Kevin Kubota has talked about it in many of his programs. Brian Palmer, a good friend from Akron, did project 365, taking a new photograph every day of something he’d never photographed before, when he first started his blog. Nicole Wolf has written about the importance of personal projects both here and in GoingPro. Matthew Jordan Smith always has at least one personal project in the works. In fact, spend enough time talking with any photographer you consider an icon and sooner or later  you’ll hear about a project they’ve been working on, quite often for years.

A little while back my good buddy, Scott Bourne, wrote a post about personal projects with five ideas to kick start the concept. If you don’t have a personal project you’re working on, give it some serious thought. It can be anything as long as you stay with one qualifier – it has to fulfill some level of passion for imaging. Whether it’s long term or short term doesn’t matter as long as it’s challenging your creativity gene!

1. Get out of your comfort zone

No matter where you live, chances are it’s no more than an hour (or less) to the next town. Spend a day there. Go on a photo walk. Document this “new” town that you live next to as if you were shooting for a travel magazine. Tell a story about the neighboring town with your camera.

2. Make your car a star

Take your car to a local lake or park or other cool setting and photograph it like you were shooting it for a magazine. Go all out. Detail it and then study some car shoots that inspire you. Go out and try to make similar shots with your own twist.

3. Night shoot

Take your camera out and shoot cityscapes at night. Shoot the night life. You can also experiment with some light painting. Be careful and know where you are. Your personal safety is your responsibility and while night shooting is riskier, it can also be rewarding.

4. It’s a dog’s life

Pretty much everywhere you might live there are dogs hanging around. Spend a day photographing dogs. Try different themes. Try shooting from the dog’s perspective. Try catching different dog expressions.

5. Numbers

Spend an entire day photographing nothing but numbers. Anything with a number in it is fair game. Think of creative ways to apply this numerical concept.

Personal projects are great for focusing your photographic attention on one result. This almost always yields higher quality pictures.

The first book of his I had a chance to read was Final Exposure, many years ago.  Lou doesn’t just capture images, he captures souls. The background description of Final Exposure from his website hits on at least two key points that I’ve talked about so often…

Giving himself the provocative task of capturing the candid expressions of death row inmates, Jones has used the power of his camera to present these inmates as real people and not just the dark side of humanity. His book, Final Exposure: Portraits from Death Row chronicles his six-year odyssey documenting these men and women incarcerated in the U.S.

The first key point is the power photographers have to use their camera to capture so much more than just images. In Final Exposure Lou captured personalities, taking us all to a place we will hopefully never be, death row. The second, is the importance of projects with a purpose.

Nicole Wolf wrote in a guest post two years ago:

We all have a responsibility when either educating about or participating in a “personal project”, to let ourselves go.  To create a place that others feel comfortable sharing that part of themselves with another human being.  It’s not an easy thing to open up and reveal the most intimate part of who you are, which is what a personal project should be.

Having a personal project helps keep you focused on why you became a professional photographer in the first place.  Your core business might be miles away from what you love to shoot the most or a topic you want to increase awareness about.  Having a personal project allows you to have a stronger emotional tie to your skill set while still having to “work for a living”.

I ran across this video clip recently from Lou’s new book, Dance. Obviously I love it, otherwise it wouldn’t be featured here today. However, what I love most is how much you can learn about Lou in less than three minutes.

As you watch it pay attention to the way he’s shooting, the number of people involved, the way his lighting is set up. And don’t be thrown off by those little commercial moments where he’s tagged the equipment he’s using. Giving back to his sponsors is another piece of who Lou is and what makes him so great to work with!  It’s all part of the formula that makes him one of the country’s greatest contemporary photographers.

One last thing to notice, the expressions on everyone’s face, not just when the strobes fire, but throughout the video. This is a group of people absolutely working as a team and they’re having fun doing it. I found a great quote that I used last week in reference to Resource Magazine’s new digital magazine,

Visions are made by individuals.Accomplishments are made by team work.

Lou is somebody who should be on your radar! His most recent book, Saint Petersburg Russia is available through the Blurb Bookstore. You’ll find more of his work and an occasional blog on his blogspot site.

