up-ideas-cleaning-up-thoughts-brainstorming-techniques-to-get-you-started-on-a-paper/

We all have brainstormed at one time or another, trying to make decisions of where to go, what movie to watch, where to go to eat, how to manage the budget, etc…  Brainstorming for photography is not too different, you have the knowledge and you have studied hard, it is just a matter to put it all together in a way that you do what you like, meet the requirements and learn about the concepts that you are expressing or photographing.

By the way, brainstorming and research are not the same, you brainstorm before you research, otherwise you might be going in circles with no goal in sight (or mind)!

So when do you perform a brainstorming session? For me, it is almost a daily thing, when I am driving I see something that gives me an idea and instantly try to fit it to my upcoming project.  I am at work and someone says something interesting, I instantly find an angle to use with photography.  For you, it might have happened in any place, sleeping, eating, playing, watching TV or just while you take pictures.

One of my professors gave us some tips about brainstorming, I will share them with you all.  This is what she wrote to the students in our current class of Photo Essay:

“Having trouble coming up with the perfect idea?
Why not take a bit of time to brainstorm some ideas before you begin your research?

Take 20 minutes or so grab a cup of good coffee or a nice cold beer or class or wine and just have fun with it. 

Often I don’t think we spend enough time on the creative process of our work.

Choosing the right story for you is imperative for your success.

Think about what you are curious about. What are you passionate about?

On the practical side- what do you have time for? What do you have access for?”

It sounds simple ah?  It is simple, the best thing you can do before jumping in the water is to see how deep it is, how cold it might be, and then figure out what are you going to do when you are in the deep end (the analogy sounded better in my head)!

Want to read some more about brainstorming and photography?  Take a look at this link that provides some information about brainstorming with Lightroom.

http://ralphnordstromphotography.com/wordpress/journal/brainstorming-in-photography/

Writing a paper instead?  Then check out this page:

https://blogs.montclair.edu/cwe/2013/07/03/cooking-up-ideas-cleaning-up-thoughts-brainstorming-techniques-to-get-you-started-on-a-paper/

http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/an-efficient-israel-in-our-dreams/

Hope you all have fun brainstorming and let me tell you, once you start it will almost become second nature.

Drop me a line if you have different brainstorming techniques, lets share with everyone else out there!

Until later, this is your Tuesday Ambassador!