Sunset over Point Lobos, Carmel, CA
I wrote this a few years back about this time, so I thought I’d put it out again for 2018!
Hey, like everything in life, if you don’t set your photography goals, they’re not likely to just happen on by and knock on your door.
Let me ask you, when was the last time you thought about your goals as a photographer? Lots of us keep going out and shooting the same pictures over and over—you know the ones I’m talking about. Nice shot the first few times you got it, but after a few hundred, even you’re tired of seeing it! How does that happen? You get good at a certain type of photography and keep on going out and finding that shot again.
This is a signal that it’s time to tune up your skills, or turn your shooting on its head and do something totally different. An assignment I always give students at my workshops is to go out and get shots that you normally wouldn’t—get out of your comfort zone.
This takes us back to the subject of your goals. Since it’s a new year, this is a great time to set your goals. Start now, ask yourself questions about your photography:
1. What area would you like to improve?
2. Are there types of shots you’d like to get (nudes, travel, artificial light, etc?)
3. What are your plans to study other’s work? (Museums, books, blogs, etc.)
Then just put this all together and set yourself a goal. Oh, one more thing I bet each of us needs to do: Take more shots. Unless you’re out there shooting daily, you’re not taking enough shots.
Do me a favor after you’ve done the exercise above, leave me a note and let me know what you came up with AND send me some of your shots!
Good Shooting!
View Comments (18)
If my photography goal was to figure out what my goal in photography is does that count?
Honestly I can't seem to figure out why I take photos. I mean I love taking shots, I love getting feedback and I love sharing.
But to get back on topic:
1) Improve Lighting, human interactions, Location shooting, pre-shooting mentality, technical expertise, creative thought process, composition, give or take...everything haha
2) Shoot something different. To bring something new to everyone! Haven't quite figured out what that is yet...
3) Currently suscribed to some 25 blogs... and growing. I guess the goal would be to read them on a regular basis =)
If my photography goal was to figure out what my goal in photography is does that count?
Honestly I can't seem to figure out why I take photos. I mean I love taking shots, I love getting feedback and I love sharing.
But to get back on topic:
1) Improve Lighting, human interactions, Location shooting, pre-shooting mentality, technical expertise, creative thought process, composition, give or take...everything haha
2) Shoot something different. To bring something new to everyone! Haven't quite figured out what that is yet...
3) Currently suscribed to some 25 blogs... and growing. I guess the goal would be to read them on a regular basis =)
The first thought that comes to mind for 2009 photo goals is to develop a better system for shooting/building ultra-high-resolution images using long lenses. Last year I experimented with every commercial component I could find for doing this, and found nothing satisfactory. Most panoramic equipment is aimed at allowing camera rotation around the nodal point (useful for VR but irrelevant for long lens/infinity focus) and is unfit for heavy lenses. Existing robot pan heads have far too much play and hysteresis, and aren't stable enough to hold a long lens still in even light wind. Some people at Microsoft Live Labs got good results with a modified Meade telescope mount, and I’m thinking that is the next thing to try. This will obviously take some time to develop both hardware and camera control software.
At present I’m limited to a 300mm lens and a Bogen pano head that has detents at 5 degrees, and is rather crude in its rotation control mechanism. I’d like to use a longer lens but 5 degrees is the smallest click-stop rotation angle I’ve found on a pano head, so anything longer than 300mm wouldn’t have enough overlap to support stitching. I’ve posted a few images in the ~1 gigapixel range done with this technique are here: http://www.bstorage.com/Photo/DeepZoom/ . Existing 35mm digital bodies and reasonably sharp lenses (say a Canon 400mm f/5.6) should allow similar images, e.g. the San Francisco pano, in the 40 gigapixel range, before camera sensor or lens become the limiting factor in stitched-image resolution.
As a few others have stated, I’d really like to plan several trips that are fully dedicated to photography, allowing me to travel with some equipment that I otherwise too often leave at home, only to wish I had it when I round a corner and behold a once-in-a-life photo opp.
Thanks for the post and site.
Bill
The first thought that comes to mind for 2009 photo goals is to develop a better system for shooting/building ultra-high-resolution images using long lenses. Last year I experimented with every commercial component I could find for doing this, and found nothing satisfactory. Most panoramic equipment is aimed at allowing camera rotation around the nodal point (useful for VR but irrelevant for long lens/infinity focus) and is unfit for heavy lenses. Existing robot pan heads have far too much play and hysteresis, and aren't stable enough to hold a long lens still in even light wind. Some people at Microsoft Live Labs got good results with a modified Meade telescope mount, and I’m thinking that is the next thing to try. This will obviously take some time to develop both hardware and camera control software.