I’ve said it dozens of times in the past:  The best part of this industry has nothing to do with photography, but the friendships that come out of everyone’s love for the craft!

First, it feels good! You’re looking for the community to be good to you, so you need to be good to your community. It’s that simple. No matter how much success you have in building your business, nothing feels as good as just making other people feel better!

Second, Jay Conrad Levinson, the father of Guerrilla Marketing, has repeatedly had it in his top 100 list of things guerrilla marketers need to do. People like buying products and services from companies they perceive as giving back.

The best part of this is there is no such thing as a program too small for you to be involved with. Over the years I’ve heard about everything from a Dad helping his son’s school and working with the school newsletter to major programs with hospitals, churches, the military and kids. Here’s the start of a great list of programs going on and actively supported by our industry, in alphabetical order.

www.AkronPhotoSeries.com

www.CamerasForKidsFoundation.org

www.HeartsApart.org

www.help-portrait.com

www.NowILayMeDownToSleep.org

http://www.ppacharities.com/

http://www.specialkidsphotography.com/

http://thirstrelief.org/

http://thefilmproject.net/

http://upfromunder.org/2011/07/haiti-july-2010/

 That’s ten organizations/projects that I know of just off the top of my head, all involved with photographers in our industry. From my own Akron Photo Series that ties back to Akron Children’s Hospital to Nicole Wolf’s efforts in Haiti, Up From Under.  Just these ten involve babies, children, teens, families, the military, Haitian relief and fresh water. The list will go on and on as soon as you let me know what programs to add. 

I want to build a list of links to help photographers connect and I can only do it with your input and experience!  Let me know what I’m missing.  I’m looking for programs you’re involved with in your own community to share with other photographers.  Maybe we can light a fire under photographers who have yet to get involved!

And from Jorge Castillo, class of ‘06 at Washington University: “Your environment limits your perspective. Community service expands it.”
 

It’s not really that much of a coincidence. All of three of us are writing about our passion for imaging. It doesn’t matter where in the food chain of the photographic industry you fall, if you’re taking the time to read blogs about photography, of which this is one, then somewhere along life’s path you got bit by the bug! Congratulations, because there are few career fields this wonderful. In fact, I’m not sure I know of any!

The bottom line is, if you’re frustrated and not happy as a photographer, then take a day or two off. Take your camera with you and just go out and shoot for the day. Photograph the way you did just before you made it a career choice. There’s nothing wrong in stopping to smell the roses now and then. It’s even better when you photograph them!

Copyright 2009 Scott Bourne – All Rights Reserved

I was driving south on Montana state route 89. I was flanked on both sides of the road by incredibly beautiful, snow-capped mountains. To my left, the Yellowstone River flowed around the bend and back, framing thousands of acres of pastureland inhabited by cattle and sheep.

As I headed south to Gardiner where I’m hosting the Aperture Nature Photography Workshop, it dawned on me that I should make a photo. But I kept driving. I was simply having too much fun just realizing I was in this beautiful place where not much mattered other than just being happy.

I’ve “forgotten” to take photos before. In those pure moments I simply, literally, got so wrapped up in what I was seeing that the camera didn’t call for me. I just enjoyed what I saw. In this case, I didn’t forget. I just decided that I didn’t need to interrupt my moment.

So yesterday, I let it go. I decided being happy was its own reward. I decided that my pursuit of photography didn’t always have to lead to a photograph. Sometimes it could just lead to being happy.

But then I realized I wanted to write this post to remind everyone that it’s okay if you don’t get every shot. If you got off the couch, out from behind the big screen television or away from your laptop and took time to enjoy BEING somewhere, not just reading about it, texting about it, Twittering about it, just BEING there, it’s okay. And I realized you’d all probably be disappointed if I didn’t show you what I was talking about.

So I went back today to make this photo knowing you’d want to see what I passed on yesterday

It’s a panorama I stitched together in Photoshop. It’s not the most awe-inspiring image I ever made. But it does act as a personal reminder to me of what I enjoyed yesterday. I will probably print this up and put it in my bedroom. For those moments when I’m stressed, I’ll remember that my job takes me to some pretty cool places and I’ll go back to this one, at least in my mind, until the next time I get the excuse to go out and shoot. Scott Bourne

...and I can guarantee you that in the next three minutes, Smiles will make you smile!


