The personal project. This can be anything, anything that you as a photographer or videographer can come up with.
I myself am a full time professional photographer. That means all of my income is based on my ability to sell myself and get my clients the images they are looking for. Whether it is a family looking for pictures for the holidays, or a bride looking to have me capture every single moment of her wedding day. I am always shooting not only for myself but for the client as well. But there are things like. Guidelines and deadlines. Once I am finished I move onto the next client or possibly work on 10 different projects at once.
I love what i do for a living and i am grateful that i get to work my but off to be able to do it. But every once in a while even the great photographers in the world get burnt out on churning out photos of kids and wedding dresses weekly. This is where the personal project comes in.
A personal project is a goal that you give yourself in your photographic ( or video ) endeavors. It can be a portrait series, a landscape series, photographs of shoes. It can be completely random. The entire concept is up to you. The personal project helps keep the mind fresh. It keeps you thinking about something new even if you have pigeon holed yourself into a market that has you shooting the same thing day in day out. It doesn’t matter what type of work you do, personal projects are important.
I know many photographers who have completed several projects over their lives and have no desire to show anybody but their closest friends and family. Theyre not in the project for the coverage it may bring them. They’re in it for the love of the photo.
There are also photographers who take on a personal project for the reason to show as many people as possible. Whoever will want to see the images can see them. It may be to raise awareness for a cause or to show a side of a world most people do not get to look into. They feel its their duty as a photographer to educate the world on whatever it is they have experienced.
Whatever the project may be. As a photographer, professional or amateur, you should always at least have something in the back of your mind that drives you. Something to break up the every day regimen.
If you could do a photo project on anything in the world. What would it be?
Got it? … Good. Now get started.
Push It A Stop 