At present I’m limited to a 300mm lens and a Bogen pano head that has detents at 5 degrees, and is rather crude in its rotation control mechanism. I’d like to use a longer lens but 5 degrees is the smallest click-stop rotation angle I’ve found on a pano head, so anything longer than 300mm wouldn’t have enough overlap to support stitching. I’ve posted a few images in the ~1 gigapixel range done with this technique are here: http://www.bstorage.com/Photo/DeepZoom/ . Existing 35mm digital bodies and reasonably sharp lenses (say a Canon 400mm f/5.6) should allow similar images, e.g. the San Francisco pano, in the 40 gigapixel range, before camera sensor or lens become the limiting factor in stitched-image resolution.
As a few others have stated, I’d really like to plan several trips that are fully dedicated to photography, allowing me to travel with some equipment that I otherwise too often leave at home, only to wish I had it when I round a corner and behold a once-in-a-life photo opp.
Thanks for the post and site.
Bill
Hey guys thanks for the great comments. You got me looking at the next steps so I wrote a new post to cover https://www.silberstudios.com/blog/?p=212
Happy New Year!
Hey guys thanks for the great comments. You got me looking at the next steps so I wrote a new post to cover https://www.silberstudios.com/blog/?p=212
Happy New Year!
I've been rigorous about setting and updating my photography goals every three months for the past eight years. When I review my progress at the end of each year, I'm always amazed at how much the process of setting the goals has redirected, or focused, my work over the past year. Instead, of sharing all of my goals (which require an Excel spreadsheet, and will probably bore you to death), I'll just mention a few...
1. I'm going to do more formal portraiture with the cooperation of a local historical organization. When I don't have someone from the museum scheduled for a photograph, I'm going to practice on my friends' children. One of my long-term goals is to get accepted to work with a particular charitable organization that does great work photographing needy children (I won't mention the org's name nor their mission, because it might jinx me).
2. I'm starting on a top-secret, really fun photo project, that combines some of my favorite elements of Brian Ulrich's and Aaron Hobson's work.
3. I have to cut back on my go-hiking-take-landscape-photographs time in order to free up time for my other new projects.
Andy
I've been rigorous about setting and updating my photography goals every three months for the past eight years. When I review my progress at the end of each year, I'm always amazed at how much the process of setting the goals has redirected, or focused, my work over the past year. Instead, of sharing all of my goals (which require an Excel spreadsheet, and will probably bore you to death), I'll just mention a few...
1. I'm going to do more formal portraiture with the cooperation of a local historical organization. When I don't have someone from the museum scheduled for a photograph, I'm going to practice on my friends' children. One of my long-term goals is to get accepted to work with a particular charitable organization that does great work photographing needy children (I won't mention the org's name nor their mission, because it might jinx me).
2. I'm starting on a top-secret, really fun photo project, that combines some of my favorite elements of Brian Ulrich's and Aaron Hobson's work.
3. I have to cut back on my go-hiking-take-landscape-photographs time in order to free up time for my other new projects.
Andy
Great post. All relevant and practical advice.
Nevertheless, as you mentioned, it's important to have goals, and I have never really had none until I got tired of seeing the same shots.
The one real goal I have is basically filtering my photos more. I spent about a year taking a bazillion photos. Now I'm actively forcing myself to delete the same shots I've taken several times over.
I would love to get into Flash photography more. I've never done much more than bouncing straight off the top of my camera with a SB600 speedlight... but I recently bought the One Light Workshop DVD (basically, shooting with just one light) as an inexpensive (yet clever) way of doing off-camera strobe photography.
Anyhow, cheers to the new year. See ya in the next one.
Great post. All relevant and practical advice.
Nevertheless, as you mentioned, it's important to have goals, and I have never really had none until I got tired of seeing the same shots.
The one real goal I have is basically filtering my photos more. I spent about a year taking a bazillion photos. Now I'm actively forcing myself to delete the same shots I've taken several times over.
I would love to get into Flash photography more. I've never done much more than bouncing straight off the top of my camera with a SB600 speedlight... but I recently bought the One Light Workshop DVD (basically, shooting with just one light) as an inexpensive (yet clever) way of doing off-camera strobe photography.
Anyhow, cheers to the new year. See ya in the next one.