Life Stories – Smiles Green from Studio This Is – Jason Monroe on Vimeo.

  
It was interesting to see Skip’s latest post on neurochromes almost to the second we released the preview of my Grandfather’s Life Story.  My dear friend and film maker, Jason Monroe and I, decided to do a short documentary on my grandfather Oliver “Smiles” Green last year.  Monroe had been to the island I am from in Canada called Grand Manan and had become fast friends with my grandfather, Smiles.  We both knew, at some point, this was a story that needed to be told.

As a photographer, I have spent many years trying to capture that perfect moment.  We all know what it’s like, flashes of emotion gone in a second, translated through our camera in order for ourselves and others to feel what that instant was like.  The beauty of video however, can take you to an entirely different place.  As I interviewed my grandfather for this piece, I was able to hear stories, details of years gone by, emotional highs and lows and watch a beautiful story unfold.  He is my grandfather, I have known him for years, but there were things revealed I never knew about him.  Sound bites of audio, emotion so precious now, that can only be connected through film.

It is so important for us as artists to create powerful work and to go to a place of connectivity within ourselves and then translated to others.  I have so many neurochromes of my grandparents, fading memories that I just want to bottle up and store.  The privilege we have as image makers, is that we are able to carry those memories on for generations.  Our responsibility therefor lies within creating work that means something, telling a story of another person’s life that may never have been told if it were not for us.

I love my neurochromes, perfect and personal moments, that only my mind’s eye can see, but I also love that we have the ability to share some of the most important moments of our lives with others through our work as image makers. Nicole Wolf

Well, looking at some of David Ziser’s work over the years I found this black and white image from a trip to Colorado and it got me thinking about the importance of taking the time to enjoy your camera instead of always working with it.  When was the last time you just picked up the camera and played for a day?

Going back a year ago, Nicole Wolf did a guest post on the importance of personal projects. Kevin Kubota talked about it at Skip’s Summer School last year. Joe Buissink is never without his “neuro-cam” often looking at scenes and clicking off frames in his head. Jerry Ghionis is rarely without a camera in his hand, so often seeing something or someone he just wants to photograph for the fun of it. (He’s on tour right now with Sandy Puc - do NOT miss him and Sandy if they come within a 200 miles of your house!)

All of these photographers use their cameras as an outlet of expression and relaxation, just to stay in shape, like a professional athlete. However, it’s not about their photographic skills, but their creative skills. They recharge their batteries photographing for themselves. 

You need to take the time to just photograph for you – not for a client! You need to have a special project that reminds you why you got into this business in the first place. It’s a body of work you’re just going to build on with no deadlines, time table or requirements, except that it’s fun. 

Besides helping to keep your “battery” charged, it  will also strengthen your diversity and creativity! It’s all about just having fun!

This image was made while driving from Vail, Colorado to Aspen a few years ago.  The drive is just beautiful as you make your way through the grand peaks of the Rocky Mountains.  We were about 20-30 miles outside of Aspen when we found ourselves driving through several groves of Aspen trees.  For a Midwestern boy, this was a beautiful “Ansel Adams” moment.  We pulled over and spent about an hour just exploring and photographing the surroundings. 

I was reviewing the images from the shoot and came across this image.  It turns out it is my favorite from the several hundred images I captured. I love the tonalities, the textures, and rhythm of the scene. Look how the light just “dances” on the bark of the trees.  I brought the image into Lightroom, converted the image to B&W using the Grey-scale tab and then toned down the greens and yellows to pop the contrast of the Aspens tree trunks with the surrounding foliage. Camera specs; Canon 50D fitted with 18-200mm IS lens at 200mm, F5.6 @ 1/125 second, ISO 200.  David Ziser

Pets are such a huge part of our lives.  One of the very first images you see when you hit Janine’s landing page is a child with a pet.  Information off the Internet estimates 63% of US households have a pet. In addition, it’s estimated there are 73 million dogs and 90 million cats in the US!   Last but not least, an industry survey done a long time ago showed Brides, Babies and Pets as the three most popular reasons people hire a professional photographer.

