Your skills are the result of a goal that was successfully accomplished in the past.
From your perspective today it can seem like you’ve always had these skills. But they started out with an idea, turned into a defined goal and a disciplined approach to your daily routine.
Photography is no exception to this process. As photographers, we set goals all the time. Some goals we write down. Some goals are unconscious, formed in our minds as we see inspiring landscapes or beautiful people. Some goals will take an entire lifetime to achieve and others are made for the next hour or two.
You’re probably reading this right now because you’re interested in improvement and you’re ready to start pursuing your goal of moving forward as a photographer.
Setting the goal is not the problem – we have the enthusiasm and inspiration. But if you’re serious about creating something compelling, you need to stop waiting for motivation and inspiration to strike you and set a schedule for doing work on a consistent basis.
Here are 7 ideas for the New Year Resolution:
*Read a biography of a famous photographer.
*Practice at least an hour daily.
*Watch the classic photographs.
*Do something not photographic every day.
*Do something artistic that’s not photography.
*Create an e-book.
*Consider starting Project 365 (or 52).
And let’s speak about Project 365 (or 52).
There’s no doubt that if you take your camera out every day, you take better photos. Of course, that’s easy to say, but much harder to do in practice.
Almost everyone faces the challenges such as “The weather was bad”, “The moment wasn’t right”, “The lighting was wrong”, “I didn’t have my tripod/the right lens with me”, and so on and so forth…
But if you were going to wait for everything to be perfect then eventually you would simply stop taking pictures.
So there’s a wonderful photographic project to help you – the 365 Project.
The purpose is to encourage yourself to shoot regularly, taking a photo every day for a year. If the plan to make one photograph per day would be too onerous for you, you might want to make one photograph per week, for 52 weeks.
It is a self assignment. This means you can set up your parameters and goals in ways that work best for you.
The project will help you to improve your skills. It also has the added benefit of forcing you to slow down and take a different look at the world around you, to notice the beauty and possibilities in every moment of life.
You may decide to restrict yourself to using a certain lens or technique. You may select a specific subject or theme (you can see more here and here). Taking a photo a day (or a week) will make you a better photographer. When you’re forced to come up with something new every single day (or week) you’ll become more creative, getting better at composing your shots, starting to care about lighting more.
2 main tips on how to do your own project:
*Bring your camera everywhere.
“Everywhere” means really everywhere – to the markets and shops, to the movie or exhibition, to your office, to your trip… Get into the habit.
*Don’t stop. No matter what…
You will get tired of taking a photo every single day (week). There will be times you’ll think there’s nothing interesting left to take a photo of, and times you’ll think you didn’t catch anything interesting to share. Probably you will consider giving up. Don’t do that. The result is worth the effort.
Although it’s certainly wonderful to travel and to shoot exotic scenes, it is definitely not necessary to do so. There are things to photograph in every situation.
There’s always a great photo to be made.
I highly recommend the experiment, and I encourage you to try it.
By the way I want to confess that I made my New Year Resolution. On the 1st of January 2015 I’ll start my Project 52. I will take one photo per week and post it on Sunday.
Stay tuned!
From your perspective today it can seem like you’ve always had these skills. But they started out with an idea, turned into a defined goal and a disciplined approach to your daily routine.
Photography is no exception to this process. As photographers, we set goals all the time. Some goals we write down. Some goals are unconscious, formed in our minds as we see inspiring landscapes or beautiful people. Some goals will take an entire lifetime to achieve and others are made for the next hour or two.
You’re probably reading this right now because you’re interested in improvement and you’re ready to start pursuing your goal of moving forward as a photographer.
Setting the goal is not the problem – we have the enthusiasm and inspiration. But if you’re serious about creating something compelling, you need to stop waiting for motivation and inspiration to strike you and set a schedule for doing work on a consistent basis.
Here are 7 ideas for the New Year Resolution:
*Read a biography of a famous photographer.
*Practice at least an hour daily.
*Watch the classic photographs.
*Do something not photographic every day.
*Do something artistic that’s not photography.
*Create an e-book.
*Consider starting Project 365 (or 52).
And let’s speak about Project 365 (or 52).
There’s no doubt that if you take your camera out every day, you take better photos. Of course, that’s easy to say, but much harder to do in practice.
Almost everyone faces the challenges such as “The weather was bad”, “The moment wasn’t right”, “The lighting was wrong”, “I didn’t have my tripod/the right lens with me”, and so on and so forth…
But if you were going to wait for everything to be perfect then eventually you would simply stop taking pictures.
So there’s a wonderful photographic project to help you – the 365 Project.
The purpose is to encourage yourself to shoot regularly, taking a photo every day for a year. If the plan to make one photograph per day would be too onerous for you, you might want to make one photograph per week, for 52 weeks.
It is a self assignment. This means you can set up your parameters and goals in ways that work best for you.
The project will help you to improve your skills. It also has the added benefit of forcing you to slow down and take a different look at the world around you, to notice the beauty and possibilities in every moment of life.
You may decide to restrict yourself to using a certain lens or technique. You may select a specific subject or theme (you can see more here and here). Taking a photo a day (or a week) will make you a better photographer. When you’re forced to come up with something new every single day (or week) you’ll become more creative, getting better at composing your shots, starting to care about lighting more.
2 main tips on how to do your own project:
*Bring your camera everywhere.
“Everywhere” means really everywhere – to the markets and shops, to the movie or exhibition, to your office, to your trip… Get into the habit.
*Don’t stop. No matter what…
You will get tired of taking a photo every single day (week). There will be times you’ll think there’s nothing interesting left to take a photo of, and times you’ll think you didn’t catch anything interesting to share. Probably you will consider giving up. Don’t do that. The result is worth the effort.
Although it’s certainly wonderful to travel and to shoot exotic scenes, it is definitely not necessary to do so. There are things to photograph in every situation.
There’s always a great photo to be made.
I highly recommend the experiment, and I encourage you to try it.
By the way I want to confess that I made my New Year Resolution. On the 1st of January 2015 I’ll start my Project 52. I will take one photo per week and post it on Sunday.
Stay tuned!
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