Janine doesn’t realize that her last line was another important thought for me.  It’s about developing programs to help keep you energized, personl projects.  Her ultimate goal of building this into a body of work for a book some day fits so perfectly with good buddy Nicole Wolf’s blog about personal projects! This is about keeping a passion alive and healthy while at the same time giving back.

Nicole wrote: …”We all have a responsibility when either educating about or participating in a “personal project”, to let ourselves go.  To create a place that others feel comfortable sharing that part of themselves with another human being.  It’s not an easy thing to open up and reveal the most intimate part of who you are, which is what a personal project should be.”

Janine, thanks for being at the top of the list of the first contributor to this season’s Charity Fest!  If you want to read more about Janine’s involvement with the pet shelter, it’s just a click away! The story is on page 5.

I’ve always been a dog lover and although my studio is largely focused on children and families, I wanted to find a way to support a local shelter. Starting last year, I launched my first ever Bark Sessions.

The Bark Sessions are a 2 day event to benefit the Associated Humane Society of Newark. I love featuring family pets in my images.  Shelter dogs, especially, hold a place near and dear to me. My second dog is a shelter dog and it’s important to me for people to understand how many animals are dumped in shelters every year and this was a perfect fit for me.

The Associated Humane Society of Newark receives some of the most abused and neglected dogs in New Jersey. The woman who runs it is tireless in her efforts to find homes for these dogs — many have been beaten or starved, some were used for fighting.

When I contacted her last year, she was thrilled. We made $500 the first year and close to $1200 this year. We’ve already spoken about expanding the program and I’ve expressed interest in coming to the shelter to photograph some of the more abused dogs and follow them through the system to a hopefully happy ending. My goal is to one day publish the stories and perhaps raise more money for the shelter. -Janine Memon-Dietz

So, If every now and then you wake up with the passion to enter the fine art world, then the experiences Nicole has shared with us are your road map for the journey.   Most important of all is a comment she made : “It’s a humbling journey, the journey of self discovery.”

Nicole, you’re an inspiration.  Thanks for sharing!

In the past six months, I have entered another world of photography.  Since I started my career in 1996, I thought by now I would have a grasp of the ins and outs of this business, but as I quickly discovered, the fine art world is an entirely different realm of photography.

When I was studying for my MFA at Columbia, I was reminded daily of the journey as a fine art photographer.  My professors were working artists themselves and we were fortunate to have some of the top fine art photographers lecture and teach classes at my school.  I remember sitting in a lecture led by Nan Goldin and realizing two things: you need to demand a response from your viewers, and what you have to say about your own work is equally as important as the story the image itself is trying to tell.  I worked at the Museum of Contemporary Photography and literally touched some of the most prominent work in our culture to date.  However, even through all of this and after all these years, I am just starting to understand the magnitude of what it means to be vulnerable in your art and how to really embrace the essence of who I am as an artist.

This journey all started because I have about 15,000 images from a project I have been working on for five years.  This past November, I was sitting at my computer after my sixth trip to the Northeast to photograph. I was editing, and said to myself, “What the hell am I doing with all this work?”  I knew it was time to discover the answer, and for four weeks, I edited through the photographs.

I narrowed the 15,000 down to 238 and literally had no idea at that point what I was looking at.  I knew I had reached the place where someone from the outside needed to weigh in — I needed to find an editor.  I was lucky enough to be introduced to the famed Mike Davis (http://www.michaelddavis.com/) through a dear friend. Listing his credentials would take an entire page, but I knew that anyone who edited for years at National Geographic, among several other places, could surely do better than me when looking at my work.  He taught me several things, but most importantly, qualitative thinking!  This basically boils down to the creative process and breaking your images down into five categories: color, light, composition, moment and distance from the subject.  He took those 238 images and narrowed them down to a solid 38 in a series that still blows my mind when I look at it.

After I had my 38 precious gems, with the other 14,962 patiently awaiting a re-edit, I needed to start presenting my work.   I had no clue how to do this or where to start, and the never-ending sea of galleries, curators and reps was beyond daunting.  I had a couple of friends from grad school that I called upon for advice — these photographers had been working in the fine art world for about 12 years, so I knew that they could lead me in the right direction.

“Who is your audience?” was the first question my friend Sama asked me. “Who do you want to see your work?”  Since the work was about lobster fishermen on the northeast coast of Canada, I figured that was as good a place to start as any.  I then emailed and called about 15 galleries/museums in Maine, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, set up meetings with nine of them and took two weeks to personally show my portfolio to these individuals.  For myself, I thought it was important to make a connection and take the time to talk about my work in person.

Simply having representation doesn’t necessarily mean you will be a successful artist.  Many great artists are not represented, but truthfully, many artists without representation don’t ever “break out,” or at best, it is a very long road.  If you do look for a gallery, you need to determine what their intention is with you and your work.  Many galleries don’t have a mission that involves promoting your career as an artist; many are just interested in your commercial viability.  This is often called “living room art,” and the gallery is selling the work to their own specific client base.  There is nothing wrong with this and it won’t damage your career, but in the meantime, a gallery also should be working hard at promoting you, advertising your work and getting it published.

This led me to my next and current hurdle, as I waited for the right gallery opportunity, I needed to scream my name from the rooftops!  I needed to self-represent, get out there and find spaces willing to show my work, seek out joint exhibitions, solo exhibitions, get one image here, another there and move forward in this direction.  I also needed to be published — I needed press!  Fortunately, three of the images had already been published in PDN and one in Maine magazine, but I needed more.  You have to enter contests, submit press releases for shows, contact you local newspapers and periodicals, take advantage of blogs and talk, talk, talk about the work.

If you do find representation, it is a different path for every artist. You just need to discover your own goals and be represented by a gallery that understands and is on board with where you want your career to head.  Sales alone are not a gauge of your importance; money cannot be your only motivation. Some of the most important artists don’t necessarily have the most “sell-able” work. 

Outside of the huge galleries, smaller ones will encourage you to be represented in different areas, find different regions to have your work seen, but don’t over-saturate yourself.  In art, there is something to be said about exclusivity and rareness — too rare, no one knows you; too over-marketed and you appear cheap, with no real value.

I have mounds of information I could share and will continue to do so as I plunge forward.  I have recently had the pleasure of being represented by a wonderful gallery in Maine.  I have had three joint exhibitions since March, a solo in Canada in August, another solo in Maine in October, and a nine-week traveling exhibit starting next April 1st.

I am exhausted by this process, but utterly elated by what I have discovered… myself!  I have finally reached a place in my career where I am fully aware of what I want to do with my photography.  It’s a humbling journey, the journey of self discovery.  When you finally take the time to really look at yourself and your work, there is and incredible sense of self fulfillment in that.  If you are at that place and you know that you want to start the process, don’t hesitate.  Don’t be afraid of failure, embrace the opportunity to discover another part of yourself and to create work that allows the viewer to see the very best of who you are as an artist.   Nicole Wolfe, June 2010

So, to you my Saturday readers, who tend to be more serious, if for no other reason, you’re reading the blog on the weekend, I’d like to extend the first invitation to participate.  I’d like to make at least one day a week, Open Forum on the blog.   I can’t promise everything you send me will get published, because I’m not about to give trolls a new forum, but I’ll do my best.  We’ll also use Open Forum to answer specific questions.  I may not have the answers, but I’ve got an amazing network of friends and associates who do and they’ll be here when we need them.

Rather than use the blog for Open Forum, just email me at skip@mei500.com and let’s crank this thing up to the next level.  Monday, we’ll do our first Open Forum with a terrific post from Nicole Wolf called Discovering Your Authentic Self.

Thanks for being a part of Skip’s Photo Network – have a wonderful Easter weekend, enjoy your family and remember to hug them all at least once a day.  They’re the reason you’re here and no career field focuses (pun intended) on your family more than photography.

The best part is putting a voice with images – email just doesn’t cut it when you want to check out somebody’s spirit and their passion for the craft.  Their images might look terrific, the ideas they present are exciting, but you need to either pick up the phone or meet them in person – that’s when the fun really begins. 

This morning, meet Nicole Wolf.  I saw her images, we talked on the phone, but I had no idea how her guest blog would become one my favorites to date.   What I’ve enjoyed most is learning how she’s influenced by other photographers and stays focused on special projects to keep her creative juices flowing. 

I wrote about Jason Groupp’s NYC project a few weeks ago.  In the next day or two, registration for the 2nd Annual Skip’s Summer School is going to launch and Kevin Kubota’s program is, “The Power of the Project”.  In PDN’s Focus on Weddings, I interviewed Jonathan Canlas, who talked about being influenced by photographers outside the wedding industry, commercial shooters like Chuck Close, Craig Cutler, Alec Soth, Stephen Shore and Andreas Gursky. 

Nicole’s guest post is a perfect example of a quote from Alfred Lord Tennyson, that I’ve paraphrased and butchered to death over the years…”I am a part of all that I have met!”   Time for me to shut up and just turn it over to Nicole!

One of my favorite quotes is by Cecil Beaton, “Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary.”  How can you read this quote and there not be a fire under your butt to create work that is innovative and forward thinking?

I said a long time ago, when we took on wedding photography as part of our business, that I never wanted it to get to a point that we were stuck in the middle.  Mediocracy in my opinion is the easy way out.  It’s easy to have a formula. It’s easy to follow the crowd.  It’s easy to do the same shots week after week.  It’s easy to never experiment with light and it’s easy to play it safe. 

What isn’t easy is thinking for yourself, stretching the possibilities of your own imagination, creating a new way of being, pushing your limits, taking risks, to be thought provoking and inspiring.  Remember, you are only as good as your last shot!

The question always asked of me however, is “How do you do that?” “How did you think of that and what was your motivation?”  The answer is easy, look outside of your comfort zone and create work that exceeds your own expectations. 

I have worked in the commercial photography and design world for about 15 years. Since being a part of the wedding industry I have noticed something, wedding photographers create a bubble for themselves and stay inside that bubble.  You can’t expect growth if the only thing you are inspired by are other wedding photographers, if the only workshops you attend are lead by other wedding photographers, if the only photos you look at are by other wedding photographers and if the only imagery YOU shoot is wedding photography.  Don’t get me wrong, there is amazing talent out there and things to be inspired by in the wedding field, but that should not be our only outlet for creative thinking.

It is so important to create work that relates to another part of yourself.  At SOTA Dzine, the work we do commercially pushes the boundaries with lighting and concept.  I think it is so important for wedding photographers to not just shoot available light!  So what if you have never studied it or taken a class. You can learn by experimentation, assisting for a photographer that does and READ.  The only way to move forward, especially in this day and age, is to push yourself with your lighting techniques.  Take advantage at WPPI and the other trade shows to talk to some of the lighting vendors and invest in something new.  Also, concept is key. Study and research movement, fashion, expression, composition. Then implement those learned skills in a new way of seeing into your own work.

Ever since grad school I have also understood the importance of a personal body of work.  This is not a paid gig. There are no clients involved. You may or may not ever show it to anybody else, but it is yours!  It allows you to take your work to a place that is vulnerable.  Where you are not being judged on whether you got the right shot or produced the perfect photograph. It is raw, organic and real.  Figure out what you want to say. Tell a story or discover a new way of seeing. Allow yourself to make mistakes so that you can in turn create something inspired. 

We, as artists, need to be open to the possibility of failure and from this nourishing ourselves. You have to  recognize your need for growth.  This is an amazing way to grow through your work and in turn apply this to your paid gigs!  SOTA has seen this play out many times with booking commercial clients who hired us for their wedding photography and visa versa. One of my new favorite outlets for wedding photographers is Will Jacks, Chris Williams and Sarah Hodzic workshop called “Rebirth.”

All in all, don’t get stuck in the middle.  When you look back 25 years from now at your body of work, you want to be elated by what you accomplished and how you never let yourself be commonplace. You pushed the envelope, never rode on anyone’s coattails, and made your own mistakes. You earned your own successes!

Make an imprint in the industry, take risks, do it for yourself and for your clients!

Nicole Wolf

The images shown represent Sota Dzine well and the style offered to their wedding clients, commercial clients and a personal art image from Nicole’s project on lobster fisherman.   But for me personally, the most fun comes out of Nicole’s constant quest to make her work look different and push that edge of the envelope she wrote about!